A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

This morning after our hill run my sister asked me about Twitter: “What’s Twitter all about? I don’t get it?”

Neither did I at first — I resisted using Twitter for more than a year because it seemed like just another distraction, just another way to waste time and have noisy chatter going on in front of you.

But I decided to see what the fuss was all about, and did my Great Twitter Experiment. To my surprise, Twitter was actually fun, interesting, and useful — if used correctly.

I’ve also found that Twitter isn’t something you can explain, and it’s not something you can understand until you’ve used it for at least a few days. You have to use it to get it.

I think that’s because Twitter can be so many things to so many people. One person might use it as a marketing tool, another to stay in touch with friends, another to collaborate with co-workers, and still others to stay informed about their favorite bloggers, websites, the latest gossip, reading, news and more.

Today we’ll look at some different ways you can use Twitter without spending too much time doing it.

A Minimalist Approach

When I first signed up for Twitter a few months ago, I followed a bunch of people I knew and was instantly fed with a stream of new “tweets” from all the people I was following. I read through all the tweets, but the stream just kept coming.

I’d wake up in the morning and try to read through all the tweets, or at least scan them. Then I’d try to keep up periodically throughout the day. It was stressful.

Then I learned the secret of Twitter: don’t try to keep up.

Twitter is like a river … you can step into it at any point and feel the water, bathe in it, frolic if you like … and then get out. And go back in at any time, at any point. But, you don’t have to try to consume the entire river — it’s impossible and frankly a waste of time in my eyes.

So that’s how I approach Twitter these days: I’ll just jump into the stream of incoming tweets and see what people are saying. I can ignore them or follow their links or reply if I want. Then I get out of the stream. I don’t try to read everything I missed, and if I miss a lot of stuff, I’m OK with that.

I’ve actually used this approach I learned from with other things, such as email, Facebook, RSS, news and other information. I don’t have to consume it all, but I can jump into the river anytime I like and read, reply if I like, and get back out. So what if I miss a ton of blog posts, news stories, and emails? Will my life fall apart?

The answer turns out to be no.

Simple Ways to Use Twitter

If you follow this minimalist approach, you don’t have to spend a lot of time using Twitter to get a lot out of it, no matter what your goals are.

Here are some guidelines and ideas for using Twitter that I’ve found to be useful:

Don’t follow a lot of people. Some people follow thousands of people. Their incoming stream must be incredible — I’m sure they don’t even try to keep up with everything. Others might be even more minimalist than I am: they follow a dozen people or less. But then what’s interesting about that? You’re not getting very much out of Twitter if you only follow a few people. Your needs will be different than mine, but I’ve found that following a few dozen to a hundred people is ideal if you’re trying to keep things simple but still get a lot out of Twitter. I think I’m following about 60 right now. I add people now and then but also drop others if they tweet too often and I don’t get anything out of their tweets.
Don’t tweet too much. Some people are constantly tweeting. Personally, I don’t like to read that many every hour, so if they’re filling up my stream of incoming tweets, they’re wasting my time. I’ve found that once a day or a few times a day or even 10 times a day at the most is ideal for me — your usage will vary. But if you do it too much, you have to be using Twitter a lot, and to me that’s too much of a distraction and time drain. So I go on a few times a day (at most) and tweet only when I feel I have something interesting to say or ask.
Don’t be on Twitter all the time. Some people have it open all the time — and that’s fine if it works for you. Personally, I’ve found that if Twitter is open (or if Twitterific, my desktop Twitter program, is open) all the time, I have a hard time focusing on other work. So like I said, I close it most of the time and open it a few times a day to see what’s going on. Mainly when I want to take a break. I only open it for a few minutes at most.
Make announcements. I like to announce things on Twitter — it’s more effective than announcing things through email and less obtrusive than doing an entire post on my blog.
Ask questions. Sometimes I’ll need a solution or some ideas for something, and I’ll ask the question on Twitter — and immediately get a dozen great replies. Thank you Twitterers! One time I couldn’t order a notebook (Muji Chronotebook) online so I asked if anyone lived near a Muji store, in New York for instance — and one Twitterer actually went to the store and bought it for me, and mailed it to me! Btw, I love this notebook and use it daily now. Thanks Chris!
Take a poll. I’ve asked people how often they like to see posts on Zen Habits, things they want me to write about, whether I should do a Zen Habits post about the presidential election, and other similar poll questions, and have gotten some great feedback.
Tell people interesting things. If you have something going on in your life that’s really interesting, by all means, share it. That’s what Twitter is about. It often gets some great conversations going. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t be afraid to be silent. No one really cares if you don’t say anything, but it’s annoying to read people share things that aren’t interesting.
Jump into conversations sometimes. I don’t think you should get involved in every conversation, but sometimes it can be fun to jump in and say your two cents. Then jump back out when you’re done.
Find some great reading. When I feel like a distraction and want to read something useful or interesting, I’ll scan through my Twitter stream and find a few cool links to read. People share some really great stuff from the web on Twitter. However, as a warning, it can be overwhelming if you try to read everything. Again, it’s a river — go into the water when you feel like it, but get back out too — don’t try to consume the entire river.
Learn to be concise. What I really love about Twitter is its 140 character limit for tweets. Some people cheat by doing multiple tweets about the same thing, but that defeats the purpose of the limit. Instead, learn to say just the essential in one post (or two if you really need to). It forces you to choose, to edit, to simplify. I love that. I wish email had a limit.
Use it as a log. I forget where I read this idea, but one fitness blogger suggested using Twitter to help lose weight: post *everything* you eat on Twitter. It’s a great idea (I think it was Craig Ballantyne) because it hold you accountable, and you don’t want to post something that you shouldn’t have eaten. But Twitter could be used as a workout log, a travelogue, anything really.
Find someone to hire. Just now I posted on Twitter to find someone to redo the software for Guampedia.com in Drupal or Joomla. Got some great responses already! Whoever you need to find, Twitter should be able to help.
Reduce your inboxes. If you use Twitter regularly, you can probably reduce your need for RSS (my favorite blogs are on Twitter anyways), email (you can DM people), IM, news sites, and so on. It’s nice to consolidate, as long as you use it intelligently.
Create a Twitter personal assistant. Check out this guide for a pretty cool use of Twitter and associated services.

