How to Use Twitter Like a Pro, or at Least Better than @davidpogue
malki http://xrl.us/becqjm: Most people have no idea how Twitter could possibly be useful, in any conceivable world, ever. Also get off their lawn
about 11 hours ago from twitterrific
Some people are clueless and cranky about new technology. Some are eager early adopters. And some are eager and clueless.
David Pogue, a tech writer for the NY Times, seems to fall under the third category. If you visit his Twitter profile, @davidpogue [now @Pogue], he seems like a fairly normal Twitterer. But yesterday, he wrote a blog post about Twitter that was probably well-intentioned, but which ended up being so wrong-headed and just plain misinformed that readers are left puzzled and underwhelmed by the very service he ends up tentatively recommending. It’s no surprise when many of his commenters thank him for steering them away from such a useless, time-wasting service. “I’ve been skeptical of Twitter from the get-go,” many of them say, in effect. “I’ve held out against it this long, and after your post I’ll never use it.”
So let’s ignore Pogue’s post as a nice try that unfortunately failed, and move on to the main questions.
What is Twitter?
Twitter began as a way of a) using text messages to post updates (or “twitters,” “tweets” or “micro-blogs”) to a website, where other people could read them and b) of receiving, also via text message, updates from friends and acquaintances. A year or so ago, Twitter made its API public, which meant that outsiders were able to design third-party applications that could live on computer desktops, in browsers or on mobile phones, which could be used to update a person’s Twitter feed and read other people’s tweets. I use a service called Ping.fm to post updates not just to Twitter but to all my social networks, and an iPhone app called TwitterFon to read my Twitter feeds and carry on conversations. (My Twitter feed.)
Why is Twitter special?
Twitter makes it possible to send the same text message (or text-message-sized blurb) out to ten, a hundred or a thousand people. This sounds like spam, but it’s not, for the simple reason that Twitter is opt-in. People who want to hear from you will follow your tweets. People who don’t, won’t. That’s one strength of Twitter as a communication tool over simple text messages or emails: more people tend to have your cell number or email address than you typically want to hear from. Not so with Twitter: any time you tire of hearing from a particular person, just tell Twitter to stop texting you their updates, or unfollow the person altogether.
Why should you Twitter?
The main reason I personally Twitter is because Twitter is FUN. But everyone has a different reason for Twittering. Some use it to keep abreast of what their friends or favorite celebrities are doing, minute by minute. Some like to engage in conversations using @replies. Some use Twitter’s search feature, at search.twitter.com, to follow trending topics in the Twitterverse. Some join Twitter to promote themselves, their product, their company, their ideas or their website. Each of these uses leads to a different style of Twittering.
Twittering is different from a more immersive social network such as Facebook in that communication and information sharing is the key. Do you like broadcasting your ideas across the web? Are you prone to pithy witticisms? Do you want a larger network on which to complain about or praise the companies you patronize and the company you keep? Do you have a website to promote or a web-based business to market for? Twitter is excellent tool for all of these purposes.
What should you Twitter about?
Pogue makes it sound like you should never Twitter about what you are doing right now, but that’s not true. Throw away the rules. Anything that can be condensed into 140 characters is fair game. Twitter about
- Your struggles with chemotherapy.
- Your newest blog post.
- Your kid’s bowel movements.
- Your new Super Friends shirt.
- A new marketing promotion for your business.
- YOUR VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE/RUNNING MATE.
And here are a few suggestions:
- Don’t protect your updates.
Twitter allows you to “protect your updates,” which blocks people from seeing your Twitter feed unless you give them permission. I’m sorry to say it, but this defeats the purpose: Twitter is about an open conversation. Protecting your updates keeps the conversation small, tight and closed. It cuts you off from the larger network. I strongly advise against it. - Follow-backs are nice, but not required.
