Have you ever noticed that many people never answer the @theirusername Tweets you send them? It occurred to me today that maybe they never think to look for them. A huge percentage (possibly 50-60%) of Twitter accounts are not interactive (i.e., they feed content but don’t actually talk to others on Twitter), but what about the rest?
Except for the people who have so many thousands of followers they can’t possibly answer them all, I hope that most Twitter users actually look for and answer @theirusername Tweets. I just passed 13,000 followers and I have no trouble answering all the @GrowMap tweets I get. The only ones I don’t answer are trying to sell me something – and I even answer some of those.
What do YOU think? Do you answer? Do you know for sure you see your Tweets? Please answer this poll (multiple answers are fine) – it only takes a minute and it will give us all insight into whether it is productive to @Tweet at others Twitter users or not.
NOTE: Anyone reading the responses to this poll should know that it will be skewed in favor of those who DO answer because my regular readers and Twitter followers are predominantly bloggers and effective users of Social Media including many Social Media influencers. This poll will NOT be representative of the general public or what those who manage business Twitter accounts do.
IMPORTANT: Twitter Search does not bring up all the Tweets that have your username in them. Click on the link for @yourusername provided by Twitter and compare what you see there to what you find when you do a search for your username without the @ in front of it. Doing both will show you more of the tweets that mention you.
Related articles
- Twitter: Increase Your Influence with Twitter Lists (growmap.com)
- How to Use TwitterFeed to Create a Consistent Twitter Presence (growmap.com)
- Better Twitter Retweets From Twitter Apps (growmap.com)
- Twitter How-to – Great Videos and Links to Tutorials for Beginners & Advanced Twitter Users (growmap.com)
- Exceptional Bloggers for #FollowFriday Link Roundup
Gail Gardner
I try and answer any one I can – the ones that aren’t spam anyway. I also keep an eye on my mentions as that can spark a conversation
I do that too..especially if too many tweet i can’t answer them all..i try too though
wny glass block windows would love you to read ..Glass Block Window Showers
Okay, I am pretty bad with Twitter. I for the most part just spam out my blog posts and ignore any conversation that is going on. I need to make a video about my transgressions and ignore the comments that it receives.
Braxton Miller would love you to read ..Aundrey Walker from the 2011 Army All American Bowl
Then it is time to change that.
It’s much nicer to your readers as well.
You can’t expect them to stay engaged if you are not.
I used to reply the @myusername tweets, but since I don’t use twitter anymore I of course don’t do that.
Danny would love you to read ..Black & Decker NPP2018 18-Volt Cordless Electric Pole Chain Saw
As for me, I see to it that I reply every tweets with @myusername. Even if that is something relevant or off the topic.
I check out the replies and the DM I have got
It really depends on the post where @myusername is used. When it comes from friends, yes I definitely answer them. Sometimes people just mention me @myusername even if I don’t really relate to what they are saying. These are the posts that I just ignore. 🙂
I’ve just discovered your site (I just posted a comment on your post about Garden Bloggers), and I’ve got to say, this stuff is really giving me a lot to think about. Twitter seems a bit mysterious to me: I’m just not sure how best to engage people on it for my business. Reading stuff like this post and these great comments you get makes me feel like I have some hope for figuring it all out.
Hi Michael and welcome,
Most of the posts here are mine; however, the garden post is a guest post written by a blogger I collaborate with on blogger outreach – a subject I specifically requested. Blog outreach is going to be huge going forward and the bloggers and businesses that use it first have the advantage.
What you want to do on Twitter is connect with influencers, related businesses, and potential buyers. One easy way to do that is to search for them on Twellow. I have a post on How to Use Twellow.
Most people start out broadcasting on Twitter but the value is in building relationships. I have a post scheduled here for tomorrow on who else to follow on Twitter. Also see my post on creating a consistent Twitter presence and How to Use Twitter Lists.
Eventually you may want to use a tool to manage Twitter more effectively. The easiest one to use is CoTweet and the most powerful and most used solution is Hootsuite. You can read comparisons of these in my post about Managing Twitter Accounts.
One thing about Twitter some don’t realize yet is that it is a way to connect with people who are often very difficult to reach any other way. Sometimes they are using Twitter themselves but you could never get them on the phone or find an email for them and other times someone you can find will introduce you.
