Three Pitfalls of Networking with Twitter
- SPAMALOT
The biggest pet peeve I have with twitter is that you get hit with all kinds of messages that are probably not the most appropriate. I go onto my account four or five times a day with the sole purpose of deleting bogus accounts and reporting spammers for spamming me. Some days I wonder if it’s really worth it to engage in this medium. - DO I NEED TO SPAM TOO?
With over 1500 followers and over 1600 that I’m following my feed is always buzzing. Making it hard to keep up with what I want to keep up with. It also forces me to feel that I need to post my blogs several times a day. I know this has cost me some followers who follow relatively few people. However, the more I tweet, the more hits I do get. - 140 CHARACTER COMMUNITY
My biggest concern with building a community that’s based on 140 characters, is that it seems to foster shallow community. Things that are worth talking about often require more letters, hence more posts. People can misread a post or only get half the story and not follow the rest of what you are trying to communicate. I prefer deeper conversations that are available on networking sites like Facebook.
Three Reasons to Tweet
- PITHY
Twitter has made me become more frugal with my words. My entire academic career has been about making the most words to say the same exact stuff I could say with half the words. I’ve learned through twitter and my latest writing projects that editors and publishers want word economy. That is say what you mean to say quickly. Get in, Get out. It helps the customer track what you are saying and helps you be clear. - NETWORKING
The benefit of twitter is that it is a network that has the capacity to expand rather quickly. While you do pick up some junk along the way, having a public profile and posting about stuff that matters to you draws the attention of those who have like thoughts and passions that you have. - COMMUNITY
Twitter enables you to find people that you wouldn’t normally come in contact with. (And I’m not just talking about unsolicited pornstar invites). Through twitter I have met several great youth ministry minds and have developed some friendships that lead to great friends at conferences and great mentoring relationships. Everyone has something to add to community. With twitter, your community expands, and in youth ministry that is a good thing.
What is the biggest benefit or pain about Twitter for you?
Heyjustinherman says
Great thoughts…
I fall on the pro side. But the con side has bitten me before for sure.
Matthew Murphy says
Thanks for your Reply Justin. Appreciate that you see both sides of it. Not always sure how much I should do on either side. and when i’m just being a twittool.
seventy8Productions says
I actually wrote a list of 50 reasons to unfollow someone on Twitter that should be going live at churchm.ag within the next week. All three reasons you put were on that list. I would add to the list of positive reasons is that you will find great resources (even outside of networking) that can bring up great things for your ministry or business.
Thanks for the great article!
kolby milton says
Great post Matthew. Is it spam? or is it delivering the article multiple times in multiple ways? I like using a program to auto post. For every article I will re-post it 3 times through out the week. I don’t do this to annoy people, instead to get my content into youth workers hands. I recently read that each tweet is only relevant for about 15 minutes! Talk about trying to be specific with your tweets and the times you send them out.