Just for fun: check out Twittervision 3D for an incredible global representation of tweets at they happen around the globe in real time.

What are your tips for using Twitter simply and funly? Share in the comments! Also feel free to follow me on Twitter.
—
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

This morning after our hill run my sister asked me about Twitter: “What’s Twitter all about? I don’t get it?”

But I decided to see what the fuss was all about, and did my Great Twitter Experiment. To my surprise, Twitter was actually fun, interesting, and useful — if used correctly.

I’ve also found that Twitter isn’t something you can explain, and it’s not something you can understand until you’ve used it for at least a few days. You have to use it to get it.

Today we’ll look at some different ways you can use Twitter without spending too much time doing it.

A Minimalist Approach

I’d wake up in the morning and try to read through all the tweets, or at least scan them. Then I’d try to keep up periodically throughout the day. It was stressful.

Then I learned the secret of Twitter: don’t try to keep up.

The answer turns out to be no.

Simple Ways to Use Twitter

If you follow this minimalist approach, you don’t have to spend a lot of time using Twitter to get a lot out of it, no matter what your goals are.

Here are some guidelines and ideas for using Twitter that I’ve found to be useful:

Don’t follow a lot of people. Some people follow thousands of people. Their incoming stream must be incredible — I’m sure they don’t even try to keep up with everything. Others might be even more minimalist than I am: they follow a dozen people or less. But then what’s interesting about that? You’re not getting very much out of Twitter if you only follow a few people. Your needs will be different than mine, but I’ve found that following a few dozen to a hundred people is ideal if you’re trying to keep things simple but still get a lot out of Twitter. I think I’m following about 60 right now. I add people now and then but also drop others if they tweet too often and I don’t get anything out of their tweets.
Don’t tweet too much. Some people are constantly tweeting. Personally, I don’t like to read that many every hour, so if they’re filling up my stream of incoming tweets, they’re wasting my time. I’ve found that once a day or a few times a day or even 10 times a day at the most is ideal for me — your usage will vary. But if you do it too much, you have to be using Twitter a lot, and to me that’s too much of a distraction and time drain. So I go on a few times a day (at most) and tweet only when I feel I have something interesting to say or ask.
Don’t be on Twitter all the time. Some people have it open all the time — and that’s fine if it works for you. Personally, I’ve found that if Twitter is open (or if Twitterific, my desktop Twitter program, is open) all the time, I have a hard time focusing on other work. So like I said, I close it most of the time and open it a few times a day to see what’s going on. Mainly when I want to take a break. I only open it for a few minutes at most.
Make announcements. I like to announce things on Twitter — it’s more effective than announcing things through email and less obtrusive than doing an entire post on my blog.
Ask questions. Sometimes I’ll need a solution or some ideas for something, and I’ll ask the question on Twitter — and immediately get a dozen great replies. Thank you Twitterers! One time I couldn’t order a notebook (Muji Chronotebook) online so I asked if anyone lived near a Muji store, in New York for instance — and one Twitterer actually went to the store and bought it for me, and mailed it to me! Btw, I love this notebook and use it daily now. Thanks Chris!
Take a poll. I’ve asked people how often they like to see posts on Zen Habits, things they want me to write about, whether I should do a Zen Habits post about the presidential election, and other similar poll questions, and have gotten some great feedback.
Tell people interesting things. If you have something going on in your life that’s really interesting, by all means, share it. That’s what Twitter is about. It often gets some great conversations going. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t be afraid to be silent. No one really cares if you don’t say anything, but it’s annoying to read people share things that aren’t interesting.
