Twitter for Dummies (35 page)

Figure 12-3:
On the Social Media for Social Change Web site, you can see what events are coming up.

By being active on Twitter — practicing the philosophy of transparency and having genuine interactions — you can increase your circle of friends and connections both on- and offline. You can also merge your offline circle of friends with your online circle of friends in ways you never could before, increasing your social reach exponentially. We talk more about being genuine in Chapter 10.

As it turns out, the more solid connections you have with your Twitter following, the more your network works for you. Although you may find meeting people in airports for board games an advantage to having some Twitter credibility, you can use your online network as quite a resource beyond the fuzzy stuff (which we discuss in the section “Using Twitter as a Support System,” earlier in this chapter). If you have a valuable network, you can get your followers to answer questions you can’t find answers to anywhere else!

To Follow or Not to Follow?

Everyone has their own methodology for whom they follow and how they follow people on Twitter. Some people tend to follow everyone they interact with, but others judiciously control their following counts. Some people diligently review who they follow and trim out users who are no longer relevant to their lives, and others never look through their Following list.

There is no single “right” way to go about deciding who to follow; other twitterers may use the Following tool differently than you — just because they don’t immediately follow you back doesn’t mean they’re not going to in the future. Our rule is simple: Follow someone if you have a reason to follow him, not just because he’s following you. (If you’re on Twitter for business purposes, we have different advice for you in Chapter 11.)

To prevent spam, the Twitter team has limited the number of twitterers that users can follow to 2,000 until they have roughly that number of followers themselves. Once a limited account reaches close to or over 2,000 followers, Twitter once again allows it to go out and follow more accounts.

Every user has a different ritual when she gets a new follower: Some people @reply their new followers to acknowledge the follow; some direct-message their new followers to say hello; and others do nothing at all. Twitter doesn’t have an official protocol about what you’re supposed to do, and you naturally gravitate towards a routine that works for you.

Some people and businesses choose to make first contact with their new followers by sending a direct message. You can write a very personalized direct message to say hello, thank the recipient for the follow, and mention why he might want to keep in touch. Some users enjoy receiving such direct-message greetings, but others might view a direct message as intrusive or antisocial. There’s no hard and fast rule, and it’s not always possible to tell which approach your new follower prefers, so play things by ear and develop your own personal style of what you are comfortable with.

Some Twitterers go so far as to use third-party services to automatically send a thank-you direct message to people who follow them.

If you decide to use that kind of technology, be forewarned that many users hate these automatic DMs. That sort of outreach can be antisocial and irritating; and, if the person doesn’t like receiving direct messages from new people that she follows, sending her a DM can be insulting. So, use these technologies with caution.

As a side note, some Twitter users have rallied around the hashtag
#endautodm
in solidarity against auto-direct messages. Search for the
endautodm
hashtag on Twitter Search to get a sense of how unpopular auto-direct messages can be. (We cover hashtags and Twitter Search in Chapter 9.)

If you’re on the fence about what to do to acknowledge someone who follows you, make first contact openly to keep with the transparent and welcoming nature of Twitter. Direct messages are meant for private conversations, which usually happen only after you spend time to get to know someone, both in person and on Twitter.

Getting Quick Answers

Have you ever had a seemingly simple question that has bothered you for days and days? Well, why not ask Twitter?

If you have a solid network of Twitter friends, someone can likely answer your question. People tend to know a variety of things, or have unknown talents and knowledge bases, so go ahead and ask! You might be surprised by the answers you get.

In fact, someone probably knows what you’re looking for or is having a similar conversation somewhere, whether locally or on the other side of the world. For example, if you’re awake at 5 a.m. in California trying (vainly) to remember the name of the fifth Beatle so that you can stop obsessing and go back to sleep already, someone who knows the answer is probably awake on the East Coast or not yet asleep in Europe. Hop on Twitter and ask!

(The Fifth Beatle’s name is Stuart Sutcliffe, according to some; you can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Beatle
. So, go to bed already!)

Some people consider tweeting a question whose answer you can easily search on your favorite Internet search resource impolite. Try hunting down the answer first by yourself before asking your Twitter network. Some users consider it rude and inconsiderate to waste their time with silly questions, and they may unfollow you. So, perhaps asking the fifth Beatle’s name is poor form. You might ask your followers if they have any movie recommendations, though.

In addition, some brands and companies are beginning to use Twitter as a customer-service tool, and are willing and ready to answer customer queries. For example, JetBlue, shown in Figure 12-4, uses Twitter to send customers information on flight delays. (In Chapter 11, we explain how businesses can use Twitter to their advantage to help, educate, and communicate with customers.)

Accessing the experts

By using Twitter, you can find quick, knowledgeable answers to more serious questions, not just to simple ones. If you’re doing some research for work and want to find the most useful sources, ask Twitter. Of course, you still have to do additional normal research and fact-checking, but you can definitely get pointers in the right direction much faster than you can on your own.

Figure 12-4:
JetBlue notifies customers of weather delays and where to go for flight-delay information through Twitter.

While Twitter grows in popularity, more professionals, celebrities, and point people at companies are actively using the service to further their own publicity, knowledge, and outreach. For example, if you want to get a better sense of what it’s like to be an Australian actor working in America, ask Hugh Jackman (
@RealHughJackman
). Want to know what Yoko Ono thought about when she was writing one of her pieces? Go ahead and ask her! (
@yokoono
). Despite their celebrity, they have the exact same tools that you do and are as accessible as they want to be on Twitter. If they have the time and see your question, you just might get an answer. But again, respect their time by asking something relevant and interesting to them, not just something selfish or easily looked up elsewhere.

As you can probably imagine, many celebrities and industry mavens have many, many followers — and those popular folks are often inundated with questions and @replies. If you ask something of them and don’t get a response, your question may have just gotten lost in the noise. Feel free to try to talk to them in the future, but if you’re sending them public messages in your timeline, remember that everyone else reading your updates gets all those messages, too. In short, don’t be a rabid fan.

You’ll also find many industry analysts, number crunchers, stats hounds, and fact checkers on Twitter who aren’t famous but are eager to help you. So, with your Twitter account comes an army of experts and pundits who have research-heavy charts, graphs, and reports on a wide array of topics. People on Twitter can be very generous with their time, knowledge, and information. After all, many of the relationships you have on Twitter are with people whom you trust and who trust you.

Twitter is a trust-based network. In the process of building connections, interacting with the community, and sharing your ideas and knowledge, you earn trust. That trust-building goes both ways. Your growing network of contacts on Twitter also earns your trust. So, if someone in your trusted network sends you a link, you can probably trust that the link will take you to a page that’s helpful to you. Always check your facts, but you can get valuable, reliable, and accessible information through Twitter.