The first thing you can do that will benefit you the most is to get your Local Search Directory listings. Upgrade the ones on the Most Important Local Search Directories and encourage your current customers to write reviews for you. (Read the Terms of Service on the sites first as some prohibit certain kinds of incentives.)
Read the Benefits of Online Reviews. My post encouraging people to Support Small Businesses includes links to where and how to write reviews.
I can see this comment should be a post or maybe a series of posts and I’m not nearly done yet. Even though it appears that you don’t have a blog yet, you can use CommentLuv to promote your business and build incoming links.
First you need to know what incoming links to build. Read my Building Traffic post for a step-by-step how-to including free tools to use for keyword research and tracking your incoming links.
Most people select keyword phrases that are either too broad or too specific when they first do this so get some feedback. You can run them by me if you like because getting this right is essential to your success.
See my posts on How CommentLuv Works and how to set up default anchor text links on CommentLuv. You will need an RSS feed to use; I can provide one if you need one.
Once you’re set up on CommentLuv you can use the CommentLuv search engine to locate blogs related to your business. The comments you leave create relationships with that business and their readers and the CommentLuv link and what you write attracts people to your site.
Read How CommentLuv Grows Businesses and Blogs for tips on this. Be sure to read blogger’s commenting policies and make your comments about their post. Let the CommentLuv link do your self-promotion for you.
Watch for KeywordLuv enabled blogs like this one. I see you understood How KeywordLuv Works but you may want to read my post about it because it includes a list of business-friendly dofollow blogs that have both CommentLuv and KeywordLuv. That gives you two quality links per comment.
Eventually you will want to be able to blog yourself. You can install a blog on your own domain or let someone else deal with the technical overhead and upkeep and join a group blog and/or write guest posts you get published on established blogs instead.
I am encouraging bloggers to create geo-targeted niche blogs to benefit small businesses local to them or selling online in their niches.
2011 will be the year of blog outreach where bloggers provide what small businesses so desperately need: more visibility to their potential buyers. One blog I recommend you connect with is Good Millwork. They have been blogging and using Social Media and are well on their way to implementing what small businesses are going to need to do.
growmap would love you to read ..Best of GrowMap – Our Most Important Posts All in One Place
You need an option for “No.. I still don’t use Twitter” — LOL! I have one but I never use it. I never understood why it go so popular. It’s like second-rate texting for the Internet…
Hi Zac,
You’re right. I know that some don’t yet see why a Twitter account is essential. The difference is you text someone you already know; you use Twitter to connect with those you don’t know yet and to share what is important with those in a position to influence others for your – and the greater – good.
With Twitter I can often reach a CEO or adecision maker I could not usually reach by phone or email (or get an introduction to one through someone who works for or knows them).
I can easily connect influencers I know with businesses in their niche. I can share a quick link or recommendation with one person and have it seen by thousands of others – and for me about 90 of those others will click that link to see what it is about. (How many depends on your following, who follows you, how relevant what you shared is to your followers and how compelling what the Tweet said was.)
If you have a Twitter account and your site is down I can let you know. (One blogging friend just today got her site up right away because I noticed it was down; if I hadn’t tweeted she might not have known for much longer.)
If Michael from Pavers had used a Twitter account when he left the comment just above yours I could let him know I left him a comprehensive plan for promoting his business online. If he subscribed to comments he may find it; if he didn’t he may never benefit from it – but others will.
Did you know you can register your site to use CommentLuv even if you don’t have a blog or have it installed in your blog? The links to how to do that are in my reply to Michael. Read WHY you want to do this in the post I’ll feature in CommentLuv.
growmap would love you to read ..How CommentLuv Grows Businesses and Blogs
I have a new account in twitter and am not used to with twitter. I think I need some time and then I’ll be able to manage it.