Jump into conversations sometimes. I don’t think you should get involved in every conversation, but sometimes it can be fun to jump in and say your two cents. Then jump back out when you’re done.
Find some great reading. When I feel like a distraction and want to read something useful or interesting, I’ll scan through my Twitter stream and find a few cool links to read. People share some really great stuff from the web on Twitter. However, as a warning, it can be overwhelming if you try to read everything. Again, it’s a river — go into the water when you feel like it, but get back out too — don’t try to consume the entire river.
Learn to be concise. What I really love about Twitter is its 140 character limit for tweets. Some people cheat by doing multiple tweets about the same thing, but that defeats the purpose of the limit. Instead, learn to say just the essential in one post (or two if you really need to). It forces you to choose, to edit, to simplify. I love that. I wish email had a limit.
Use it as a log. I forget where I read this idea, but one fitness blogger suggested using Twitter to help lose weight: post *everything* you eat on Twitter. It’s a great idea (I think it was Craig Ballantyne) because it hold you accountable, and you don’t want to post something that you shouldn’t have eaten. But Twitter could be used as a workout log, a travelogue, anything really.
Find someone to hire. Just now I posted on Twitter to find someone to redo the software for Guampedia.com in Drupal or Joomla. Got some great responses already! Whoever you need to find, Twitter should be able to help.
Reduce your inboxes. If you use Twitter regularly, you can probably reduce your need for RSS (my favorite blogs are on Twitter anyways), email (you can DM people), IM, news sites, and so on. It’s nice to consolidate, as long as you use it intelligently.
Create a Twitter personal assistant. Check out this guide for a pretty cool use of Twitter and associated services.

Just for fun: check out Twittervision 3D for an incredible global representation of tweets at they happen around the globe in real time.

Spewed into the world on 21 December 2008 in Productivity & Organization, Simplicity |
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Brilliant comments (74)

Evan Meagher Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:15 pm

Good tips. It’s really easy to get in over your head with Twitter. I’ve been somewhat addicted to it myself lately. Lots of free time on the internet during winter vacation.

Adam Sicinski @ IQ Matrix Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:18 pm

I absolutely agree. Twitter can be an overwhelming experience that devours our time and is actually a great tool for the Procrastinator sitting and waiting in all of us.

I enjoy using Twhirl.org as a means of keeping in touch with the information flooding through Twitter. However, I don’t keep the program on all day long, as it is no doubt a distraction that can lead to hours of time trickling down the drain.

In terms of my IQ Matrix Website, I mainly use it as a means of communicating updates and other pieces of small information and interesting links relevant to Mind Mapping, Life Coaching and Accelerated Learning. I have a Twitter plugin on the sidebar which keeps people posted about the latest news, product releases and other relevant information.

Overall, it’s a great tool, however it needs to be utilized in a sensible manner.

Dan Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:19 pm

I just started twitter this week. Great tips.

Jeff@MySuperChargedLife Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:22 pm

I highly recommend TweetDeck to help manage and get the most out of Twitter. I just discovered it recently and it has made all the difference for me.

You can follow me here. Send me a tweet!

Mike Power Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:45 pm

I second the TweetDeck recommendation. The group function is incredibly useful. I probably would have given up if I hadn’t moved over to using it.

Sara Avery Says:

December 21st, 2008, 19:47 pm

Great tips! I’ve been slowly coming to some of these conclusions on my own, but as I share Twitter with others, I’m going to send them straight here to cut down on the learning curve. Thanks!

