Filtering Your Tweets
Just like the colander you have in the drawer below the kitchen knives, strainers filter out stuff we don’t want. We filter what we say to our friends, spouses and colleagues. Some of us filter too much and some too little. Our mothers have told us “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” you know the rest.
These same filters apply to social media and especially Twitter. Since writing my first tweet a year ago, I have had many moments where I knew I could not post what I had just written. My finger hesitated over the delete key and then, from those internal filters, a decision arose, and I blasted the 140 characters into oblivion. So what are these filters, and how should we use them?
I write for myself here at Flurry Creations, as well as for Soma Games, and Conservation Biology Institute. My filters are different for each account. In general I think they apply to most situations. Below are a few filters that I rely on:
- Is this useful to anyone and am I promoting something I really think is remarkable? I have to remember this one most of all when friends ask me to retweet something. It is so tempting to publish it because they are friends. Would you send hundreds of friends to a bad mechanic or a lousy restaurant? No. So visit the link and make sure. Don’t be afraid to pass. Also be honest and let them know why you won’t be furthering the promotion. By all means, pass it on if you agree that their new found product, post, or service is truly remarkable.
- Am I being a sleestak? This term comes from a post I think everyone using Social Media should read. A sleestak will post constantly to their own benefit and glean the popularity of others, while benefiting no one. If you have not read it you really should. (Really, go read it and then come back here and finish my post.) If you have that horrible feeling in your stomach because you know that you have been a sleestak in the past, don’t worry, we have all gone there. Just try not to do it again.
- Am I willing to make a mistake? This is big. We need to be willing to take risks and make mistakes. Two of Chris Brogan’s posts on mistakes and apologizing come to mind. We need to be willing to make them as well as apologize for them. Just don’t let this filter stall you from posting all together.
Use these or come up with your own.
What are your filters? Please share them here.
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Good stuff John. I like:
“I have had many moments where I knew I could not post what I had just written.”
Thanks for letting me know this happens to someone else too!
Thanks Loyan, Yeah, if anything I probably filter too many.
Great post, really hits home with the idea of checking links before putting them up. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I see people retweet others’ links within moments of the original post going up. There is often no way that the retweeter had a chance to read the link before posting. Ugh. Same goes for our own links, it’s good to make sure and read the articles. Great points, sir!
This SHOULD be common sense for folks but it’s so often forgotten. I know Twitter can come with this pressure to retweet something that goes, ‘…but…don;t you like me?”
It’s when I see somebody who takes a quality over quantity approach that I’m willing to pay attention to them. Honestly, when I see somebody drop 10 tweets in ten seconds…I’m usually thinking about dropping them from my list of followers. Even if every tweet is a good one, the impression it leaves is SPAM.
Yeah you probably don’t want to be too real on Twitter. Don’t be yourself, be what people expects you to be. Be like everyone else, be vanilla.
Everyone has a real-life filter, I don’t walk around cursing into the air, but be real on twitter, be yourself, say fuck if you feel the need.
So let me get this straight Allan. You write and send every email. retweet everything. I am not saying be vanilla. Just don’t be a jerk.
@Johnflurry,
The point isn’t to not have a filter, it’s to not keep your filter set to grandma mode. Be real, be yourself. Unless you’re talking to your grandmother.
I think its important to be brave. Take risks. Not worry about what everyone else will think.
Twitter is a great place to do this because the beautiful thing about twitter is nobody has to follow anybody else. If you don’t like the way someone’s using twitter just unfollow them.
Is it good to actually look at a link before you retweet it? Sure. Just ask @johnflurry about his retweet of my April fools gag – (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=jdale+mac+pc, sorry John twitter search still shows deleted posts
…is that how you learned lesson #1 above?)
I think Steven nails it when he says we should filter but make sure the filter’s not set to grandma mode.
I have to wonder what happens when my grandmother gets on twitter.
What? Comment moderation? I think someone needs to read this post: http://bit.ly/NtqbH
Allan has a more in depth response here: http://b.lesseverything.com/2009/4/17/filter-yourself-into-being-lame
Jon, I think it was the shock of your dropping mac that made me hit the rt button.
Yes Steven, the grandma mode should never come into play. Thanks for all the comments.
And that’s why it was so wonderful…I got so many responses from people who actually thought I’d done it.
My wife @amydale direct messaged me right away and and said even our kids didn’t fall for it.
I liked the post, I got the point. I think @lessallan might have taken it a little too much into left field with his opinion, but everyone is entitled to say what they want and that’s cool.
I might regret saying that. I don’t really want to involve myself in this discussion. I have too much to do today!
I will say though that I think that being on twitter is about your own purpose. Don’t treat it like a blind date and lie about who you are though. Tweeting for a company, for example: John tweets for @SomaGames sometimes and that “hat” involves issuing tweets relevant to SomaGames goals for being out in the social sphere, NOT John’s goals directly.
I think most of all, the biggest point is that Twitter could occupy more people using filters – to filter out the garbage that no one wants to hear. And I don’t mean making everyone a people pleaser. I think filtering out things like “hello everyone”. … well I could go on and on but I need to get focused!
… I think I should have just said that I really think Steve got it right. … in a LOT less words…
Great. I know I'm a twitter newbie, and I am seeing where it has value, and where it doesn't. I'm getting harsh on all the stupid followers who just follow to add another number to their list. I'm now replying to them with: “Thanks for following me…how did you come to know about me and FreeAgentAcademy.com & what is your interest?” And I forget about them unless I get a personal reply. I sure as heck don't follow them. I wonder how many followers anyone would have, if they never, ever followed anyone else they weren't truly interested in.
Always a good idea to keep this in mind. I have posted way too many tweets only to go back and delete them. I am starting to get a little better now at filtering those out.