Shailender would love you to read ..Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from India Darshan
Welcome Shailender,
The links in my post on How to User Twitter may benefit you. If you have any questions ask any time. Connect with me on Twitter and I and my friends will jump in with answers.
growmap would love you to read ..Building Traffic Using Anchor Text
I try to answer all of my tweets that have my user name. I didn’t know how for 6 months until I actually took the time to learn about the many functions of Twitter. Knowledge is power
Thomas would love you to read ..Make 2011 YOUR Best Year Ever
I voted, and I’m in the “I do my best to answer ALL my @ Tweets except get rich quick spam” camp. It’s always interesting to see how other people do things, and that’s what posts/polls like this are great for.
Thanks, Gail!
Hi Tristan,
The main reason I did this poll is that I wanted to see how many ignore their @UserName tweets so we would know whether it was worth our time to direct tweets to specific people. The results are promising so I will spend more time sending @UserName tweets to people I don’t have relationships with yet.
I recognize that this poll may be not be accurate for that purpose because most people probably primarily receive @ Tweets from people they know and the people I know are far more knowledegable about how to use Twitter than the general public or even supposed Social Media experts are.
growmap would love you to read ..Exceptional Bloggers for FollowFriday Link Roundup
I only respond to personal @ messages. Many times these ‘thanks for following’ @this @that messages look like automatically generated messages and are unlikely to be ever read by a real person.
Not really good with Twitter marketing, but I do answer all @mentions 🙂 Just voted and made a review of this poll on stumbleupon.
I still wonder how your posts get a lot of views on stumbleupon!
Hi Gail,
First I want to say Happy New Year to you and best wishes for a very prosperous 2011! I woke up this morning thinking “I’ve got to visit Gail’s blog today”, so here I am. Thanks so much for this post and for everything you do 🙂
You bring up several great points but one that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the various stages of knowledge and participation people have on Twitter. We bloggers tend to be more savvy in some areas, yet because of our expertise, we tend to be lacking in others. What I mean by that is; we tend to forget most of our followers are not up to speed on the ever-changing landscape of Twitter.
For example, I use HootSuite to monitor mentions and I’m sure most bloggers or more advanced Twitterer use HootSuite, Tweetdeck or some other tool that shows all @mentions in a column. Or so we think… I found that you need to add an alert and/or use additional search tools in order to find @mentions that do NOT show up on HootSuite. Right now, I’m getting alerts from Social Mentions (I advise everyone to give the site a try) which tracks Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, FriendFeed and some others. When I get these daily alerts I’m finding @mentions that are missing from HootSuite!
Recently, our friend Louis Gray did a post about his Top 10 tools for 2011 and he mentioned Ice Rocket as one of them. I was very skeptical because I’ve used it before and at the time I thought it was useless. Well what do ya know – I gave Ice Rocket a try and found even more mentions on Ice Rocket that I’d missed on the other 2.
At this point, I’ve come to realize that due to the real-time nature of Twitter and the massive amount of information flowing through the web, there is no one perfect tool for Twitter search.
We just have to do the best we can to interact and respond – when appropriate – to mentions.
I must admit that I love your strategy of taking things a step further than just simply replying, but by going to the persons site and sharing some of their content. If I recall correctly, when I look at my Klout scores – you are one of the top influencers that is helping to boost my Klout, and I’m so very appreciative of your retweets and Stumbles.
I started using StumbleUpon more frequently too, and I bookmarked your Twitter poll just now. Hopefully it will get some well deserved attention over there.
Thanks Gail! Talk to you soon.
Hi Ileane,
What a wonderful comment to kick off the New Year! Thank you for the tip on Ice Rocket and sharing that you use Social Mention. In 2011 I see us all collaborating and sharing even more than we have in the past. No reason to reinvent the wheel when someone we know has already researched something.
I’m glad I’m having an influence on your Klout score and will continue to send you traffic from multiple sources. I’m sure we’ll do much more together in the coming year.
growmap would love you to read ..Exceptional Bloggers for FollowFriday Link Roundup
One of the main issues I see is with the senders, not receivers.
Very rarely can you send something once and always expect a response; they may never even see it if they’re busy.
I always answer mine.
Dennis Edell would love you to read ..Category- Web Income Experiments
I use Hootsuite also so I see all my @ replies and answer them except follow fridays and spammers
I try to respond to everyone who tweets my @username since that starts convo and helps develop relationships. I also check my retweets file on twitter so I can send thank yous to those who just hit the retweet button. I double check with SocialOomph to make sure I’ve covered everybody as best as possible.
