Comments on: Think Before You Tweet

By: Todd Starks :: Artist » Written Statements

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:09:30 +0000

[…] about Twitter? Alyson Stanfield recently wrote a great blog about using Twitter. She suggests that only 5% of your tweets should be self promotional. If you want to compel […]

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:01:28 +0000

John: Oops. That was careless of me. I should say I look at what’s on the screen at that moment (when I tweet), but I don’t dig deeper. Tara Reed (licensing expert) refers to it as the Zen of Twitter: You see what you’re supposed to see at that moment. Otherwise, we could spend all day on Twitter and that’s not productive. You will often see me replying and RTing.

I do use TweetDeck, so I have groups set up and can scan numerous feeds at once, which is helpful. Saves time.

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By: John Nordell

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:53:54 +0000

I was intrigued by your comment that “I don’t read my feed that often.” What do you do then? Just Tweet? I keep hearing about the need to reply and RT to create relationships.

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:40:08 +0000

Nicole: I understand. Many people are just confused as heck about Twitter. I’m just trying to give some guidelines. When you’re promoting a business, everything you say and do is scrutinized. Sorry to say that, but it’s a form a self-curatorship. You choose what you say and how you want to present yourself to the world. I don’t want anyone to be inauthentic, though.

John: You’re right. Too much of anything is a bad thing. I don’t read my feed that often, so I only see a couple of inspirational quotes each day. But I can say that when I tweet something inspirational, it’s almost always retweeted with gusto.

Steve: I’m busted! You caught me and you win the grand prize. I was secretly hoping someone would bring that up. I know what TIME said, but I also know what is more interesting to read–at least for me. Note that he’s talking about friends in that article. I think many of us on Twitter consider our followers to be colleagues and associates, but maybe not close enough that we consider them to be good friends. I am sure we’d tweet differently if only friends followed us, and I know many people restrict their followers to friends and family. It’s an interesting question as to how we’re using Twitter. I probably should have emphasized more that my article was about tweeting for building business. Whaddya think?

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By: Steve Penberthy

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:36:02 +0000

Alison: Great article! But aren’t you contradicting one of your previous blog posts on this subject? In your 7/14/09 “What To Tweet” post at https://aaartbizold.wpengine.com/2009/07/what-to-tweet.html the text says, “…In an earlier post, I said that we don’t really care what you’re currently doing, but I was wrong. In his TIME magazine cover story, Steven Johnson writes: ‘And yet as millions of devotees have discovered, Twitter turns out to have unsuspected depth. In part this is because hearing about what your friends had for breakfast is actually more interesting than it sounds.'”

Sounds like the wisdom on this goes back and forth. Just thought I’d point it out for interest. Thank you for your articles–I’m a big fan! — Steve

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By: John Nordell

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:22:51 +0000

Alyson – I wonder about how Tweeting inspirational quotes started. I feel like too many people do it. How many inspirational quotes do you need to read a day? It feels like filler sometimes.

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By: Angela

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:59:40 +0000

Very well put Nicole. I suppose that goes for most things in life – balance.

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By: NHyde

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:27:43 +0000

Angela, I agree that balance would be nice. 🙂

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By: Angela

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:43:02 +0000

Very good point Nicole. It is nice to get to know peoples little quirks, but when someone is tweeting every 2 minutes with stuff like “I’ve just trimmed my toenails” it gets a bit much. Also if they keep Tweeting stuff like “just listed in my shop…” and nothing else it gets a bit tedious.

I read Alyson’s post more as general guidelines rather than “crafting the perfect Twitter message”.

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By: NHyde

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:22:14 +0000

Personally, I’m sick to death of the perpetual spin in art circles these days. I really hope people don’t spend time “crafting the perfect Twitter message”. I just want people to be themselves.

Through all kinds of posts (substantial or not) eventually you get know people, learn their quirks, passions, interests, philosophies, opinions, humor, etc. That’s what interests me about social media, so I try to take the long view.

Maybe it’s just me.

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