Don’t listen to people who say you have to follow everyone back who follows you. It’s nice if you do that, but let’s face it: some people are just boring. And some people are spammers. Neither kind needs/deserves to be followed back. Also, if you are famous and are followed by thousands of people, a follow-back can be nice, and it makes your followers feel good about themselves—but it is in no way required. Especially now that Twitter and the various 3rd-party apps can display @replies from anywhere in the Twitterverse, instead of just from your pool of followers. - Strike a balance.
If you don’t follow anyone, you are missing out on the real Twitter experience. If you follow too many more people than follow you, you look like a spammer. Everyone hates a spammer.
Special suggestions for those who want to use Twitter for promotion/marketing/feedback/etc.:
- No one likes a spammer. The best way to use Twitter for self-promotion is by integrating yourself into the community.
- Post interesting, useful updates.
- Reply to followers, and engage others in dialogue instead of simply blasting your own info all the time.
- Use your network with care, following only those who really look like they are interested in your product/company/particular brand of self-promotion, and sticking as closely as possible to your immediate network as you expand your reach.
I repeat: NO ONE LIKES A SPAMMER.
Like
January 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Excellent job! (and thanks for the double shout out)
January 17th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
erinannie, no problem! And I’m glad you liked it.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Well put, Sean.
Some people just don’t get it–and that’s okay. Maybe twitter isn’t for everyone. But I know that for someone with ADD tendencies (like me), it’s a wonderful way of verbalizing the random thoughts that come to mind.
I’m a really lazy blogger. It’s been months since my last real blog post. But it’s easy for me to just post a quick thought about whatever happens to be on my mind–even if I don’t think it’s worth a whole blog post.
And I guess that’s the point. Most anything is worth tweeting about.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Perfect comment, ben. I’m the same way—I Twitter thoughts I can’t keep to myself, but which are too short to blog. And because I love hearing the sound of my own voice, the amount of thoughts I can’t keep to myself is rather high. :D
January 19th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I used to think Twitter was stupid, but I think that’s because about the first 15 I read were meaningless drivel. But I have a friend who will randomly text me thoughts on wherever he happens to be and they are so fun to get. I would totally follow him on Twitter if he had one. I also like the function you use to post your twitter comments in the sidebar of the blog. They’re little thoughts that would never be a whole post, but they give a bit of an insight into your offline life.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thank you! I’m new to Twitter and this is far and away the most helpful piece I’ve read. I’d also like to thank David Pogue, whom I started following after his column on Twitter, for alerting his flock to your post! :-)
January 19th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I can’t say that I don’t see D. Pogue’s point. I’ve been @HCOswald for a few days now, and have experienced much the same thing. I suspect the learning curve is far greater than most anticipate for 140 char. messaging. Those who already grok it don’t really seem all that interested in sharing the wealth. Those who ARE willing to share tend to forget the “basics” and skip right to etiquette “tips.”
However, I will continue plugging away until I figure it all out, or until I find a new toy that piques my interests.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for a very concise description of Twitter’s uses & benefits – some very helpful info & good examples (except encouraging people to write about their kid’s bowel movements, perhaps – there’s already enough s–t on Twitter & elsewhere). But I think you were a bit harsh about David Pogue. I read his column & while he just scratched the surface, I was actually inspired to delve more into Twitter.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Thank you so much for this post. Excellent stuff!
Twitter Tips’s last blog post..Twitter_Tips: ☼ FOLLOWING DEADBEATS?—Twitoria finds those not tweeting lately► http://cli.gs/5sYj8D Tell the ones still tweeting► http://cli.gs/0D9DWH
January 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Thanks for the tips! I think Pogue was saying the same thing as you, but speaking to an entirely different/broader audience. I read his column and didn’t see any points that were invalid. Not many people understand Facebook, let alone Twitter and Yammer, and writing for a large audience means he has to address the non-users’ concerns as well. Think you were a bit quick to judge the column, but glad I found your blog b/c of it.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I really liked Pogue’s article much better. The folks who really add value to the larger twitterverse do now play-by-play tweet what they are doing… they add more value than that. Pogue: nice job and keep it up, my man!