Kelly Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:16 pm

Great ideas for “twittering” I dropped of off the Twitter map a few months back because I was spending far too much time trying to keep up. I like the idea of making announcements and just having a taste of what’s going on.

sadg Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:17 pm

If you are not logged in almost 24/7 and just peek in your spare time… isn’t it just web based IRC?

Christopher Papastefanou Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:31 pm

The river analogy was the key point for me.

Now I might actually try twitter!

Vern at AimforAwesome Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:33 pm

I got back on twitter after having it, killing it, and getting it twice. I’m at VerninThailand. I think this time I ‘get it’.

I’ve found some interesting links and people on there. I found friends of friends (twits of twitterers) lol, and found people close to me geographically here in Thailand that don’t blog much or at all - but twit all day long.

I’ve heard that if you mention a link you want to be found in Google that twitter gets spidered by Google. That’s important!

I knew about the Denver plane ‘crash’ from Twitter just moments after it happened as people love to twit the big news on there.

It’s really something to have, something to do, and something positive. I get it now. I follow ~350 people and it’s just about the right amount.

Great article Leo! Oh, and you may have inspired me to complete a marathon.

Slacker Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:34 pm

It’s crazy that I haven’t jumped into twitter yet I consider myself pretty “web 2.0″ savvy. Thanks for the tips and at least I have an approach on how to not let it take over my life. Less is more!

- Slacker
http://www.theslackermethod.com

Atul Karmarkar Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:43 pm

Nice tips, Leo. Agree with not following too many people, which can get overwhelming and difficult to keep up with. I follow around 58 myself.

Also agree with not tweeting too much. I’ve found it pretty irritating to see my stream cluttered with inane one to one chat msgs which I’d rather not see. Such people are better off using an IM !

To quickly add to your list:
a) Do not be compelled to follow / autofollow every single person that follows you. People do it to be nice, but I don’t think that’s necessary.

b) Stop pimping your own blog posts all the time. Set up a different account for this with a service like twitterfeed, allowing your personal account to remain personal.

Tweetdeck is indeed great to use and a powerful tool. Am not too sure about Twitter replacing or changing my RSS / other forms of conversation yet, at least for the time being… :)

carla Says:

December 21st, 2008, 20:55 pm

Another one is when you leave comments on other sites include your Twitter ID in the response. EVERY TIME!

londoncowgirl <– twitter id

HowToMakeMyBlog.com Says:

December 21st, 2008, 21:03 pm

Great article! I follow some of the same rules as you do, it is impossible to follow everything that people are tweeting about. But great for learning about new things, new blogs, new articles, and easy to come in touch with all kinds of people.

Just couple of days ago I sent a tweet asking if somebody could help me with my blog header design, in less than an hour I got some 4-5 designers offering their help, and a day after I had my design ready and up on my site. Cannot beat that…

Marko
http://www.howtomakemyblog.com

Leo Says:

December 21st, 2008, 21:14 pm

Thanks for the tips and comments everyone!

@sadg: There are some similarities with IRC but it’s less organized into group chat rooms. It’s more like walking into a huge party and joining various conversations or just listening to a lot of conversations … moving around the room … sometimes yelling at everyone to get their attention. As opposed to IRC, which would be a bunch of rooms you could enter, and the conversations would be more organized that way.

Annie Says:

December 21st, 2008, 21:28 pm

A river, a water cooler, a never-ending cocktail party.

I do disagree with your statement that no one wants to read things that “aren’t interesting.” Sharing the seemingly mundane things often make it easier to feel comfortable. Those are the things we tend to have in common, and many a fun conversation has developed from “uninteresting” tweets.

Sharing expertise, genuinely, freely, and without expectations, not only will gain you friends, but it can build business. Most of my clients over the past 18 months have been either twitter friends or referred to me by twitter friends, but I don’t market myself. It’s pretty amazing, really!

Annie (@banannie)

Milo Says:

December 21st, 2008, 21:37 pm

I lingered on twitter for a while but never understood its power until I read your post a few months ago about wanting to build an app to feed into twitter. I’ve found it is the perfect delivery method for things that I normally have to seek out a few times a day.

Example: I used to have two apps on my iphone. One for showing me daily quotes, the other for events that happened on that particular day in history. Now, I follow twitter.com/dailyhistory and twitter.com/tinybuddha. They post once a day and give me exactly what I was looking for.

