twitter Archives | Ian M Rountree

7 Reasons I Don’t Care If You Tweet This Post

April 28, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

When I published 5 Ways to Make Every Blog Post Count two days ago, I knew it’d get retweeted. In fact, I believe I said this:

And it did. But I didn’t get more traffic than I normally do – for a lot of reasons. Specific to the post; I knew it was linkbait, but it was helpful as well. I truly intended to write a useful post, and I’ll be referring to it several times in upcoming work. However, as effective as the title was at getting a few extra mentions from people who don’t normally interact with my stuff, there are some reasons I’m less concerned with the effect the article – and the title – had on Twitter.

1. Not all of my traffic comes from social media.

A decreasing amount, in fact, comes from Twitter. Yet I have more followers now than I have in the past, and I’m actively working on writing better headlines. So what’s happening to the traffic that’s supposed to come with tweets?

2. Twitter is for conversation.

While a lot of people use Twitter for sending links back and forth, and information traffic control, I’ve had a better time using it as an ongoing chat. I’m a chat person, not a forum person, so this works for me. I don’t use twitter for sharing, but this might change, as my habits change; with any platform, there are bound to be reasons to use the tool one way more than another, but leaving yourself open to change is a good idea.

3. Twitter is not the only network I care about.

Lots of people consider Twitter the penultimate location for networking. However, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even other blogs, also have a lot of power. Considering I spend most of my time using Twitter for conversation, rather than linking, I’d be happier with blog comments, reactions, or other kinds of interaction than just sending another headline into the broader stream.

4. Not every post needs to be read by everyone.

Maybe you already knew how to make each blog post work harder for you. Just like you already know how to measure the effectiveness of tweets – if that’s the case, you’re not going to care what I have to say. You don’t need it. Instead, you could be reading about being awesome somewhere else. Any of this means that one more post on single-blog-post efficiency is just going to float by, and you’re not going to click. And that’s fine.

5. It’s just another list!

There are so many lists! Yes, it’s effective as linkbait, but more importantly if a list doesn’t contain actionable information (or at least informative entertainment), passing it on won’t help anyone. Granted, I do hope this list is helpful – but speaking broadly about link tweeting in general, passing nothing but links without the benefit of meta conversation or commentary only provides so much benefit to your followers. Tell me why it’s important, in a tweet, or don’t endorse it.

6. Linkbait retweets don’t work anyway.

Yes, the link mentioned above got retweeted – the trouble is that I know – and you do too, let’s be honest – that most of the time people bump articles with good titles, but don’t read the article itself. Whether it’s the headline, the tweet wrapping the link, or the person sending the tweet – there are lots of reasons to hit the “Me Too” button that don’t involve appropriately curating and endorsing things you pass on. And that’s ok. But it doesn’t make me care more about Twitter than I do already.

7. Getting a retweet isn’t my highest measurement of value in social media.

It’s really not!

There are many ways you can encourage reactions in social media, and gain traffic or further conversation. Things like:

Retweets (mediatrope: Me Too Button)
Facebook likes or comments
Trackbacks
Comments on the blog post itself, or
Even better off site blog reactions

… All contribute to a blog post’s effectiveness as a communication tool, beyond being just another publication. It’s up to you, as a content creator, to know – and appropriately rank – which of these is most important to your own measurements of value, and acceptance of success where you find it.

If we don’t decide on what matters before we hit publish, hindsight cannot help is.

Notes From #tweetdiner – Social Media Fatigue

March 26, 2011 by Ian 4 Comments

Tonight, Nic Wirtz and I cohosted #tweetdiner (it was my second run at this – last time, @MyAgenda and I took the reins) – thanks to Earth Hour crossing the continent just as we began, it was a small, tightly-knit crowd in the chat. Made for a lot of depth which, ironically, was a bonus to the subject.

As with any twitter chat, I’ve missed things – that’s what the transcript is for (read it all, no tl;dr allowed)

The questions were fairly simple;

What are the signs that you’re suffering from social media fatigue?

Some diversity in answers here; I mentioned an increase in effort, Nic feels he gets crabby when he’s fatigued with something.