I usually answer to those tweets that are questions or remarks.
I tend not answer those that are thank you, or #FF. Of course there are exception but not to many.
Alex would love you to read ..Sarituri extreme
That’s it for me as well though I tend to ‘reward’ those who tweet me or retweet me more frequently.
Ivan
Thanks for your input Alex, Ivan,
I usually reward Tweets and #FF mentions by RTing or even writing a StumbleUpon review and sharing a post on Facebook, FriendFeed and Twitter but I don’t usually send thank yous.
Lately I’ve realized that it is best to connect so instead of just sharing their best content I like to send a personal message and include a comment and link about something they’ve written or shared. Doing that will also increase your Klout numbers.
I often RT the #FF Tweets if they are well-chosen because the people who get recommended are usually those who “get it” – who use Twitter effectively and reciprocate what we do for them.
There are still an amazing number of Twitter users in business who seem oblivious to their influencers. Here’s to hoping the light goes on for them in 2011.
growmap would love you to read ..Tip for Increasing Your Facebook Klout
Yep definitely try to reply to most of my @ replies and mentions. I love it when people reply to me even when I don’t know them so why not treat others as we like to be treated ourselves? And relationships are surely the basis of social networks like twitter anyway rather than just talking to the blank space??
Cathy
I use Hootsuite so I can see very clearly if someone mentions me, and I answer everyone, apart as you say messages which are clearly meant to be spam.
I think it’s very important to do so, and I agree with you on this, otherwise you will just use a single channel of a bi-directional form of communication, and that would kinds defeat its whole purpose.
Hi Gabriele,
Yes, it is very important to interact with those who offer of their time to mention us. It amazes me how many ignore those who have shown by works that they are willing to share.
growmap would love you to read ..Best of GrowMap – Our Most Important Posts All in One Place
I answered all, although sometimes difficult to find their @ username.
Hi Disty,
Oh – you mean if they RTed you? Search using Topsy or FeelTipTop Twitter Search.
Use your username as the search or the Tweet you see that doesn’t have a username on it.
growmap would love you to read ..Building Traffic Using Anchor Text
I find tweet deck does a great job of showing me all the mentions and DM’s. It’s a snap to catch up and reply…
Daniel Rose would love you to read ..Executive Development- What is it
I answer most of the times if I am free, but when I am a little busy I just ignore it. I think it is a good gesture to answer the @mentions and ya I have the habit to check @mention but not my DMs.
Shiva would love you to read ..Huge List of 400 Dofollow CommentLuv Blogs
That’s a good point. I’ve not noticed that before as i’m more focused on facebook now. I’ll try that.
Thanks and happy new year!!!
Alexis would love you to read ..Affiliate Marketing Business- A Modern Day Phenomenon
Hi Alexis,
Both Facebook and Twitter are going to be the Social Networking sites for the masses so we pretty much have to get productive on those two. Beyond that I’m hopeful a new Social Network that is in the works becomes my favorite. What they are building is awesome. I’ll share more when they go into alpha launch.
Wow your Twitter background jumps out on us! (I always make sure I’m following everyone who comments here.) I would love to talk to you about what you do ayc. Do you use Skype? I’m GrowMap there.
Read the post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply and make sure you understand about KeywordLuv – you should be using your comments here to gain dofollow links for your business.
growmap would love you to read ..DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community
Hi Gail
I check my DM & my @username soon as I go on Twitter. Although I don’t have your number of followers it is easy to miss some if just scroll down.
Feel it is important to acknowledge those who interact with me, just as I would acknowledge those who visit my home 🙂
Just as I answer all comments on my blog. I don’t understand people who ignore those who want to interact with them. That’s an opportunity to build community and I love it.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia would love you to read ..At Lavenderuses Safety First Means…
Hi Patricia,
I stay on top of @GrowMap Tweets but DMs are another story. I really have to figure out how to use SocialToo to block auto-DMs so I only see those that are manually created. I wish there were a way to tell them apart.
Many people do not want to share their time as it is the most valuable thing we have. That is why I believe we will always see many who do not choose to interact. Those who do will become the most influential over time.
growmap would love you to read ..Support Small Businesses