Twitter Experience Like ER-Forum Experience?

[TromboneAl]

As the launch of my next book approaches, I'm ramping up my gentle, non-spammy twitter marketing.

Here on the ER Forum, I've gotten to know people and v.v. I get a lot of good advice and share some of my stuff. It's a real community.

Some people report a similar feeling for twitter. I must be doing it wrong, because for me, it's nothing like the experience here. The only person I've connected with is an elderly Norwegian woman living in Canada.

If your twitter experience is anything like the ER Forum experience, could you explain how it works for you?

 

[Big_Hitter]

what's twitter?

 

[FIREd]

How can you achieve meaningful discussions while keeping it under 140 characters? Without meaningful discussions, I don't think you can really have a true community.

 

[TromboneAl]

Good point. I learned that the 140 char restriction is related to a technical restriction when twitter was started, and never intended for

Oops--ran out of characters.

 

[HFWR]

How can you achieve meaningful discussions while keeping it under 140 characters? Without meaningful discussions, I don't think you can really have a true community.

That's apparently plenty for internet memes though...

 

[timo2]

I was on twitter right after it very first started, but after a year or so I couldn't think of anybody to follow and the only people besides relatives that wanted to follow me were accounts with photos of very attractive Russian women. My scam alert went off and I cancelled my account. Of course since then twitter became the big place for marketing entertainment personalities, companies, and politicians. But I have never signed back up.

 

[M Paquette]

How can you achieve meaningful discussions while keeping it under 140 characters? Without meaningful discussions, I don't think you can really have a true community.

We decide matters of global and national import based on tweet-sized buzzphrases and 30 second sound bites. What does "community" or "meaningful discussions" have to do with anything?

 

[jimbee]

Good point. I learned that the 140 char restriction is related to a technical restriction when twitter was started, and never intended for

Oops--ran out of characters.

I think the limit is because Twitter messaging was originally based on Short Message Service.
Short Message Service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[walkinwood]

I think the difference is that you're trying to create a community around you (or your book) on twitter, while at er.org, you're participating in a community that's already well established - and has many many people sharing the same goal. What you're trying to accomplish is obviously much harder and will take time.

A writer friend of mine seems to have found her "community" on twitter, but it started offline - a group of writers meet to write together, discuss writing & the business. This group formed the core of her original followers (and people she followed) and slowly grew from there. While not large, she gets a lot of encouragement from them. She also actively participates in the "communities" of her followers.

 

[TromboneAl]

Here's what I've learned: You can filter the tweets by subscribing to lists. So for example you could find a list via Google, like this:

site:twitter.com inurl:lists early-retirement

When you choose a list, you will see tweets only from people listed on that list. Or you could create a list with only 30 of your friends, for example. Thus, you could have a group conversation.

 

[FUEGO]

T-Al, I use twitter as part of my blog's social media. I like facebook much better. The 140 character limit is a little restrictive and I feel like I don't get the notifications all the time.

That being said, check into social media management tools like hootsuite, ifttt, and buffer. You can automate some stuff and have a social media presence without a lot of effort.