Also, finding that the time it takes to realize that arguments you’re making are pointless, or finding that more often what you say is not advancing the conversation can be a clear sign of fatigue. When we have high energy, natural optimism often helps us continue to persevere in difficult discussions.

@MyAgenda – “For me is knowing that I’m spreading myself thin and not being productive up to my standards (is a sign of fatigue)”

What steps can we take to overcome or avoid social media fatigue?

Some suggestions include;

Take regular breaks, and schedule time for yourself.
Set goals – have a purpose behind your work.
Vary your activities. Spending all your time on one platform is tiring.
Set expectations, and let people know when you’re not available.

From a comment by Daniel Hewitt came: Taking a break can work in the short-term but what if that is not enough?

Daniel mentioned he goes into “Airplane Mode” – a reference to turning off his connections. Occasionally this does mean missing some things – big events, scheduled things. However, the corollary for this is that perceived consistency (in broadcast) is often just as good as real consistency.

For example; one could schedule a number of blog posts, tweets, and other push messages for the sake of taking a few hours – or even a few days – away from the keyboard.

Do you have a long-term plan for your social media usage?

SMSJoe – What’s long term in socmed, 6 months?

Joe’s point is that so many goals set in social media are blinds. They appear to be long-term, but can’t be sustained; they’re “build a house” tasks, not “run a household” jobs. So how do we set goals? Joe mentioned that some metrics-based goals are useful for building upon, but relying exclusively on statistical goals is weakening.

Personal note; having been working with online communities for twelve years, this is the first year I set myself any goals as far as actual involvement and activities go. Oddly, having the goals (even if some of them have already proved wrong) has led to less struggling and grasping for ideas.

final note; watching the numbers is a zombifying experience, and an incredibly easy trap to fall into regarding goal setting.

What one thing would improve your social media experience?

This one got crickets. I think it’s hard for people to nail down “that one thing” with social media. which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Quick-fire round!

We ran out of time, so I tossed these out at the end – if you have any comments about the last two questions, please leave them here.

Do you find it’s difficult to promote yourself consistently, rather than just puttering?

(and)

Which app do you find you spend the most time on? Is it a web version of a platform, or a mgmt app?

Blog-only Bonus Round!

For those reading here: How often do you take what you’ve learned in chats and create an action plan because of them?

Co-Hosting #tweetdiner – Social Media Fatigue

March 26, 2011 by Ian 1 Comment

Tonight on #tweetdiner, Nic Wirtz and I will be helping the crew tackle the idea of social media fatigue.

This is at once an old topic (Liz Strauss talked about social media fatigue in 2009) and a renewing concern (the tipping point I saw recently was Amber Naslund writing about social media fatigue here).

It’s hard not to feel exhaustion sometimes – always being on stage, always working the crowd. Always facing concern and disregard from the people who need your help most (if you’re a consultant or marketer as I am)… It’s stressing.

Or, for those not acclimated to the social media sphere, facing their own fatigue in the face of the unknown. Building habits that aren’t taxing, working the social muscles until they build memory and the effort needed drops – it’s a lot of work, and needs a lot of input! So how do we avoid it?

Better yet, should we avoid it?

Fatigue is a sign that growth is happening in some cases. Should we put it off, it’s like dropping from run to walk just as the hurt starts – the hurt is a sign of growth.

So, join Nic and I – along with (of course) Margie Clayman, Stanford Smith and the rest of the crew, at 8pm central time tonight – let’s talk it through.

UPDATE: The chat’s gone down, Notes From #tweetdiner – Social Media Fatigue are live!

Image by o5com.

Top 6 Best Ways How To Write Awful Headlines

March 22, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Writing great headlines is one of the key elements of good blogging practices – everyone says so, right?

There are dozens of tutorials out there explaining what makes a good headline; numbered lists, using the words How to in the title, addressing a key fear a large group of people have…

That’s fine, but what happens when you write what you think is a great headline and it doesn’t seem to be doing it’s job? Feels like a complex problem. Feeling like you need to do some analysis, get some feedback?

This is one of those things where I know – I know – you’ll be mad at me for how simple this is.

