by Michelle Lentz

Everybody has growing pains.

Nielsen is reporting that while Twitter is growing, it is also suffering in the retention category. Where’s the user loyalty?

A couple of weeks ago, I speculated about the Oprah effect – that thousands would join and those accounts would then lie dormant after a month. It seems I’m not that far off on how users react to Twitter in general. According to Nielsen,

Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.

When I teach Twitter (and for that matter, all social media), I stress that you get out of it what you put into it. What Twitter does poorly is demonstrate how to effectively use the tool. From the question (What are you doing?) to the interaction, it is just not always clear to a Twitter – and Internet – newbie.

I’ve long thought that Twitter should change their question. What are you doing? is not the question people are answering. They’re letting you know where they are, what is new, what is interesting, and where they need help or are offering help. The very question confuses people and causes skeptics to call Twitter silly because they don’t want to know when someone is refilling a coffee pot.

The problem with Twitter is that you have to use it to truly understand it. You can’t just lurk and read other people’s tweets coming in on your feed. You need to participate. Twitter actually loses some value if you don’t join the conversation. Of course, how to join the conversation is also a problem. Even if you find people to follow, how will they know you are talking to them? I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time explaining D (not DM) and @ to people who are new to Twitter. After all, it’s hard to contribute if no one can hear you talk.

So, my advice to all those Oprah, Ashton, and Ellen followers – find someone else to follow. Search on your favorite topics, see who is chatting about them, and follow those folks. Follow many folks. Then join the conversation. Don’t just sit back and read – contribute. Use the @ symbol  and get to it. Again, you get out of Twitter what you put into it. Joining any social network isn’t going to expand your horizons or even just brighten your day if you don’t participate.

In this case, the onus is on both the new users to participate as well as Twitter, who needs to make things clearer and easier. They’re moving past just early adopters using the system. It’s time to release some tutorials and some demos so that Twitter really can be mainstream – and keep those new users who followed Oprah.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

I saw this over on TechCrunch, where Robin posted about it, and decided the word should be spread. Twitter has made a tiny UI change that makes a definite (and rather immediate) impact on your, um, Google juice. (As an aside, where on earth did that term originate?)

If you look at your profile page in Twitter, you’ll see that the title in the browser no longer reads Twitter / username. It now reads Your Name (username).  Title tags are Google-gimmes and Twitter has just done that for you.

Now, in Google, my Twitter page has never popped up on the front page. That’s all fine and good considering that my LinkedIn, my Wine Blog, and another Michelle Lentz (a rather talented artist) are all there. But now, immediately following my LinkedIn page, is the Twitter page. It’s also worth noting that my private (locked) Twitter account does not show up at all in Google, which makes me rather happy.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Jacob Morgan (re-posted from my blog)

Since Twitter is growing in popularity and I am an active twitter user, I thought I would put together a quick list of twitter tips to help make sure that your twitter experience is pleasant and beneficial to both you and your followers.

1. Don’t make your background look like some sort of advertisement, it turns people off

2. Upload a photo of yourself, people love to know who they are chatting with

3. Follow people YOU think are interesting, don’t just follow folks because everyone else is

4. Try to post regularly to make sure that people know you have an active presence (I post around 10-20+ times a day)

5. Try to not use twitter as your own personal “this is what I’m doing” list. Do you think your followers want to read about your breakfast cereal? Check out the twitter whore to see what I mean

6. Try to add value to the conversation by sharing links or things of interest. For example, if folks are twittering about SEO try sending them a link to a post that describes how to measure online SEO competition.

7. Mix in SOME personal information so that people know you are a human being and not just an online merchant pushing links, don’t go overboard (see #5), find a balance, there is no exact number here.

8. Thank people when they follow you on twitter with a direct message, I try to thank every single new twitter follower I get.

9. Start conversations with the ‘@’ command, don’t just wait for people to talk to you. If something is going on in your industry don’t be scared to ask for opinions and feedback.

10. Make sure to respond to people that ‘@’ or direct message you, quite frankly this is just a matter of showing respect, if people are taking the time to message you, respond.

11. Don’t worry about how many twitter followers you have, if you become an active participant you will see your followers increase.

12. Remove people you follow if they don’t bring any value to you or if you just don’t find them interesting

13. Don’t spam anyone with anything

14. Promote your twitter name, I have a link to my twitter profile in my email signature, on my business cards, and at the end of all of my posts. Don’t be afraid to mention twitter offline either, I have met many people offline that I was already connected with online, it’s great!

15. Use twitter search to see who is talking about you and what they are saying. You can only see your replies in twitter if someone starts off a tweet with ‘@(your twitter name)’ but sometimes people use ‘@’ in the middle of their tweet (i.e. “thanks to @jacobm” as opposed to “@jacobm thanks”), so when you use twitter search, use this command “to:(your twitter name)” to help find tweets that contain your name, just not at the beginning.

16. If you see that people are talking about you (good or bad) on twitter search, then join in the conversation!

17. Take advantage of the many twitter mashups out there to help you engage in conversations and get information

18. Try to keep the amount of followers to something manageable, (currently I’m following 115 people) when you start to follow too many people the stream goes by too fast and you miss a lot of what is going on. Then again if you happen to think that 10,000 people on twitter are interesting and you want to follow them, then go for it. Check out what type of twitter follower you are for some tips.

19. Don’t stalk or harass people on twitter, if someone ignores you, just let it go. The same goes for you, if people are stalking or harassing you, you can block them on twitter.

20. Most importantly have fun and try to build relationships, we’re all people here (except for the damn bots)

These tips have helped me during the course of my twitter usage. Keep in mind that these aren’t rules and you don’t have to follow them, they are just a few tips and ideas that I have found helpful.

I Hope you found the above tips useful, did I miss any?

Thanks for reading

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