YOU’VE LANDED ON PART IV OF MY TWITTER TIPS. SEE A LIST OF PREVIOUS TWITTER POSTS.
I love Twitter. And I’m big on proper manners. With that said, I am focusing my fourth Twitter tips post on the constant thanking of people on Twitter. In my opinion, our good manners have gone too far, and we all suffer for it.
Not sure what I’m talking about? When I log onto Twitter lately, this is what I see:
Thanks to @____, @_____, @______ for the follows!
Grateful for RTs from @ ______, @______, @_______!
Hugs for blog visits and comments @_____, @_____, @______!
Muchas Gracias for the #WW @____, @_____, @______, @_____!
Right back at you for the #FF @____, @_____, @______, @_____!
Appreciated your congrats today @____, @_____, @______, @_____!
Looks like a whole lot of nothing, doesn’t it? Call me a cynic, but seeing those messages as regular tweets rather than @replies where your entire following wouldn’t have to see them strikes me as suspiciously self-serving. (If you don’t know the difference between a regular tweet and an @reply, I explain it here.) If the goal of your tweet is to thank the people you’re listing, then why do ALL of your followers need to see it? Written as I’ve shown above, I can’t help but “hear” the following rather than thanks: Read my blog! RT me! Congratulate me! Me, Me, Me.
Expressing our gratitude as @replies helps our crisis a bit, but we’re still spending tremendous amounts of time thanking people and reading about other people getting thanked, which gets at the deeper issue. How much thanking is necessary on Twitter in the first place? Where is the line between appreciation and absolute overkill? Can we come to an agreement on how to demonstrate our gratitude?
LET’S ANALYZE EACH AREA OF CONCERN:
Thanking New Followers: This one is easy. If you follow the person back, that’s an inherent “thank you.” If you don’t follow the person back, I don’t think writing “thanks for the follow @_____” does much to compensate. Follow back (if you want to) OR leave well enough alone. Side note: NO MATTER WHAT, do NOT write direct messages thanking people for the follow. A private message saying: “Thanks for the follow. Check out my [novel, blog, tweets]” is an excellent example of disingenuous gratitude. When you truly interact with people on Twitter through their tweets, they WILL likely check out your tweets, blog, etc.
Thanking for Blog Visits: Respond to comments on your blog, or IF you can, try to visit the blogs of the people who comment. A visit to another person’s blog is FAR more useful to a blogger than your “thank you” tweet about YOU and YOUR blog. No matter what, I see no reason to bring this kind of business to Twitter. If you can’t stop yourself from letting people know you’ve answered their comments or appreciated their visits (I realize visiting all the blogs of the people who read yours is a lot to ask), consider an @reply instead of a regular tweet.
Thanking for ReTweets: I propose this: If you and other Tweeters regularly RT each other, then perhaps you can save yourselves some time and NOT thank each other on top of it all. The back and forth RTing, no matter how intermittent, serves as a more useful, “thank you” than a “thank you” tweet. As for thanking in general for RTs, I urge people to wait until the end of the day or the next day, then write one or two tweets (as an @reply) listing those thank yous.
Thanking people for congratulating you, for coming to your event, for helping to promote you in any way: Reread last sentence of the RT category. That advice applies here too.
Thanking for a #WW & #FF: I saved the most complicated one for last. Whether or not to write #WWs and #FFs (Writer Wednesday and Follow Friday) is a separate issue. Personally, I believe the practice has lost its usefulness. Unless you compose witty and gracious ones to individual people in the tradition of author @Jenna_Blum, then those tweets read like this: “Blah, Blah, Blah.” (Cue voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher.) I have a few followers who include me in weekly #WWs/#FFs, but don’t interact with me AT ALL the rest of the time. I’m 99% sure they see none of my tweets, and their #WWs and #FFs are automated. Frankly, I resent having to spend even a second seeing those automated tweets in my @mention page.
If you’re going to thank someone for the #WW/#FF, do not RT the whole list. I’m begging you. Re-sending those long lists of random names clogs up the Twitter stream, forcing many of your followers to see the same tweets over and over. Many times you’re not even following everyone on that list, which only makes the entire #WW/#FF concept that much more pointless.
So group, what do you think? Am I the only one who’s tired of their Twitter feed looking like gobbly-gook? Gratitude is good. What I’m seeing on Twitter these days is too much of a good thing. And it’s really annoying.
