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 🙂