I’ve always been a big fan of Twitter. It’s a social network that is quick and immediate. Allowing conversation to flow naturally, in any direction, with people finding each other with similar interests (for instance – book lovers, cake adorers and health fans) with the easy ability for others to jump into ongoing chats with ease.
I have become real-life friends with people where conversations originally started on Twitter a few years ago. We started talking on Twitter and have since met at festivals and become true friends.
The problem I’ve found over the past year is that I’ve found it more and more difficult to even get into a conversation when I’ve logged into Twitter. All I’ve found is a timeline of Retweets and promotion.
Yes, I do retweet friends and people I’m following, tweets at times, it’s called sharing the love. I also share tweets that I find interesting or that I think my followers might find interesting, but there’s more to Twitter than that. I need to find the art of conversation again.
So, with that in mind, last week, I started a mini-movement of my own to #BringSocialBack to Twitter and created a Twitter list, asking who was fed up of Twitter being filled with RTs and promo and who wanted to bring the social back. I was amazed by the feedback. By how many people were fed up and how many people wanted to talk.
Since I created the list – I think it was Wednesday – I don’t think I’ve stopped talking. It has been wonderful. There are over 50 people on the Bringing Social Back, list, including people who I’m not following and they’re not following me. But, what happens is, if you’re on the list is, you subscribe to the list and then check the list through the day and it’s like its own Twitter stream. You see all your fellow conversationalists. Those people you know want to talk, those people who won’t mind you jumping into their ongoing conversations. People who you can have conversations with. People who will be trying harder not to just retweet and trying to lower their own promotions.
Yes, promotion may still happen, but social media is about being social. If you are constantly telling people about your work people are likely to zone out, but if you are just you then people will engage with you and are more likely to listen once in a while when you do have something promotional to tell them.
Find me on Twitter at @RebeccaJBradley if you want to #BringSocialBack.
Do you think Twitter has changed over the past year or so? Are you fed up of its lack of personality recently? Do you think you can change your little corner of it?
(Sorry, my laptop wouldn’t upload the image file this morning.)
I recently unfollowed quite a few people who only RT’d or promoted their own books. Every so often, I’ll scroll down my list and engage with the first person who has written an original non-sales Tweet – and I tell them they’re the first I’ve seen that day. They’re usually pleased to know it.
That’s a lovely thing to do Annalisa. And I’m not surprised that the Tweeter is pleased to hear that from you. I do miss the old Twitter that I used to interact with.
I couldn’t agree more, Rebecca, about the beauty of the ‘social’ part of Twitter. Yes, I retweet things. But I also enjoy the social interaction. And with so much promotion, it’s really hard to keep a firm grip on that.
I do also retweet things. Things that I think some of my followers might find interesting, or I share the love by retweeting some things of people I follow who share my own tweets. But I also tweet my own comments and want to get into conversations. But it seems that people are too busy for Twitter lately. They only have time to pop on and do a couple of retweets. It’s a shame because I miss the chats of the old Twitter. It was where I met a lot of the people I’m now friends with.
I agree! I’m just as guilty of the retweets, but I would like to see more conversations. They are so hard to find anymore.
I think there is a place for the retweets, but maybe we can spread them out a bit. Save some for later in the day if it feels like they’re all going to go out at once? But yes, conversations are really difficult to find lately. It’s sad.
Hi Rebecca,
this is really interesting and well said. I also like the social side of Twitter too, and enjoy reading about what people have to say. But I’m also guilty of promoting my work, particularly around book launch day. Sometimes people thank me for sharing my book. I guess it’s finding a balance of what works without annoying people. I’ve been tracking my links and I’ve had almost five thousand clicks on one of my Amazon books which launched just a couple of weeks ago (it went on pre-order the month before). This link was used solely on FB and Twitter so it’s telling me that although it may not all convert to sales, people are interested in the posts. I’ll certainly make a more conscious effort in the future though. There’s nothing more annoying than a solid wall of spam.
I think you are a unique case though Caroline and I’m not sure we can use your stats as an average on how Twitter helps with sales because you have had an incredible publisher launching your career and now a second incredible publisher. Both of whom are very internet aware, but the first, was so on the ball with getting the internet world, bloggers and tweeters involved with your career that you are in your own little book bubble. I’m not disrespecting that, your great books, mixed with their savvy… I’m just saying, you are not your average tweeter. But, you are saying that Twitter is selling books for you. You’re using it to sell books. I would love my followers to buy my books, but I think my best way is to be more sociable. I don’t know, I just feel if I started tweeting more about my books, I would come across as spammy.
Wow, what a great idea! I’ve never been able to “get” Twitter because my experience has always been limited to RTs or promo it seems. I’ve never managed to join in many conversations. But I’ve always wanted to keep trying with it because I like the possibilities.
I’m going to join your list and give this a try. Thanks for starting this and for sharing!
Thanks Julie. I”ve always loved Twitter and have made some really valuable friends through using it. It never used to be as spammy as it is now. The spammy activity has definitely increased. Hopefully if we use this list we can drown some of it out 🙂
I’ll give this a go, Rebecca! Over the last few months (maybe a year?) I’ve been trying to remember to intersperse conversation openers into my tweets (once I’ve found something I think someone other than me will be interested in!!), but found so little interaction that I became disheartened. I, too, enjoy the retweets, especially if they’re uplifting or inspirational – or just beautiful images! – and of course do mention our own work sometimes; but the conversation does seem to have been lost.
So – off to Hootsuite to set a stream for your hashtag!
I’ve created a list as well which you need to subscribe to so you can follow your fellow conversationalists. It has been difficult to find those conversations over the past year or so and I hope we can start to find that again 🙂
I’ve only really engaged with Twitter in the past year, so I’ve only ever known it as it is. I did join Twitter years ago though, but as none of my friends did, I was basically Tweeting in the dark. I still feel like that now when I post anything personal. People only seem to respond to book related tweets, so I still feel like ‘I’ don’t exist as me, but only as a reviewer/blogger.
That feeling also makes it hard though to join in with conversations as it’s hard not to feel like an interloper. I guess practice makes perfect – either that or I just keep tweeting into the dark 🙂
Jumping in to conversations is fine. Honestly. But yes, if you’ve only joined Twitter in the past year then you won’t have known it before it got as spammy as it has. Hopefully with the new list, we can at least talk to people who feel the same way – if old habits don’t kick back in. It’s hard to not let them. But, I have made some great friends on Twitter and I’d love to feel as comfortable on Twitter as I did in the older days. And for you to as well.
Totally agree Rebecca
It’s such a shame isn’t it?
It’s a good idea and I think I’m going to do this, I’m always looking for those who I know engage and it’s often difficult to find them in the flow of noise!