For Xmas presents, instead of scanning websites a few times a day, I took dealnews.com and ebay rss feeds, signed up for twitterfeed.com and have them fed into my stream.

I completely ditched my news reader after getting my feeds down to their bare essentials and either signed up for websites’ twitter feeds or use twitterfeed to alert me when a new post is up. That’s how I found out about this post!

Needless to say, twitter has saved me a lot of time and effort and I’m so grateful to have it in my arsenal.

Milo Says:

December 21st, 2008, 21:40 pm

Forgot to give my username @dki.

I have Zen Fever! Says:

December 21st, 2008, 22:31 pm

Leo, Nice Twitter post. I am on Twitter also.

matt Says:

December 21st, 2008, 22:49 pm

An alternative, if you don’t like to be tuned in all the time, but want to stay in touch with the good stuff happening in your stream, is to use a service such as freemyfeed.com with your Twitter RSS feed (requires authentication) - I subscribe to this in Google Reader and the Twitterverse can go crazy all day and all night and I can go to Reader when I have time and quickly scan the stream for anything interesting going on. Here’s the URL to subscribe to:

http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline.rss?count=200

I add the “count=200″ to the end to make sure that Google grabs everything when it snags the feed.

I’m trying this as an experiment right now as I found myself addicted to watching the stream *all* the time. I find value in it, but not as a communicate with my peers sort of way, but rather a compliment to my existing news feeds.

Jesse Says:

December 21st, 2008, 23:12 pm

Thanks as always Leo! I signed up for a Twitter account weeks ago and just couldn’t figure out what the big deal was…I just wandered over, adjusted my account and found out that Thich Nhat Hanh is tweeting!

Jesse
slowingdown (twitter id)

Rebecca Says:

December 21st, 2008, 23:18 pm

Great tips…..
I have learned some great things from tweeters.
I really appreciate links to tools I didn’t know existed.
I’m trying to learn how to tweet effectively, as of now I have two twitter accounts.
One that I track my fitness accomplishments on that show up on my blog and the other is for personal stuff.
I only post on each once or twice a day and I appreciate others that do the same.

Sam Says:

December 21st, 2008, 23:21 pm

Some great points in here.

You do seem to go on and on about how you can just post a question, or a request on your twitter page, and people come flocking to give you books and drupal development.

While this might be the case for you, 99% of other people do not have the kind of exposure that you have so those ‘benifits’ of twitter just dont work in the real world.

Jon Says:

December 21st, 2008, 23:29 pm

This is super helpful. Thanks

Dan Says:

December 21st, 2008, 23:46 pm

Great post. The point about not trying to read every tweet is something I didn’t realize soon enough.

Regarding polling your Twitter followers, you might want to check out StrawPoll (http://www.strawpollnow.com). Anyone with a Twitter account can create a poll.

Jesse Hines Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 0:20 am

Great quotes from this post:

“Then I learned the secret of Twitter: don’t try to keep up.”

And:

“So what if I miss a ton of blog posts, news stories, and emails? Will my life fall apart?”

Since I stopped trying to read everything that everyone I follow Tweets, it’s much more manageable and enjoyable.

Like you, Leo, I jump in periodically when I want, see what’s up on my front page, respond or not, read links or not, try to throw my own interesting Tweet up there and get off.

Can’t fathom Tweeting and reading Tweets throughout an entire day–not productive.

Bamboo Forest - PunIntended Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 0:29 am

I agree with what you say about those that tweet too often. I won’t follow someone who tweets a zillion times a day. What’s the point of that?

I like when people tweet on occasion, that way I’m more able to follow them and read what they got to say. If someone tweets excessively, they hog my stream and I can’t see what others have to say.

More, with so many tweets, they can’t be that good.

Success Professor - Danny Gamache Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 0:39 am

Leo,

Thanks for the article. I love the minimalist approach that you suggest. I have found TweetDeck to be a big help in that.

For those that are new to Twitter I recently wrote: “10 Easy Steps to get Started in Twitter.” You can read it here:
http://successprofessor.ca/2008/12/11/10-easy-steps-to-get-started-with-twitter/

Amelia Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 1:07 am

I have heard a lot about twitter but have never gotten into it. I got lost in facebook there for a while so I didn’t want to get lost in twitter but I like your tips - and I’ve got my internet procrastination time under control so I’ve just decided to sign up now and have a look!

