Mix It Up!
Posted on: July 10, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
17 comments so far
12 Days of Twitter :: Day 9
(What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?)
As Twitter quickly takes over the world, small and large businesses are seeing the need to have a presence on Twitter. Although it’s easy to see the need to be on Twitter, it can be difficult for both businesses and individuals to immediately understand what, when and how to tweet. People ask me all the time if they should get personal on Twitter, so let’s talk about that on today’s Twitter Tip.
The first thing to remember with any tip I give, is that it only matters if you are trying to build a network or audience. If you are just tweeting and don’t care if anyone follows you, then make your own rules!
For those of you who do care about building a network or making new friends, what should you tweet about? Obviously, you’ll want to talk about what interests you first and foremost. If you’re Gary Vee and you care about wine, you talk about wine, so it makes sense that Gary tweets about wine. If you’re a good VP of Marketing, hopefully you have a passion for marketing and it would make sense for you to tweet about marketing. I love technology and consumer electronics so I tweet tech and gadget news. Here’s the thing, though…I don’t just tweet links to new episodes of GeekBrief.TV on Twitter. I don’t just post information that I hope people find valuable. I don’t just post This Day in History tidbits. I don’t just post personal anecdotes. Gary Vee is interested in baseball, so he tweets about the Dodgers and the Mets. A VP of Marketing might also be a foodie, and if she is, she should tweet links to pictures of food from her favorite restaurant.
The combination of insight into someone’s life, promotion and valuable information is what works for a lot of us on Twitter (not to mention blogs and web shows), so mix it up!
Where the line becomes blurred for a lot of people is the question of how much personal is too personal. That’s obviously a question only you can answer, but remember future employers or your mother might read your Twitter stream. My best advice is to use the same self control as you do in the real world.
UPDATE: Please see my first comment below for additional thoughts.
Read More
Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
« Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
July 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Previous Post« Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Next PostFollow Responsibly [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Previous Post« Twitter Porn and Spam? Next PostShare Your Funny Anecdotes While [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I say if you have a company brand, give it a Twitter account separate from personal. Business stuff only on the business account and do whatever you want on your own.
For one thing, I think it’s better to stay professional on the “official” account and not have to restrict yourself. For another, I personally won’t follow a user if all the activity is nothing but links. I’ll follow the RSS feed if that’s what I want.
I can’t imagine Pete Cashmore is able to really use his @mashable account for personal stuff, just because of the half billion retweets it gets every day.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
That’s certainly one of those “rules” that has to be made by you. It does depend on what you want to build with your Twitter account. For example, eBay Ink does a great job at being personal but not too personal. You get a feeling he cares and there’s personality behind it, but it’s not about his personal likes and dislikes. It does completely depend on how you want to use your account. I suggest people think about mixing it up a bit because I’ve seen it work for a lot of people and companies.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Actually, that came out wrong. I meant personally I’d follow individual members of a company, but not the company feed itself. That’s not how I use Twitter.
I follow several CNet people like Rafe Needleman, Molly Wood, Tom Merritt etc., but not @cnet because I don’t want to follow the whole of CNet.
I want the personal updates, not the official stuff that I can get by subscribing to the site’s RSS feed. Other people who use Twitter differently may not care about the personal stuff – they just want to follow the company itself, so they’d follow that feed.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
[...] @CaliLewis: Twitter Tip: Mix it Up! http://calilewis.me/mix-it-up 12 Days of Twitter, Day 9 3 hrs [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 12:50 am
For me, I follow for many different reasons, & I suspect the same is true for many out there. I follow @HomeDepotDeals b/c I’m in the market for a new grill & Patio Furniture. So I’m not looking for personal info there. For someone like @andyroddick, I want to know what his life is like. So the more personal, the better. For someone like@mollywood, I’m looking for both personal & tech news.
I manage 2 accounts. One is strictly for my nonprofit, for people who want to stay up to date with that. The other provides both personal as well as updates regarding my nonprofit. I know I can’t please everyone, but doing this offers my audience the choice. And it’s not as hard as I initially thought simply b/c it’s so easy to Rettweet between accounts.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Previous Post« 12 Days of [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:22 am
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Previous Post« Look! Hayden [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Previous Post« Mix It Up! Next [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:00 am
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:11 am
[...] Mistakes Made by New Tweeters Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:12 am
[...] Made by New Tweeters Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:13 am
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 7:36 am
[...] Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and [...]