Many thanks,

-AJ

I am humbled by the response to this post (probably my most commented post yet). i really figured all that could be said about “how to use twitter” had been said or was being co-opted by the make-money-with-social-media crowd. Micah from http://www.learntoduck.com was the catalyst.

Paul – to me, retweets are prob the biggest currency right now on twitter. If more folks were building tools to thread in the favorites it might be more valuable, but for now RT is it. For me the beauty of Retweets is that they are both a gesture of value to your followers and a gesture BACK to the person you are retweeting. What I try to get across to my clients is they need to write good stuff and be conscious of the size of their tweets. I HATE editing someone elses’ words to get the RT out (but I have been known to change “and” to “&” on occassion.

Tae –

I think decency is underrated. I think brands (big and small) need to ease into twitter with the right mindset – this isn’t another “channel” to me-me-me.

Bao –

Incredibly kind as usual, but I ain’t no maven! I am a student of this like everyone else. I happen to have done this kind of work for some big and small companies and like to share. Sometimes I CANT share because of conflict or non-disclosure reasons, but when I can…

Mark –

First post in literally months. If I told you the number of times I have made WRITTEN committments to myself for blogging frequency…

This was kinda written for agency-types and people advising clients originally. Real people are going to learn their own way over time, and especially following guys like you, @chrisbrogan, @debs, @ccarfi, @deanland, @dsearls, @pistachio, etc. The asynchronous nature of Twitter makes it situationaly important – I will always followup, but I am not always following.

To me, the most amazing thing about the power of twitter is how small it is right now. We aren’t even close to a tipping point, President Obama, Ellen and Jimmy Fallon notwithstanding. The idea that this small micropublishing platform, right now the realm of geeks, early adopters and success/life/millionaire coaches (lol) is helping get guys like Keith Burtis a gig and getting you a meeting with TripAdvisor blows my mind.

And its only Monday

My fave one is the value of retweeting. Thanks for the great tips, Sean.

You are a marketing maven. Great article!

I think the people (non-celebrities) who find success with Twitter follow some semblance of your list above. If someone @’s me I do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Most days I am amazed at the power of Twitter and how much I am able to learn just from listening. In fact, because of Twitter I am having a meeting with the folks at TripAdvisor when I come home to Boston in April. Without Twitter…that connection never would have been made.

I watched the founder of a pretty popular site at Barcamp a few years ago talk about the competitive aspects of social networks, and how, over time, some people weren’t looking for quality, but to compete with their friends on “adds” and “follows”. Which is FINE if thats what you are in the game for.

A big part of this is a speech I give clients about twitter and social media in general, and how its not a campaign but a commitment, and how to get better at it. A post from Micah was the final impetus to write it down and post it.

People and companies are jumping in and feeling their way around – some well, and some not so well. Every person they follow is a chance to learn something. Every “twitter disaster” is a chance to learn how not to do something. “Click My Junk” or “Get My Millionaire Coaching” or “Learn the Master Secrets of Twitter” adds too much noise to a platform that has so much signal.

Hopefully its a little #payforward from me

It’s relatively funny to see people catch on to something two years after I joined it and I believe three years after it was created. At the time I joined, all I was doing with it was keeping up with people that I actually knew, so the conversations were always relevant. The people that would follow you were always part of “the scene”. There wasn’t any value in random people following random people OR having a large follower count, because if you weren’t following the RIGHT people, your list was worthless and just a bunch of noise.

Somehow, it became a fad to have a lot of followers and then “having a lot of followers” became something people were given credit for as if it was something tough to do. Once that happened, the ways of using Twitter shifted, and now people are being told to use it without being told what it is and what they should use it FOR.

Your tips will help them get closer to the essence.

I havent blogged in a while, but Micah got it started for me with a question and I have been providing this feedback to a couple clients for a while now – getting it out of my head and on the blog seemed right at the time.