Keeping Up With Twitter

[yuri21]

Hmmm... can I ask a quick question? For all those people who get at least 10 to 20 new followers per day, how do you keep up with it? I think I'm going to drop returning people's PMs and just... continue tweeting a couple times per day. (Using Seesmic here.) Because most of my PMs are nothing but soliciting! And I'm tiring of sounding like a spam bot, repeating the same old message.

Edit: Oops! Should've started a new topic. Thanks, mods.

[Lynn Terry]

I simply ignore solicitations or spammy DM's (Direct Messages).

I am on Twitter for the connections & conversations, and so that's all I focus on there. Mainly my real DMs (not automated junk) and my Replies.

[yuri21]

Oooh... so most of them are Automated PMs(I didn't even know you could do that)? But you just add those people anyways? (If not, it's Twitter list cleaning time! )

Thanks 'cos I've been reading some etiquette guides for Twitter and this got me a little worried.

And how does one tell apart real DMs from Automated PMs anyways?

[Lynn Terry]

Some of them are, yes - I just ignore those. It's some program they're using to send you an "auto welcome message" when you follow them. So you don't know who uses it until after you chose to follow them.

I don't worry about it, just ignore them and keep tweeting.

As for Twitter Etiquette... you can only worry about yours, not theirs.

[yuri21]

Oh, so can you drop those people with an automated program? 'Cos it's irritating, annoying and my list is getting flooded! :O

So far, I've chosen to not follow people with private tweets(unless I know them) and with tweets that're too heavy on proselyting.

My Twitter Etiquette: been brushing up on it. Sometimes, I violate the rules but I'm getting better.

[drmani]

Oh, so can you drop those people with an automated program? ...
My Twitter Etiquette: been brushing up on it. Sometimes, I violate the rules but I'm getting better.

The nicest thing (imho) about Twitter is that there is only one "rule"... and it's this:

"There are NO rules on Twitter"

It's the ULTIMATE permission-based medium. Anyone can choose to follow or unfollow you depending on what you do. And that privilege is yours, too, with regard to "them".

Realizing that early helped me enjoy Twitter more!

All success
Dr.Mani
(@drmani on Twitter)

[nar321]

You can now create lists on Twitter. Which should make it even easier to only keep up with those that you want to.

You can unfollow anybody at any time for any reason or even no reason. Twitter doesn't care no way or another. There is even a Spam reporting feature on Twitter http://twitter.com/spam (check it out before you need it as they have modified the procedure several times). You can also block twitters(or as they are sometimes called tweeps or even peeps)

[balsimon]

Twitter recently introduced a function called "lists" that lets you limit conversations to only those people you follow who you want on the list.

Additionally, you can make the list private (only you can see who is on the list and what they're saying) or public, where everyone can see what's going on there. You control the membership to the list in either case, though.

I haven't fully explored it, but it looks like an intelligent move in twitterdom.

- Bal

[torontocarol]

I don't necessarily answer when people first follow me. I just try to tweet and retweet when I can and answer questions when I can.

[DeirdreJ]

I am very picky about who I am following. I know it seems time consuming but I always check out their info/site/etc before I follow back. So many people are using AUTO DM software these days and it is such a turn off when I get a spammy DM. Unless I truly believe their tweets will benefit what I am doing or my interests, I don't follow back. That may seem snobby but everyone uses Twitter differently and I like to keep my stream very focused.

@deirdre_j