With that, I thank you for reading this lengthy post. And for RTing it. FIND ME ON TWITTER
FIND MY PREVIOUS TWITTER TIPS HERE
THE ART & SCIENCE OF TWITTER (MY GUEST POSTS ON WRITER UNBOXED)
Thanks Nina
Your Twitter “series” has been really useful
I’ve read so much “twaddle” about twitter your posts have made a refreshing change!
Cheers
PiP
I agree with that last one for sure! RTing a whole list just clogs things up–for everyone, including those trying to figure out who to thank for the #FF.
I think there is a lot of ‘filler on twitter’ so I minimize my thanking to mentions and Rts. I try to always follow back as much as possible (not if it’s a company looking for business, or someone with no personal info) and see that as all that is needed. I also do not send DMs for following me. I can always tell the automated ones, and the ones asking me to visit them at XYZ drives me nuts. Interact with me on a regular basis and you can bet I’ll be checking you out, otherwise, it’s just advertizing.
Thx for the tips!
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
These are excellent points. When people sign on with Twitter, I don’t know that they’ve investigated it’s ‘manners.’ And those that have been around while and still do the things you’ve mentioned appear to be ‘all about me’ whether they know it or not, intend it or not.
The quickest way for an unfollow from me: Send me a dm thanking me for the follow, a ‘please visit my site,’ and NO return follow. Come on.
And yes, the #WW and #FF get overwhelming, especially if there’s a long list in one tweet, and then repeated tweets from the same person with MORE #WWs and #FFs.
Any kind of self-promotion via Twitter is a turn off for me (and I see so much of it on there). Yikes.
From your screen to the Twitterbugs’ fingers, please!
I’m new to twitter, and was feeling bad for not jumping into the #ww #ff frenzy, because I didn’t know what I was doing (which I still feel, mostly). After a couple months on Twitter, I have NEVER clicked on one of those links and decided to follow somebody because they were in the long string of, as you put it, Charlie Brown teacher twaddle. Sometimes I have seen a retweet of someone who sounded very funny or original, and then decided to Follow them, but even though I still follow comparitively few people, I often feel overwhelmed by the volume and the noise.
Ugh I unfollowed someone bc ALL they did was tweet out twitter handles, I guess of new followers. Never any actual tweets. What’s the point?
And I just unfollowed someone who adds me to a list of #wws and #ffs EVERY SINGLE WEEK but responds to not one other thing I tweet. Ever. So even though I was in the lists, I couldn’t stand it. It just seems so silly to me. Spread the word! The more people who thank as @replies rather than regular tweets the better!
I agree with most of your points regarding the thank you streams (they can be excessive), except the Direct Message thank you. If you use a direct message to thank someone and send a personal message that doesn’t have anything to do with self promotion, I think that is one of the best ways for others not to have to see your thank yous. I don’t participate in the WWs and FFs. And I try to just post content or comment on peoples’ tweets that I find interesting.
Oh–you misunderstood. I 100% think DM thank yous are fine! The only reason not to them is because they can do tedious as you have to do one at a time. With the @reply you can list a bunch of people and only those people will see it but you don’t have to send ten separate DMs. And you totally “get” Twitter by the way. You were a quick study!
I am SO with you on the RT of #FF entire list — & the practice of #FF as well. I to have many who include me in an #FF list with the same people very week … but never talk to me otherwise. & the RT of the entire #FF is totally a “they love me, they really love me” type of twitter user.
you have some really great tips here!
Yup, happened again today for #WW (Writer Wednesday). Same person every time. Same group. It’s just noise.
I love your twitter series. When you’re late to the party (as I am) it’s really tough to try to figure out who’s a good model and who isn’t. Having explicit guidelines is a much faster to come up to speed (hopefully allowing you to avoid twitter-culture fauxpas…fauxpas’s?)
I’m going right this very minute to create some lists (following the instructions in part 2) so I can try to manage the overwhelming flow of incoming tweets…Thanks for this!
You’ll be so happy to have those lists! It takes some time to get used to hopping from list to list, but once it becomes a habit, you won’t look at the general stream again. I’m so glad the posts have helped.