January 19th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I’ve used Twitter somewhat regularly for the past couple of months. Like David, I was unsure at first of its value until a friend started following me and I reciprocated and started reading his updates. Then the light bulb went on and I started using it as many people here have mentioned – as a way to capture those fleeting thoughts about products, people, movies, books and politics that I encounter each day. I don’t really think David was off-base, though. If people are scared away from Twitter because of his post, I think they didn’t really understand the gist of what he was saying. David is seldom clueless and I don’t think he was in this case either. But I appreciate the clarification you provided, nonetheless.
Mary Harrsch’s last blog post..A Holiday Tribute to my Dad
January 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Twitter is so random. Love the directions it takes me in. Keep learning new stuff that I probably would not discover on my own.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Hmmm, to be diplomatic or not. David Pogue’s article was spot-on for adults with full time jobs and good work ethics. Everything in this article is perfectly great, but with a much more social slant. Pogue clearly aimed, and in my opinion, succeeded, to offer a way to use Twitter practically. Twitter is not really practical, precisely because you have to opt in. I subscribed to someone who goes overboard on his tweets. I got home tonight and the entire feed is him, so am I really going to sit here and sift through all that crap to find all the other people I like? Unlikely.
I have more fun, am more productive and waste less time by using my facebook status message; in fact, I tweet it!
January 19th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
David Pogue had it right, he admitted his uncertainties right up front, then corrected his own misunderstandings. I think you were a little harsh, just like the impatient twitterers who don’t have time to let everyone adapt to the twitterverse. It took me a week to figure out that people were actually holding conversations back and forth. I don’t facebook, never was into chatting, only visit my myspace page when I get an email, so it didn’t occur to me right away. It did appear that there were many disjointed things going on in Twitter. There were also features that were down that only started working right again a few weeks ago. Are you invoking the Pogue name to drive traffic to your site? I think you should put the line by line rebuttal up and let us have a crack at it.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I have been reading David Pogue’s columns since his Macworld days in the 90’s. He is probably one of the most respected tech journalists in the industry. You don’t get to write for the NY Times by being clueless. Disagreeing with Pogue is fine, but bashing him makes you look like an immature jackass. Sorry.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I cannot see where David Pogue was wrong. He wrote about what he sees in Twitter, you how you experience twitter.
Maybe you experienced some of the things he said differently. Anyway everyone is allowed to use Twitter the way he/she likes.
And about your post: No one is right 100%, but you seem to believe you are and after all you sound quite arrogant (“So let’s ignore Pogue’s post as a nice try that unfortunately failed, and move on to the main questions.”). I don’t think that improves your post much. My guesses are either you didn’t read David Pogue’s article properly or you didn’t understand it fully. Better read it again wisenheimer.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Bravo, Sean!
Very well-written and insightful article.
Are you a professional blogger…?
As I told David…
@DavidPogue Yes, you were that far off the mark. BUT, don’t feel so bad. Your complaints about twitter are extremely normal for a new user.
@DavidPogue And by new user, I mean anyone who’s been using it < 1 year. It takes a long time to really GET what twitter is & the true power of it.
Regardless of David Pogue’s experience, and his article…
YOUR article here stands on its own as a simple guide that all new twitterers could benefit from. Excellent insights and suggestions.
Thanks!
http://twitter.com/brucewagner
January 19th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Fine article, Sean. I was a bit taken aback by Mr. Pogue’s article as well. Over the past year, I have found Twitter to be a great way to keep up with my friends and coworkers, without having to send or read large amounts of email. Just seeing that a co-worker (in another time zone!) sent updates about his bike ride or that another had breakfast with his daughters and father-in-law gives me an update of their lives, and something to talk about when I see them next. We don’t have to say “what have you been up to?” We just say “That beach trip looked great!” or “How’re the girls?” and they know we’re involved in their lives.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I like how some of the above comments are like “David Pogue writes for the NY Times. The TIMES! Therefore, he is better than you. And so are we for siding with him.”
January 19th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Spot on!
