10 Things I Learned On The Way to 10,000 Twitter Followers

While some have said I’m some kind of Twitter expert, let me tell you a little secret: a few months ago I had zero plans (yes ZERO) to use social media. I found it to be confusing, overwhelming and frankly not much fun. While I may have figured a few things out, in no way do I see myself as a guru of any kind. That’s why I wanted to share with you today some of the things I learned on the way to my first 10,000 followers:

Like I said, I had zero intention of using any social media until my good friend Melanie Strick (@melcoach if you want to follow her) kind of gave me a challenge.

One night we were having dinner at a local restaurant and unknown to me, she tweeted an innocent message. It said: “My friend Stephanie Frank won’t do web 2.0. C’mon tweeps, let get her on here!” (Tweeps? What’s a Tweep?) Now of course, I knew nothing about this. The next day, another friend Janet Switzer told me about this really cool tool called Addict-O-Matic http://www.addictomatic.com. She told me to type in my name.

I did.

And up popped my friend’s tweet telling me to get with the program. It was war. So on December 11, 2008 I officially joined the ranks of the Twitter uninformed. The first thing: Call my friend to figure out what to do next. From there, I’ve used that same strategy (asking people for tips) and started sending information. Today, July 31, I hit 10,000 followers. Thought you might like a few pointers and things I’ve learned along the way:

Tip #1 - NEVER answer the question “What are you doing?” directly. Nobody cares if you’re eating ice cream, preparing a proposal or tying your shoes unless there’s some value in it for them.

Tip #2 – Have a beginning strategy. I started out doing 3 things: a) Asking a few friends to “show me around” by telling people I was on Twitter. That got the first qualified followers. b) Engaging with people directly and c) Sending quotes. That’s all I knew how to do and it worked to get started.

Tip #3 - Continuously develop your strategy. Today, there are 5 kinds of tweets that I do regularly: a) My own Daily Do It (tips on personal peak performance) b) Retweet things I personally like or are helpful to others c) Engage with others personally d) Links to blog posts and e) Quotes or one-liners.

Tip #4 - Remember the “social” part. The worst tweeters are the ones who tweet constantly about buying their stuff. You wouldn’t walk into a party, shove a business card in someone’s hand and say “wanna buy a widget?” Don’t do it here. Show your personality and be (primarily) transparent.

Tip #5 - Everything you tweet goes out into the Internet Universe. So if you don’t want everyone to know, don’t tweet it. Enough said.

Tip #6 - Follow wisely. At the beginning, I used tools to automatically follow anyone who followed me. Then came the spammers, the porn people and the stalkers, so I turned that off. Now I follow people who are interesting, who are recommended by friends and only those who have a picture.

Tip #7 - Remember your purpose. Twitter is like going to a party – you’re there to meet interesting people. With this type of networking, you are also there to meet people who can connect you with (or you can directly connect with) that will help you in your career search, business endeavors or other goals. It’s easy to get caught in a comfort zone and not reach out.

Tip #8 – Your tools may need adjustment. When I reached almost 9,000 followers, my tool of choice, TweetDeck, came to almost a standstill. I lost people, friends, the columns weren’t moving, etc. Turns out I had overtaxed the software and it needed adjustment. Thank goodness for Twitter friends who helped me in a time of need.

Tip #9 - Ask Questions. Referring to Tip 8 above, when I got stuck, the first thing I did was send a general tweet to anyone who might respond. You can also use this to ask questions about any project you’re working on, research, getting help or if you’re just plain curious about people’s likes and dislikes. People on Twitter seem to be great at answering questions and helping folks in need. Just don’t overuse.

Tip #10 – If you get overwhelmed, stop. Sometimes Twitter can be like a never-ending sea of people all shouting out into the ethers. As human beings, we all need some time to take a break, unplug, relax and rewind. Twitter can be very addictive but if you feel yourself feeling like you can’t disconnect or are overwhelmed, shut it down. People will still be there when you get back.

I don’t know what else is in store for the social media scene and there are gobs of experts out there who are far better than me at this stuff. But from a performance and leverage standpoint, being able to connect with so many people, in so many countries, send traffic to my websites and create strong new relationships in such a personal way is an authentic, real and much-needed resource.

Bring it on!