Twitter users fall into one of three categories: people who use it only to promote their blogs, people who sometimes use it to promote their blogs, and people who never had a blog or dumped theirs because all they want to do is hang out on Twitter.
Which camp are you in?
Plenty of Twitter etiquette experts will say flogging your blog on Twitter is a no no. But really, if you use it to talk about your work or life and said work or life includes the blog you do for fun or profit, then it follows that the twain should meet, at least every once in a while.
But what constitutes every once in a while? Ah, there’s the rub.
My philosophy is simple. Ask yourself:
- How often do I tweet?
- What do I tweet about?
- Does tweeting a link to my latest blog post fit into my overall tweeting strategy?
- Does tweeting a link to my blog post constitute a (fill in the blank with an acceptable amount) percent of my total tweets?
Answer all those questions and you’ll have your answer.
I tweet about a variety of topics, including the subjects I report on, freelance writing and stuff happening in the city, state and region of the country where I live. I tweet somewhere between once and 10 times a day, some days more. I put up new blog posts three times a week, and tweet about each once, maybe twice when I first put them up. During any given week I may refer to an old blog post a couple times to answer a question. And when I follow someone new I usually include a link, either to the main page of this blog or to a blog post I’ve written that’s relevant to that person. I also blog about stories I’ve written when they first come out.
That means in any given week, I’m tweeting 70 to 80 times and 10 or 12 of those are about my blog or something else I’ve written. That’s within my personally acceptable blog flogging limit.
Social media guru Chris Brogan claims to maintain a slightly higher 75/25 ratio of helpful v. promotional tweets. If it that works for Brogan – who has 55,000+ Twitter followers – it should work for you.
Michelle – I think that you are just about right in your guidelines on promotion vs. helpful (or at least neutral) use of Twitter. I usually only post one tweet for each blog post, and hope that one or two followers think enough of the post to re-tweet the link. Great summary of the issue.
[...] Original post by Michelle Rafter [...]
Michelle, like Steve, I post one tweet per blog post with the hopes that I will gain a few new readers to my blog. I also look for opportunities to answer questions on twitter using references to blog posts that I have written. Your blog post tweets vs total tweets percentages look good to me.
Michelle,
You are one of the few people I follow on Twitter whose “tweets” are worth reading. That’s because you’re always interesting, don’t overdo it, and don’t promote yourself all the time.
I am so sick of people who blather on about whatever it is *they* care about but no one else does. Twitter users, bloggers, and anyone who uses social media should think of their audience. Unfortunately, few do. I just deleted a Facebook “friend” the other day because I couldn’t stand his constant posts about Twitter all day long. I guess he thought he was being useful. I thought he was being obnoxious.
I think if you’re interesting enough, everything else will fall into place. Be cool and you won’t have to promote yourself overtly very often. And when all the perceived spammers are deleted, you won’t be one of them.
That’s why you’re successful, Michelle. You don’t have a formula. You just have good instincts.
great post. I’m in the sometimes category of posting about my blogs. I tend to post about my frustrations with writing and my writing accomplishments. I also post about the other loves in my life besides writing. ie my son, my day job. That kind of thing. Thanks so much for posting this. Take care and have a great day.
[...] Tweet. That is to say, don’t just lurk, enter the frey. Writers are born sharers so this shouldn’t be hard, but the 140-character format and constant stream of tweets it could take some getting used to. What to say? That’s the easy part: talk about what you’re working on (without giving too much away), crowdsource for stories you’re doing, vent about workplace frustrations oir comment on someone else’s tweet. It’s also perfectly acceptable to promote something you’re written or your latest blog post, just be careful not to overdo it. [...]
Paula: Thanks so much. I don’t have a secret formula for good tweeting but it’s nice to know I’m on the right track. Journalists, writers, columnists, long-time bloggers and other creative people have the potential to be good tweeters because they’re in the business of cultivating their sense of what’s new, news and interesting, and (hopefully) have a way with words. Also, regardless if your profession, if you’ve spent any amount of time on message boards you automatically have a leg up because you’re used to the back and forth, give and take nature of board-based conversations, which Twitter is like.
Michelle
Thanks Donna, much appreciated.
Michelle