January 19th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Hi Sean. Loved your article and felt it was a good adjunct to David Pogue’s article in the NYT. One question I don’t really get is how is it I’ve received numerous requests to follow me? I sort of felt like I was on Twitter incognito since few of my colleagues are using it. The requests are from people from many countries, none of whom I know. Thanks and keep blogging!
January 20th, 2009 at 12:53 am
[...] days ago I posted an entry entitled “How to Twitter Like a Pro, or at Least Better than @davidpogue,” in response to an article David Pogue of the NY Times had posted on his own blog. [...]
January 20th, 2009 at 1:06 am
chosha, I think that’s really the strength of Twitter—it’s like having a hundred close text-messaging friends. Also, having the messages be so short is kind of a bonus. It’s like flash fiction—taking a thought and distilling it to a pithy little nugget often makes the thought stronger/funnier/more striking.
Kathleen, I’m glad it was helpful. And I guess that’s the two of us who have to thank David Pogue for linking! :)
Harry, I’ve posted a new blog entry with what I hope is a clearer explanation of what I thought was wrong with David Pogue’s post, if you are interested in reading it.
soozzone, I follow a lot of “mommy bloggers,” and s–t pretty much takes over their lives from age 0-3. But diaper and potty-related posts are just what a mommy blogger’s audience is looking for.
Twitter Tips, thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the encouragement.
Meghan, I’m glad you found the tips useful. Also, I’ve tried to clarify my problems with David Pogue’s article in this blog post. Not sure I’ve succeeded—you tell me.
power twitter user: Not quite sure what your comment was about, actually. But thanks for stopping by, I guess.
Mary, that’s what it’s like with so many of these networking technologies—you get to a certain point and they just click. Of course, you get to a certain other point and you’re addicted and your friends are staging a Twitter intervention. But I digress.
Saralyn, welcome to Alone and Unobserved! I’m glad Twitter brought you here. :)
Robthecomputerguy: which part of that demographic are you implying doesn’t fit me—adult, full-time job or good work ethic? Personal canards aside, to be honest, I didn’t feel like David Pogue succeeded in explaining how to use Twitter practically. He provided an example of how one individual used it practically, but… that’s not an explanation.
I post to Twitter and several other services using Ping.fm, and have it update my FB status as well. It sometimes confuses my FB friends, but I often get good comments on my statuses.
Micki, what you describe (“he admitted his uncertainties right up front, then corrected his own misunderstandings”) is a structural problem, and one of the things that made David Pogue’s article confusing and hard to understand. There are ways to use that kind of structure to create tension and enhance a piece of writing, but in this case it was misused and ended up severely detracting from Pogue’s point.
Brian, I don’t even had a response to that. Maybe you should re-read your comment and appreciate the delicious irony of holding NY Times authors to a lower standard… because they work for the NY Times…?
DT, I am often arrogant. I am also often right. On the other hand, I didn’t whip out the kindergarten insults. So… there you go.
Bruce, I only wish. I’m glad you liked my suggestions, and thanks for the compliments on the writing. Someday maybe I will be a professional writer/blogger/what-have-you, but for now I’m a simple librarian.
tsmyther, I agree. Twitter can connect people from all over the world. And the more personally interested I am in someone the more interested I will be in their mundane, everyday Twitters.
Tashina, thanks for standing up for me. I’m feeling outnumbered here. :D
Jason, welcome to Alone and Unobserved. Thanks for reading!
Terri, glad you liked the article. As for the requests to follow—they may be from spammers. If you’re curious, you can check out their profiles. If they are following way, way more people than are following them, they’re probably a spammer–trying to drum up interest in their personal website or business by linking to as many Twitterers as possible. I usually block accounts that look like spammers.