It turns out there are some really simple ways to tell if you’ve written a bad headline, no matter how good you think it is.

If you;

make a joke your post doesn’t follow-up on
make it the wrong length (too long or too short)
don’t check the title to see if it fits once the post is written
include an inaccuracy in the headline as relates to the post, but not on purpose
imply something is new/old when it’s not (Even if it may be so for your intended audience)
give away the entire post in the headline

… You might have written an awful headline. And when you have a bad headline, it doesn’t matter how good the post is. No one will read it.

Just like when you have a great headline, if the post sucks, you’ve jumped the shark. No one cares about the great headline, unless it’s tweetbait, in which case if they have share remorse, they’ll be even more ticked.

Law Seven – There is no more obvious way to kill your blog than inconsistency of form.

It could be consistency of message, consistency of schedule, or any number of other things, but when you break consistency, you’re making people think for the wrong reasons and making a withdrawal from the bank of social capital.

Unless you’re writing research papers or case studies, you want people to expend their energy considering that you publish, not examining it for lumpy bits like titles that don’t fit, or bad grammar.

Reducing the emotional overhead on your work helps keep the investment people make in your work valid.

Writing better headlines – as relate to the writing they represent – is a good start.

Decision Time – What’s Your Platform For?

February 14, 2011 by Ian 2 Comments

You’re a blogger! Hooray!

You found some good hosting, came up with a catchy title for your blog, and set up a site using WordPress, Blogger, or one of the other major blogging softwares. Perhaps you even made the investment in a killed theme for your site, to make the biggest bang you can right out of the gate. You’ve got a twitter account, you’re sharing pictures on Flickr, maybe you’ve even set yourself up a Facebook page (like I just did) to help promote your stuff.

You’re covering all the bases, dotting all your J’s and crossing all your T’s. But you’re still missing something.

What’s that you say? You’ve found yourself a niche? Ooh, good work! The niche is an essential part of any blogger’s homework. How many people are in it? How is the niche being explored so far? Is anyone even remotely close to your angle?

Not many people, shallow exploration, and mediocre angles? Excellent! Now comes the really hard part.

You still haven’t decided what you’re working towards!

You’re building a platform. Great. But what is it for? Getting the word out about your widgets? That’s a weak reason to spend so much time on something. Getting the word out in order to bring traffic to your site to sell your awesome widgets? Now that’s something entirely different.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling thousand dollar eBooks, ten dollar beef jerky, or increasing awareness for your non-profit in hopes of landing a patron or two – having an aim behind your work is extremely important to being able to say what was successful and what was a flop.

And that’s just the macro end of things.

The more laser-focused you get on your goals, the smaller the work you do to improve your rate of success can feel.

Changing the roundness of your Subscribe button’s corners by 2 pixels? Moving from an autobiographical About page to a professional Curriculum Vitae? These are the beans that you can address at the end of the cycle, once you know your aims are worth working towards, and your entire platform is already aligned with those goals.

It feels like small stuff, but if that 2px radius increase (or decrease) adds five percent to your subscribe rate? It might be worth it. If your CV-style About page means two extra clients per month? You bet your perfect prose it’s worth it.

When you’ve got really strong goals in mind, you can stop worrying about diminishing returns.

That five percent extra subscribe rate means nothing unless you’re building a database for future use. Those two extra clients mean nothing unless you can execute for them and retain them past the first project. Whatever it is you’re using your platform to achieve, make sure it’s actually lined up with your business goals.

But hey, maybe it’s simple.

Maybe you just want to put thought to keyboard, and get into some interesting conversations. It’s not all business right?

Right. It may not be all business, but even with what appear to be casual aims, keeping your platform in line with your purpose is powerful. Conversation still has conversion – a pleasing comment form makes a difference the same way choosing a more open network like Twitter has benefits compared to a more closed network like LinkedIn or Ning.

No matter the aim, there are considerations you can take to make sure you’re reducing your emotional and administrative overhead before diving in too deep.

What are some of the ways you’ve narrowed in on a goal and adjusted your platform to match?

Image by David Sim.