Glen Allsopp Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 3:18 am

I just had to Google to see if ‘Funly’ is a word, I’m still not to sure ;)

I always recommend to my clients that they should ask questions, it’s a great way to get in on the conversation and have people tweet links back to your profile

Great post Leo

Cheers,
Glen

Vincent Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 3:44 am

Sometime things can be pretty hectic over at Twitter due to over-tweeting by some users. Consuming all the information over at twitter will definitely waste our time.

Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

LifeMadeGreat | Juliet Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 3:57 am

Useful tips for “one day”. I’m afraid I’ve also been putting it off. I’m trying to get my boyfriend to focus on it, but I don’t seem to be having any luck!
I’ll forward this post to him. Maybe your words will persuade him ;)

Juliet

Trevor @ Limorefe Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 4:48 am

I’m afraid I’m like your sister, I’ve never “got it” when it comes to Twitter for personal use. Maybe it’s because none of my friends use it, and none of them are likely to use it because none of us use it!

Chris (from Lifestyle Project) Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 5:24 am

Leo,

These are great tips and this is certainly the way that I approach twitter! I like to think of my tweets as ‘adding value’ to the conversation and community of twitter.

A further tip I would suggest for those who use their twitter presence as an extension of their blog is to make sure that if you are away from twitter for an extended period (hours, days, weeks even - which is perfectly fine) then make sure your last tweet is an interesting one rather than just an @reply. People who look at your stream will probably only look at the last few tweets so it doesn’t matter so much when you last tweeted as long as it is something interesting.

Cheers,

Chris

P.S. My pleasure, glad you are enjoying the notebook!

Michael Flessas Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 5:33 am

Very good advice.

Regards,

Michael Flessas
Twitter ID > flessas

ReturnTheBook Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 6:44 am

Good Describe….

Leighton Cooke Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 8:08 am

Great post! The minimalist approach is the best on Twitter. By jumping in the stream I found your piece thanks to Darren’s tweet @problogger.

Scott Williams Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 8:18 am

Good thoughts… I also found you from @problogger

Leo Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 8:28 am

Thanks for the great comments everyone!

@Glen: “Funly” wasn’t a word … until now! :) There’s no law that says we can’t invent our own words.

Krishna Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 8:46 am

Jumping ‘in and out of the river’ definately works for me! It can be refreshing, but can turn cold if you stay in too long!

Jack Kennard Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 9:19 am

Yeah I maybe following to many but they all sound fairly interesting. I maybe not tweating enough when i travel.

@javajoba

Brian Wallace Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 10:07 am

Enjoyed your post, Leo. I’ve seen burnout too often in places like Twitter..people need to learn the lesson of Twitter being a river that you can get in and out of on your own terms. Very well put, looking forward to your future perspectives on Twitter.

ahmedzahid Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 12:08 pm

great read.
thanks.
i use my twitter as a diary to record and log my life.
to look back say 10 years from now.
hence brief and only if interesting to note.

Jacqueline Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 12:21 pm

Excellent post - I love the idea of Twitter as a river. I, like you, jump in and out. I don’t try to read the entire thing nor do I communicate my every feeling - just answer a few questions, announce updates on my blog, ask a few questions maybe - that is it - nice people and nice feedback. And from you - great advice.

Tom Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 12:34 pm

Great post, Leo, I use Twitter fairly regularly, and have gotten quick answers to many questions. I have it linked to my Facebook account as well, so as to save one less thing to update. I know a few people who link it to their blog, but they end up getting complaints about too many updates, so I’ve left it for now.

Just thought you’d also like to know, I use Tweetie to track Trends on Twitter, and your article (or at least the phrase Using Twitter Simply, which was always associated with a link to this) was one of the top trends when I checked Twitter this morning. Not now, but still, kind of neat to think your article made that big an impact on the Twitterverse. :)

Marshall | bondChristian Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 13:00 pm

This is an excellent guide for new twitter users. I’ve had trouble convincing people to join twitter and use it regularly because it’s difficult to explain the benefits. As you said, Leo, you have to jump in an experience the river to understand what it’s all about.

For others interested in learning more about twitter, check out TwiTip.com (I’m not affiliated or anything).

I’ve been able to use twitter more efficiently because of posts like this. Thanks.

- Marshall Jones, Jr.
(@MarshallJonesJr)

Pavan K Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 13:20 pm

Nice post. Some basic common sense that slips away from us when consumed by a lust for knowledge. Will bare this all in mind! Thanks.

