Decided to give twitter a try, twitter isn't having it
July 4, 2011 11:02 AM Subscribe
I finally decide to give twitter a shot, and it seems that my account is immediately broken. Am I doing something spectacularly wrong, or is there some way to fix this?
I'm not very big on social networking, but I'm starting to realize just how useful twitter can be professionally. I've been lurking on twitter via a bunch of RSS feeds for ages, but now I've finally decided to give it a shot myself, and a few days ago I made an account.
Pretty much none of my friends use twitter, so I don't really have followers. As I understand it, a lot of people watch search-feeds, like I do, and I thought I would communicate via those. After quite a few completely ignored tweets (currently my hashtag of interest: "wp7dev"), I realized that I wasn't coming up on any searches. AFAIK, I didn't trip any spam-alarms or otherwise do anything less than kosher, so I don't really know whats happening. I think my foray into twitter may end up being very short-lived, but before I give up on it I thought I'd ask here.
My twitter account can be found in my profile, but there's pretty much no tweets there, because I deleted a whole bunch that I realized would remain forever invisible.
I'm not very big on social networking, but I'm starting to realize just how useful twitter can be professionally. I've been lurking on twitter via a bunch of RSS feeds for ages, but now I've finally decided to give it a shot myself, and a few days ago I made an account.
Pretty much none of my friends use twitter, so I don't really have followers. As I understand it, a lot of people watch search-feeds, like I do, and I thought I would communicate via those. After quite a few completely ignored tweets (currently my hashtag of interest: "wp7dev"), I realized that I wasn't coming up on any searches. AFAIK, I didn't trip any spam-alarms or otherwise do anything less than kosher, so I don't really know whats happening. I think my foray into twitter may end up being very short-lived, but before I give up on it I thought I'd ask here.
My twitter account can be found in my profile, but there's pretty much no tweets there, because I deleted a whole bunch that I realized would remain forever invisible.
Response by poster: aparrish, I do appear in user search, and the section in your link that refers to regular searches doesn't list any conditions, it just implies that some tweets, sometimes, aren't indexed. But its ignored every single one of mine, which seems to be more than "sometimes."
posted by tempythethird at 11:21 AM on July 4, 2011
posted by tempythethird at 11:21 AM on July 4, 2011
Best answer: How long ago did you join? Because you have very few tweets and a seemingly very new account, so Twitter may simply not rate you for indexing yet. I'd just give it more time; I think you're over-valuing the importance of search in gaining followers. Twitter followers grow very organically and you currently lack both a volume or history of tweets.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:02 PM on July 4, 2011
posted by DarlingBri at 12:02 PM on July 4, 2011
I'm no Twitter expert (my account is sort of dormant right now anyway). Still: The key to gaining followers is retweets. In the beginning, it really is an ocean and you're just another drop. But try to follow some key people and see if they follow you back. Then retweet their stuff under appropriate hashtags. Try to reach out in different directions so you're not just echoing what your followers already see. Try to bring quality links to their attention so they can retweet them themselves. Follow anyone who follows you. Actively engage with individuals both in public and by DM. It will be painstaking in the beginning, but there's a point at which you gain traction and people see you as real and worthwhile.
posted by dhartung at 12:10 PM on July 4, 2011
posted by dhartung at 12:10 PM on July 4, 2011
After quite a few completely ignored tweets
Just so you know, it's entirely normal for 99% of your tweets to be ignored, especially if you don't have an established relationship with your followers. It's not just a matter of putting stuff out there, it's a matter of prompting and maintaining a conversation.
posted by litnerd at 12:21 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Just so you know, it's entirely normal for 99% of your tweets to be ignored, especially if you don't have an established relationship with your followers. It's not just a matter of putting stuff out there, it's a matter of prompting and maintaining a conversation.
posted by litnerd at 12:21 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: DarlingBri Thanks for the advice, I'll stick with it for a few more days. I didn't realize that twitter even had such a thing as indexing, I assumed the only reason I wouldn't show up on search would be malfunction or abuse.
litnerd, by "ignored," I wasn't implying that I thought I'd immediately get a huge response. Rather, I inevitably get no response because no one can see my tweets and I assumed I somehow got myself twitter-equivelant to invisibanned. Said invisi-ban would also make retweeting kind of pointless.
posted by tempythethird at 12:51 PM on July 4, 2011
litnerd, by "ignored," I wasn't implying that I thought I'd immediately get a huge response. Rather, I inevitably get no response because no one can see my tweets and I assumed I somehow got myself twitter-equivelant to invisibanned. Said invisi-ban would also make retweeting kind of pointless.
posted by tempythethird at 12:51 PM on July 4, 2011
DarlingBri Thanks for the advice, I'll stick with it for a few more days
From what I know about twitter (very little, admittedly) the better attitude would probably be to stick it out for a few more months.
posted by jayder at 1:47 PM on July 4, 2011
From what I know about twitter (very little, admittedly) the better attitude would probably be to stick it out for a few more months.
posted by jayder at 1:47 PM on July 4, 2011
Best answer: It seems to me that you are trying to measure your broadcasting performance.
Twitter is not a broadcasting media. It can be used as such, but this is not what it is good for.
I often say to beginners: use it first as a listening device. Find a few people who you find interesting. Check who they are following. Follow and unfollow people for a while until you like the buzz of your feed.
Then it will come: you'll want to participate in the conversation around you. You will retweet this, paraphrase that and add a recommendation there.
Then you will realize that this is not facebook: Twitter is not symmetrical. You follow some people and other people follow you.
Now you get that you are a media: you get some interesting pieces of information from some people and you give it to other people.
This is not a media to broadcast yourself. It's and exchange machine. Enjoy.
posted by bru at 6:02 PM on July 4, 2011 [6 favorites]
Twitter is not a broadcasting media. It can be used as such, but this is not what it is good for.
I often say to beginners: use it first as a listening device. Find a few people who you find interesting. Check who they are following. Follow and unfollow people for a while until you like the buzz of your feed.
Then it will come: you'll want to participate in the conversation around you. You will retweet this, paraphrase that and add a recommendation there.
Then you will realize that this is not facebook: Twitter is not symmetrical. You follow some people and other people follow you.
Now you get that you are a media: you get some interesting pieces of information from some people and you give it to other people.
This is not a media to broadcast yourself. It's and exchange machine. Enjoy.
posted by bru at 6:02 PM on July 4, 2011 [6 favorites]
Just to reiterate what litnerd said, 99% of your tweets will get no response, not just no huge response. Twitter is often used passively; people may see and even like/enjoy your tweets, but they won't necessarily respond.
posted by asciident at 2:48 AM on July 5, 2011
posted by asciident at 2:48 AM on July 5, 2011
« Older MacBook, heal thyself. Reinstalling MacOS on a... | Zombie Eaters, now 100% more grim Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by aparrish at 11:12 AM on July 4, 2011