See, I kinda want to stop the whole #FF thing, because those are exactly my thoughts. If someone #FFs me, I feel like they’re 1. looking for a thanking RT and 2. A #FF tweet back. The whole thing is just annoying.
I don’t think I’m going to play anymore.
I see I’m close to 100 responders. I can see why. These Twitter Tips are the best I’ve ever found (after paying $8 for a book on the subject which didn’t give much hands-on information). One of my blogger friends who follows you, Christine Grote aka @CMSmith 57, sent me your way. I’m about to print out this list, and hope I can learn Twitter, partly to promote my book (as my publisher keeps pushing at me). I’m 71 years old, and at times this all gets very boggling. I know I’ll never understand everything, but I think I now see how the @ works. Also the direct message. The lists sounds confusing, but I’m going to work on that now. And also read your blogging tips (I’ve been blogging for 16 months and still find I have things to learn in this area).
I’m SO happy I found you!
I’m here, very late, via your posts on Writer Unboxed…
I agree 100%. The only time I ever pay attention to #FF or #WW tweets is if the tweet is personalized and specific, for example: “I recommend following these two great steampunk authors: @___ and @___” or “Follow @___ because she…” (and then something specific about why she’s worth following that matches what I see if I click through to look at her Twitter stream). One or two or three names in a tweet, no more.
Otherwise I just scroll on by, wishing my stream weren’t so clogged up on Fridays. I do sometimes thank people for #FF mentions or RTs, but only via an @reply.
WONDERFUL series.
Hi Nina! I’m late to your Twitter series, but have caught up and started using all of your useful tips! Thanks so much for doing this. I’ve only been actively using Twitter for the past month and can admit that I have done some of the no-no’s you mentioned. But no longer!
I do have one question for you about thanking. I get a lot of thank yous for retweeting people’s content or posting tweets about fellow writer’s blogs. I have been saying “you’re welcome” to these thank yous. Should I stop doing that as well? p.s. all of the thank yous and you’re welcomes are happening via @replies so I don’t think I’m polluting the twitter stream, but I wanted to make sure.
Thanks again for such a useful Twitter guide.
OK, what I’m about to say might sound a little ironic in light of your message, but honestly, THANK you for this post. I’m relatively new to Twitter and I see a lot of people thanking people for follows, RTs, etc. I thought I was supposed to, but at the same time it was starting to feel like overkill. This post has absolved me of my confused sense of obligation. I’m definitely going to work my way through the rest of your Twitter tips…and RT this one while I’m at it.
I’m so happy this post (and hopefully the others) helped! Let me know if you have any other questions I didn’t cover. I can talk twitter etiquette forever.
While I think it’s good to analyse patterns of gratitude, I believe in a “laissez faire” approach when it comes to social networking tools. I’m all for regulating and weeding out hate mails and tweets, but “thank you” tweets in all their many shades of green, blue and red? I say “Happy Thank You More Please” and when I’m not in the mood, I simply turn my back. All those so-called rules have not really changed the face of the earth or the nature of social media. Only content does—the nature of the game is give and take: just as in the “first” life, this “second” life rests upon performing these two tasks as good as you can, and everybody does it differently. It’s that diversity that I appreciate about Twitter.
Loved your Twitter Series! So helpful. I took your advice and decided to join. Right now feeling a little like the new girl in town on the first day of school… I’m a little nervous but excited.
Thanks Nina!
Oh I wholeheartedly agree! When I think about all the tweets I COULD have read instead of the thank you’s and the auto DMs and the real content I could have received, it makes me feel just a little disappointed. I LOVE interacting with people on Twitter and I have gotten SO very tired of the automation part of it. I actually talk about this a bit in Why Automating Twitter Defeats the Purpose http://charitykountz.com/why-automating-twitter-defeats-the-purpose/. I think the thank you’s and #ff / #ww are all automation and are simply a waste. Twitter is meant to be micro – what’s the most important thing you can say in 140 characters? I doubt it’s thank you’s unless it’s a very personalized shout out. I love to share insights into my followers who I have really engaged with or who have awesome content others would enjoy. I kinda think of myself as a filter – and part of what I’m filtering out is the best content and information I can find. Twitter is a really good tool for that.
Great post as always Nina!
Loved your post and agree with all of it. I tried to comment there and on your newest post as well, but the comments aren’t sticking. Not sure why!