Joseph Manna, Infusionsoft Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 13:54 pm

Excellent advice! Everyone who is on Twitter should give this a good read and follow it. Anyone who is fresh to Twitter, this is must-have info!

Keep it up. I really dig the blog’s theme, too.

~Joe

Get Togetha Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 15:48 pm

It’s all about keeping it in perspective. Social networking is cool but can become a major distracting in keeping you from getting things done.

It all depends on what your personal goals are. Do you twitter for mindless fun (which we all need) or do you twitter to network and possibly make connections…and still even then….it needs to be limited.

Barbara Rozgonyi Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 16:00 pm

Found this post via Steve Rubel’s lifestream. Thanks for sharing your perspectives, Leo.

“Tell people interesting things” stands out for me and is clue into why I follow the people I do.

I’ll add . . . check out the conversation in real time and set up RSS feeds for searches at http://search.twitter.com/.

@wiredprworks on twitter.com

CoralM Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 18:16 pm

I was just about to give up on Twitter as a total waste of time. Now I’ll give it another chance. Thanks for the tips!

James Campbell Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 20:53 pm

Great tips! I was #skeptical of twitter, but now I am an addict.

cohnsey Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 21:03 pm

I have been using tweet deck and it makes my twitter experience way more enjoyable. I can break my twitter feeds down from the general “river” to a bunch of different categories and get notified when I have messages in those categories. Have you tried tweet deck?

Eric Pederson Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 22:07 pm

I like a lot of your ideas but wonder if you’ve really come to peace with Twitter yet - you seem only to have your toe in.

Your analogy of Twitter as a river is beautiful, and to the point, however your first suggestion “Don’t follow a lot of people” suggests you haven’t embraced this metaphor. It doesn’t matter how many you follow, don’t worry about the volume of water; in fact the more you follow the more you are opening yourself up to nature (human though it may be).

As you say, one just can’t try to read it all, or be on Twitter all the time.

I also agree with the value of the 140 character limitation, it forces on to be concise, and if one wants to say something of meaning, it really forces one to strip everything extraneous from one’s thought, a great exercise.

Enjoy

Fit Bottomed Girl Says:

December 22nd, 2008, 23:03 pm

Thank you so much for this post! I sooo wasn’t getting twitter and how it could be useful, but I was thinking about it all the wrong way. :)

Ashna Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 2:40 am

Great tips. I just joined Twitter and am not sure why there is so much fuss about it. It doesnt seem all that to me, but I could be wrong !!

Travelwriter Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 7:08 am

Thanks for your lines. Especially the metapher with the river was very helpfully for me.

FrugalNYC Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 10:01 am

Leo, great post and I love the river analogy. I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon a few weeks ago and am enjoying what I find from it as well. I didn’t join initially for the same reasons you mentioed, it would be a time wasting activity. Now that I read your POV, I totally agree. I’m thinking about why I joined and what is the result I’m looking to obtain from it. I’m learned about other bloggers from twitter as well. It is a great tool if used properly.

My twitter account is listed on my blog if anyone is interested. I try to keep to the frugal and NYC themes in my tweets. Along with conversations with other bloggers.

David Symons Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 12:58 pm

Great tips! I especially like the analogy of how to use twitter as a river. It can be so easy to be overloaded with RSS feeds and the like, so it’s nice to have some simple steps to take to stay on top of it all.

etavitom Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 13:12 pm

great way to look at it. sometimes genius is simplicity…

it’s amazing that we’re back to square one with micro-blogging, but it’s kind of cool.

happy holidays leo

Zed Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 13:54 pm

I really enjoy using Monitter. I can see tweets from people within 20, 30, or more KMs from where I am, and I can put in three keywords. This is amazing … connecting to people who are talking about what I am thinking about, in real time, in my town.

Superglu Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 14:34 pm

I almost stopped reading this site when you said reading twitter became “stressful.” Seriously? I mean come on now. Really?

John’s going to the store…
Mary is studying for a test…
Susan is going out for a drink…
etc
etc
etc

Seriously? Really? I know Twitter goes deeper than that but it’s not meant for in depth analysis of another person’s life like blogging is. How could you possibly get stressful over reading someone else’s daily activities? Come on now.

Logan Leger Says:

December 23rd, 2008, 18:01 pm

Thanks for this post. It’s really a great guide. I find I used a lot of these things before I found this article, and now I feel I’m even more minimalist!

