How to Build an Effective Twitter Group
As a Futurist I’m often asked what I think about certain social media tools (and most technology for that matter). My answer is always aligned to the thought that ‘if the technology is working for you, and not against you, it’s probably a good thing. Here then are my thoughts about building up a useful Twitter group
You’ll need to define what you want from Twitter. If you’re wanting to use Twitter to gather followers or to treat it as a social expansion model, then you should follow everyone who follows you. BUT if you want to use Twitter for business purposes, then here’s my own approach:
1. NEVER follow anyone who is already being followed by three or more of your current group. The rationale is that Twitter can be a quick source of information for you but you don’t want to receive the SAME ReTweet from 200 people. That just clogs your inbox. Twitter prompting you to follow people followed by others you already know, has NOTHING to do with it being useful for you! Instead, try to follow people where the three people in your group are geographically dispersed across time zones.
2. If you’re wanting to get your message out to more people, send your tweets at a time when the larger population is likely to be online. If you’re in Australia, sending a tweet out at 9pm will probably miss almost everyone in North America for instance, because most people will be in bed! So check your timezones.
3. Retweet good links, but check the link BEFORE you retweet – maybe the tweet and the story aren’t quite what you expect.
4. You can thank people for the retweet but really it’s them retweeting that should be thanks enough
5. Remember that Twitter is one platform. If you have a good thought to share then do so across multiple platforms.
6. NO FAMILY TWEETS. Beyond ‘Exhausted today – hard to focus’ there’s no value in discussing where you are going for dinner, what you’re wearing or what TV show you intend to watch UNLESS you can show it is business related.
So, there’s my guidelines. Not set in stone and won’t work for everyone. Numbers 1&2 are the main ones, and each to their own
Marcus 🙂
The MP3 file below captures part two of our chat looking at the Future of Sex. Picking up on the theme of new technology that popped up towards the end of our first discussion in week one, here we move onto haptics and holographics and the extension of that technology from beyond the bedroom and…
Read More >Who’s Been Sleeping In My House? is a new Australian series presented by archaeologist Adam Ford that looks at the stories behind some of our old homes. Adam is the man behind the recent ‘Ned Kelly’ dig among other great archaeology finds here in Australia and the UK. As a futurist I’m always interested in…
Read More >The Association of Professional Futures is holding its first Virtual Gathering, following the sun from Europe, across North America and finishing in the Australia pacific zone. It kicks off tomorrow and links to the program and registration (it’s only $45 for guests for a program featuring some of the worlds most prominent futurists) You…
Read More >I join Vicki Kerrigan on ABC Darwin radio where we continue our discussion about the future of sex. We consider three main areas in this session – smart phone applications; remote relationships and the combination of haptics and holographics as one the emerging means by which we’ll maintain physical contact. You can download the…
Read More >In this chat with Vicki Kerrigan on radio ABC Darwin we discuss the future of sex. This is the first of potentially three conversations where we look at the increasing reach of technology way beyond current online match making sites, the social pressures driving the use of technology as well as the use of technology…
Read More >There’s been a bit of discussion in recent months about a softening housing market around Australia but I wonder how much of it is more indicative of unrealistic expectations on behalf of sellers? In futures work we think in terms of Assumptions and Expectations and aim to test our understanding and so I offer this…
Read More >Unfortunately it looks like my main email address has been hijacked and has been used to send out a series of spam emails. I’d like to apologise to anyone who has received some junk email purporting to come from ‘desiredfutures’ with a series of html links asking you to go and have a look. You…
Read More >Given the amount of plastic swimming in our oceans and rivers and the volume littering our land, the NT Government is aiming to introduce compulsory returns legislation on soft-drink bottles (as happens in South Australia), something that has apparently raised the ire of bottler, Coca Cola. Although they’ve recently backed away from their initial statement…
Read More >Deciphering the hype from reality with regard to drug use can be a challenge for most of us. Professor David Nutt in the UK has given me permission to post a link to the paper he has co-authored with Ruth Weissenborn that looks at the reality of a comparison of harm caused by two common…
Read More >Vicki Kerrigan and I finished off our discussion about the Future of Clothing on ABC Darwin yesterday. We discussed invisibility style cloaks, singlets that monitor your heart rate and stress levels, runners that capture electricity to power your wearable electronics and a few philosophical questions regarding our ability to deal with stress. The file…
Read More >