Casual Tweeting Doesn’t Cut It
I have been conducting a Twitter experiment over the last few months. I have been very active on my own Twitter account (@jluciano); engaging in the community, re-tweeting, adding value by helping people with Wordpress issues, etc. I have also been using another Twitter account to tweet blog entries and URL’s of sites that I think are good reads, but really haven’t been part of the community. I just tweet and not really interact with the community.
You probably know what my results are. I have a thriving community on my own Twitter account (I’m up to almost 500 followers. Not very many comparatively, but I am proud that I have organically attracted them) , and while I have a small community with the other account, I can hardly state that its thriving. I don’t know any of my followers or who I’m following. Basically, I’m following them because they live in the same city as I do. Most of the people that are following the dud account are doing so because I followed them first. I really don’t think they are following based on my content since most of it is bland and doesn’t have a lot of passion behind it.
This boils down to two things:
1) a “social media agency” will be able to build you a following, but one that doesn’t have a vested interest in what you are tweeting.
2) if you want to be a member of the community, then you have to work at it.
I think social media agencies will serve you better if they teach you how to cultivate the power of Twitter instead of setting up a passive account that won’t drive traffic, create awareness or promote you. If you want to be part of a community, you will need to engage.