Andres rivera Says:

December 24th, 2008, 21:46 pm

i just sart to twitt yesterday and this text you made is great to be in the very begining of this. im journailst and would like to know if theres a way of link what i find interesting i twitterific

Atma Singh Says:

December 25th, 2008, 21:42 pm

Hi,

Great tips.

Joined Twitter recently but haven’t made the most of it.

Already have some ideas re: publicising my blog and keeping in ‘quality contact’ with people I care about.

Greg Huntoon Says:

December 26th, 2008, 2:02 am

Thanks for the article. There are some great tips in here, and One of the things I identify with most is that Twitter is not something you can really explain. You have to use it to fully understand how it works, and most importantly, how it works for you.

There are tons of different ways to experience Twitter, and a thousand different equations for success. None of them are the “right way”.

I am currently experimenting with a few different things to see how Twitter works with more/less followers, more/less @replies, and/or more/less updates. I was concerned that increasing my followers would mean that I would be losing my favorite Tweeters tweets in the stream, but that just hasn’t happened.

What I’m finding, in fact, is that I’m adding a lot more RSS feeds from new bloggers I love to read. I step in and out of the stream just the same as you do, and I rarely look back at the general stream. I do thumb through certain Tweeters’ streams, and sometimes back through some conversations here and there.

All in all, Twitter is what you make of it. Enjoy yourself, and make sure that you try to add to the stream…don’t just take from it.

Happy holidays!

Harry Haller Says:

December 26th, 2008, 2:52 am

“post *everything* you eat on Twitter. ”

Why would anyone following you want messages detailing what you eat? Do you want to read tweets when they eat, too? This seems inane.

Greg Huntoon Says:

December 26th, 2008, 3:56 am

Not sure how I missed the “post *everything* you eat on Twitter” part of the post. That more surely than anything else, will get you an unfollow from myself and a great many other Twitterers I know.

If I don’t have something to add of value or relevance, I have a hard time just posting nonsense. I may post a lot. In fact, I do post a lot. But 90% of my posts are replies and/or links.

Kathleen Gage Says:

December 30th, 2008, 1:33 am

Excellent post. As with any kind of social networking we do have to set limits. Otherwise we end up in the funny farm wondering why life is passing us by.

A tool I find very effective is http://www.tweetlater.com

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer

frank Says:

December 30th, 2008, 17:50 pm

This line says it all from my perspective:

“I don’t try to read everything I missed, and if I miss a lot of stuff, I’m OK with that.”

Twitter can be addicting, time consuming and useless depending on what you goals are for using the tool. At the end of the day we have to be able to step away from it and be OK with not “being in the know” all the time.

–
http://twitter.com/franswaa

Sandra Noble Says:

December 30th, 2008, 20:53 pm

I like the post because I don’t tweet often and I don’t follow many people. So it gives the casual tweeter a license to feel good.

But, would like to get more business from it.

And, have asked questions which no one responded to. So I guess I have the wrong followers.

Martin Wildam Says:

January 8th, 2009, 9:29 am

I also gave Twitter a try but even after reading your tips - Twitter let me think very much about all the “frameworks” known from software development realm. You can do everything and nothing with it. If I want to hire somebody, would be Twitter the right place? If I want to follow someone’s opinions - would I then look at Twitter or rather read the rss of his blog?

Paul Dodson Says:

January 10th, 2009, 12:52 pm

Thanks Leo, excellent post. I think I’m one of the few who has never really got Twitter. I’ve toyed with the idea of signing up for an account but have always seen Twitter as just another distraction. However, your article has lent a whole new perspective to its many applications.

I’m off now to sign up and stick a toe in my own twiver (that’s a twitter river).

Robin Says:

January 27th, 2009, 14:51 pm

I think an excellent way to overcome most all the problems mentioned here would be to have a simple “filter” application that You could apply to each person You are following.
For example: @applestories tweets a huge stream of posts about all things apple computing, many with highly useful links to technical info. The problem is that I am really only interested in their posts about iPhone. Reading through all their posts to find iPhone posts IS a huge waste of time and distracts from other individual tweets. Likewise a friend may post neighborhood info I want to see but if they start posting everything they eat I’d have to remove them fast! Why can’t we filter out the “diet” posts and keep the rest? I’m sure there must be some software or an application that can do this so if any of You knows which ones work well please post a link to it here as a reply.
Thanks!
~R.

ps I’m @RobinMerritt on Twitter

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