My Twitter Mosaic, My Experiment with Twitter Continues

It was November 2008 when I started using Twitter. About 120 days of Twittering. Hmmm.

Feels like years.

I've sent 233 tweets (about 2 a day). I have 256 followers. I follow 66.

I first blogged about Twitter on November 14 2008. See my first thoughts on Twitter.

Here is a mosaic of my followers:

You can get your own twitter mosaic here.

My twitter experiment continues.

It's some good, some bad.

One key is to develop strategies not to be too distracted.

I've certainly learned about some cool stuff I wouldn't otherwise know about.

What I don't know -- and can't know -- is what I've lost while I'm Twittering or following the paths that start on Twitter.

If you haven't Twittered, I recommend giving it a try for 2 or 3 months.

1. Get a twitter account.
2. Enable everyone to read your tweets (otherwise you look like a paranoid).
3. Look to see what others are writing (me for example at WillWorkLearn)
4. DON'T follow too many people yet (less than 5).
   Why? b/c following begets followers, and you will want a community (later).
5. Create some tweets each day.
6. Try to provide (a) some value (links to good info) and (b) some insight into your true self.
7. AFTER, you've done the above for a week or so, begin following others.
8. See what happens.
9. The <5 folks you originally followed (who aren't yet your followers), send them an @ message to let them know you exist...so that they may join your community (and become a follower).
10. Build some strategies to avoid too much time loss.
11. See what happens.

Comments

[Andrew Duthie]

Direct messages can only be sent to people who follow you. It's an anti-spam feature, since most people receive direct messages via email and/or text message to their phones. Most people will get an email saying you're following them, though -- if it's someone you already know, chances are they'll follow you back. I'd set the limit higher, personally -- follow up to 20 people right away, then grow slower from there as you get acquainted with Twitter and with how you want to use it.

[Will Thalheimer]

Thanks for correcting my mistake. I'll fix that Direct Message idea to an @message, which ought to work the same way. Thanks Andrew...

[Jan Schwartz]

Your advice is good Will. I'm in my first month of Twitter and wish that I had read this before starting. I thought I was taking it slow compared to others who have thousands of followers/following. I don't quite get that. I have 63 followers and I'm following 62. I've tweeted 39 times and I'm just now figuring out what #followfriday means. I know so little about Twitter that I can't even figure out what I want from it. Wondering what the ROI is-I being time.

[Will Findlay]

One of the best tools I've found for making Twitter productive is TweetDeck, an Adobe Air App. It allows you to create groups within your list of people you follow. This helps my productivity by allowing me to follow a subset of my friends when I'm busy.
http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

[Pier 59 Studios]

The twitter feed and synchronous chat is a central connection that then provides further connection to longer conversations via skype, email and blogs. Cant do everything in 140 characters or less.

[Marc by Marc Jacobs Handbag]

for his many years in leading the workplace learning