On the other hand, it’s possible for normal, everyday Twitterers to find your feed, enjoy it and follow you. So be judicious when blocking people.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:23 am
I used to have Twitter linked to my Facebook status, but I recently separated them and now I feel much better. I use Twitter as a microblog; short, short blog-like posts. Facebook’s status updates, on the other hand, felt more comfortable as finishing the “Seth is…” default statement. When I linked them up I thought it would make things easier because I wouldn’t have to update two things and I could just post once, but for me it just didn’t feel right and I basically ended up not Twittering because of it. Facebook status is for my friends, Twitter posts are for people who may not know me personally but who may want to see what I have to say. For me, two different things. Just one man’s comment, not a rule for everyone.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Sean,
Discovered your writing after reading David Pogue’s tweet wondering if he was *that* off the mark.
Gotta wonder this: how many people were treated to your insightful writing after being graciously introduced to it by DP? Also, much as I agree with the fact that it’s unnecessary to insult Pogue to make your point, your points are cogent.
To note: Twitter will evolve as all other networks have evolved after large numbers of new users are introduced by mainstream connections like the NYT. Whether that’s seen as positive or not by the original user community (usually early adopters of every sort), is actually irrelevant. It will evolve and be what it is as people come to terms with using the service, and adapting it to their use, or not.
Twitter is, like many other great ideas before it, subject to dying on the vine if it doesn’t expand beyond the *relatively* small base of current users.
It will change, people will be clueless until they harness the power of the medium, and then the medium and the message (s) sent by the medium will also change.
Thanks to DP for introducing me to Twitter. It’s fascinating. I’m looking forward to my one year apprenticeship (seems to be how long it takes for DP style newbies to get it – and I’m one of them).
Thanks Sean for adding to what I know.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Seth, that’s a good point–Facebook statuses were certainly not originally intended to be used as a microblog, besides which the functionality is different and the audience is usually unprepared for Twitter-type randomness. I’ve thought a lot about uncoupling my Twitter from my Facebook, but then one of my random status updates will touch off a really good comment thread on Facebook, and I think better of it.
Paul, thanks for the comment. I agree—Twitter is in its very early stages, and if it stick around it will necessarily have to evolve. One evolved trait that everyone is now using, for instance, is the @reply, which was actually invented in informal conversations by Twitter users and then formalized and incorporated to a greater and greater degree into the Twitter framework. That’s one reason it seems so ad hoc—because it is, basically.
Hopefully the Twitter user base will find new, creative ways to use the service and the Twitter support and design teams will find new, creative changes to implement to make the service stronger and more responsive. Or else it and the community will, as you say, die on the vine.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:34 pm
… see, this is why the appeal of social networking sites has always eluded me.
I don’t get that “community” vibe, this isn’t content worth reading, this is crap. Not to sound eliteist, but blogging, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and now Twitter – all these things have the effect of bringing boring people into the belief that their every waking minute should be documented, the minutiae of their lives are worth shouting from the mountaintop, that what used to pass for mindless smalltalk is worth taking up bandwidth/server space for – that, because they CAN say something, they actually HAVE something to say.
And it ain’t friggin’ true.
If more people were secret geniuses, or poets, or psychotic, or delusionally romantic, or genuinely funny in a not-quoting-Dane-Cook way,… But they’re not. The people of prestige, those who perhaps you’d WANT to hear from who lead exciting lives or do important things – well, they have their voices heard in other ways, don’t they.
Most people are about as boring as they secretly dread that they might be. And just because it’s a new form/medium doesn’t mean the world needs it or that it’s going to revolutionize doodly-squat. Even with the axiom about the soul of wit, sometimes LESS IS LESS and a full thought cannot be compressed to be expressed. McLuhanites haven’t blinked an eye here – it’s a textbook case.
Boring Twitter messages or alerts or blogs, even from friends, about boring things they’re doing that they post about just because they feel they have to post SOMETHING… well, the posts make me hate them. Like anyone else leading the quiet-desperation lifestyle, I hate my own prosaic, mundane day-to-day humdrum and I would be embarassed to inflict anyone with the stories of where I had lunch or how I stubbed my toe – it bores ME. All of a sudden I’m supposed to care about some one ELSE’S bullshit when I don’t even care about my own.
Of course, I am a friendless loner, living a sheltered life, plotting and scheming, definitely three miles down the wrong path of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, destined to die alone and afraid, having turned my back on hope and love. But dammit, I KNOW how to maximize my electronic-gadget timewasting.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:54 pm
boomaga, for someone who despises Twitter and social networking as much as you say you do, you are certainly taking an interesting path across the web today. Are you searching out posts on this subject to sneer at them, or to glory in your friendless elitism? I also can’t help but noticing that the website you submitted… is a social networking site. DOES NOT ADD UP. But back to what you actually said…
…which was really funny and interesting, actually. I don’t agree with you–as I said, I don’t follow boring people on Twitter, and Facebook learns to pay more attention to the friends I’m actually interested in than the stultifying ones–but your point is well taken. On one hand, you’re right: most people aren’t eloquent or witty or brilliant. But a lot of people have something you are apparently claiming not to have: a desire to connect with other people, even in mundane ways. Twitter and Facebook and blogs are popular because they tap into this social need. If you don’t have such a need and despise those that do, I would simply suggest you shut down all your accounts on all the sites it sounds like you have accounts with, and go find something that does work for you.
(Also, tell me–that last line, was it about porn? a vibrator? coffeemaker? nose-hair trimmer? We all want to know how better to “maximize [our] electronic-gadget timewasting.”)
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:17 am
yup, yup, yup. Like your take better. I was ready to give up twitter because I had broken all the rules I’m sure. Thanks – I’ll keep on tweeting.
katbron’s last blog post..katbron: @OutlanderUSA you are in my thoughts. Re: side note…no. *feels small*
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Glad my take worked for you, katbron. Happy Twittering!
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Great Twitter primer, Sean.
I resisted Twitter for months. Like many, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it (or why). But once I took the leap, I connected with lots of really great people and have no regrets.
Only problem now is I have so many followers (and I don’t follow everyone back, but I do follow many) that the intimacy I enjoyed at the outset is gone. I didn’t try to get so many followers. It just kinda happened!
BTW, I also use ping.fm and twitterfon. They’re great utilities.
Again, thanks for the blog. I’ll pass the URL on to the next person who says to me, “Why Twitter?”
Mark David
Mark David Gerson’s last blog post..All That Matters Is That I’m Writing
January 25th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Great post, Sean. I have not read the NYT article yet. As a small business owner and full-time mom, I am always juggling a thousand things. I thought I was too busy to mess with twitter. I finally took the plunge and can admit that I was wrong. I cannot say that I fully comprehend how to use twitter, but it is amazing how much more informed I feel about current affairs and what other people’s lives are like outside of my own microcosm in Charlotte, NC. And yes, it is entertaining too.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
No need to tweet–one can just read the twitters of those one finds interesting, which was the most useful part of the Pogue post to me.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Just letting you know that David Pogue twittered about Sean’s article and posted a direct link. He didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Mark David, there are lots of ways of handling lots of followers gracefully (only a few of which involve following everyone back), and I think you do fairly well. Not having that many followers myself, I really don’t know what to do about the lack of intimacy, although I can imagine it would be tough.
Feel free to recommend this blog post to anyone you like. Just bear in mind that the whole thing is 100% my opinion—YMMV and all that.
Nathalie, I’m glad you’ve gotten involved. I think Twitter is a blast, as well as being really useful in some very unique ways.
Worth, reading public Twitter posts is perfectly fine, whether you find them on Twitter.com or subscribe to them via RSS feed. On the other hand, creating a Twitter account, following a lot of people but never tweeting yourself is kind of frowned on—the not-nice word you’ll hear people use is “leech.” I counsel against it. If you’re on Twitter, and you want to follow people, you should tweet yourself.
Karen, thanks for stopping by. It’s true, David Pogue and I are not feuding—as if he would need to feud with someone like me when he could have just ignored me. Instead he sent a mountain of traffic to my site. So: David Pogue, thank you!
January 29th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
[...] How to Use Twitter Like a Pro, by Sean Tibbitts, (a response to Pogue’s article). [...]