Reengaging in conversation: It is still there, you’ve just lost it
Over the last few weeks I have seen a noticeable drop in conversations on Twitter. At first I thought it was because people were not engaging as much. A few friends began to comment about the same issue. I had to wonder if it was the result of us not engaging others first. After all, if we go to a party no one will talk back if all we do is listen to dozens of conversations. We have to find the conversations to engage in.
Many of the twitter accounts I use are steadily growing and so the number of messages in the main river has become a bit overwhelming. On my personal account I only follow three types of accounts and for a few reasons. First I follow personal friends, next I follow friends within my sphere of interests (company culture, marketing, tribal leadership, publishing/writing, and non-profits). Last, I follow news sources and brands I like. With that number growing I have found that I need to divide them into digestible lists (these lists are still being built). I am very social and find it hard not to try to read through all the followers I have. They all have some value or I would not be following them. That number has become unmanageable though. Rather than unfollowing anyone I have divided them into lists. In a previous post I talked about one list that I follow and why, the authors-engaged-online list.
What I have noticed, now that I am using my lists to read tweets, is that I am once again finding the conversations to engage. As I reengage, Twitter again becomes the valuable tool that I have always loved it for; a place to find and share discoveries.
To create your own list, I have found it useful to find out first what your focus is, and two (maybe more important) what others look to you for or what questions are they asking you to answer. If you are adding any type of value, this won’t be hard.
Also, check out some of your friend’s lists. You may find ones to adopt as your own.
Scott Gould summed it well in a post this morning that caught my attention:
Deepen your existing connections. …. Value trumps volume. Connections trump community.
We lose conversation if we are not engaging in the community we have already built.
How are you finding ways to reengage in the ever increasing noisy spaces that sites like twitter, are becoming?
Over the last few weeks I have seen noticeable drop in conversations on Twitter. At first I thought it was because people were not engaging as much. A few friends began to comment about the same issue. I began to wonder if it was not the result of us not engaging others first. After all, if we go to a party no one will talk back if all we do is listen to dozens of conversations and never engage.
Many of the twitter accounts I use are steadily growing and so the number of messages in the main river quickly become unmanageable. Now I am generally very social. On my personal account I only follow three types of accounts and for a few reasons. First I follow personal friends, next I follow friends within my sphere of interests (company culture, marketing, tribal leadership, publishing/writing, and non-profits). And last, I follow news sources and brands I like. With that number growing I have found that I need to divide them into digestible lists (these lists are still being built). In a previous post I talked about one list that I follow and why, the authors-engaged list.
What I have noticed, now that I am using my lists to read tweets, is that I am once again finding the conversations to engage in. As I reengage, Twitter once again becomes the valuable tool that I have always loved it for.
To create your own list, I have found it useful to find out first, what your focus is, and two (maybe more important) what others look to you for or what questions are they asking you to answer. If you are adding any type of value, this won’t be hard.
Also, check out some of your friend’s lists. You may find ones to adopt as your own.
Scott Gould summed it well in a post this morning that caught my attention:
Deepen your existing connections. …. Value trumps volume. Connections trump community.
We lose conversation if we are not engaging in the community we have already built.
How are you finding ways to reengage in the ever increasing noisy spaces that sites like twitter, are becoming?
Popularity: 7% [?]
Hi John,
Experienced some Twitter fatigue. Needed to step back from it and rejuvenate myself. I'm not that organized with friends lists. Just do the live stream bit. Sometimes I think it would be better to have a list of 100 people – that's it. Concentrate on developing connections with those 100. (Maybe I'll open that company …)
Thx. Good post! Giuietta
Thanks Giuietta, Yes, I found that several friends had expressed fatigue. I have always had a few lists but never used them until now. It took a while to build them but they have been so worth the effort. And each one is pretty small. I find that any over 100 is still unmanageable. I do find myself popping over to the main stream from time to time. I continue to find great things that way but the lists are where I spend 95% of my time.
John
I admire your structured approach to Twitter. The transition for me to lists has been gradual, but I do see their value. I'd like to engage a bit more, especially outside my local network. This will be something to test.
Thanks for sharing how you use Twitter lists John. I think thats a practice anyone can leverage.
I have also found that using the Twitter Advanced Search is very useful for identifying relevant conversations based on location or topic. One of my favorites is simply watching for questions about Corvallis: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=Corvall...
Matt, It really started at the corporate and non-profit accounts. I put off using them on my johnflurry for a long time. I have to admit I resisted it but now it feels like twitter when I started in May 2008. I am sure it will continue to shift.
As always Loyan you keep me transparent and honest. It helps to show our cards once in a while. What's in your wallet?
John,
Great post!! I've been anticipating this post since you and I spoke not long ago through my frustration of a lack of conversation on Twitter these days. I have actually not built any lists yet (I know can you believe it) because I wasn't quite sure how to use them and didn't want to have to scratch and start over one day, so I am absolutely going to use your formula for building lists! Thanks buddy!!
Hey John, thanks for the shoutout!
I totally agree with you. Far too many people are just broadcasting information rather than seeking to deepen relationships into collaborative partnerships. This takes what I call 'scalling the levels of communication' by going from a tweet to a phone call and actually communicating audible with people!
I think lists are the main reason Twitter has become such a valuable tool for me. I have one main list I follow that I try to keep around 100 people. Trying to keep up and engage with much more than that number simply isn't feasible for me. In the near future I will probably be merging another account into my @deliverbliss account, so I may need to add more lists and/or segregate the main list I use now.
What I would like to be able to do with a list (and any stream for that matter) is easily filter and search within it to find those conversations I truly want to engage in. It would be nice to only show conversations, or RTs, or search for a keyword/phrase, or only show tweets with links, or only show tweets with pictures, or any combination of those, etc, etc. Do you know of any well-built tools that allow you to do such things?
Charissa, That conversation was the one that helped push me to write this. It has taken a bit of disciple to keep the lists up to date but they have been well worth the effort. I think it also helps in rewarding those tribe members, the ones that are really crazy about your brand. Not everyone is, and engaging with those that like what you do is a simple way to say thanks. I also try to thank people who add me to a list. Thanks again Charissa for inspiring.
Scott, I completely agree. I was at a conference recently where most of it seemed like a self promotion craze. I had been looking forward to connecting with a few friends. Two of them were speakers. At lunch they both asked if we could be “anti-social”. What they meant was that they simply wanted to get away from the crowd and connect on a personal level. If that is not happening then the majority of our community building is just noise.
Tim, I think @loyan is on to something there and your desire to search within a list would be a great addition. Is that doable within a different format?
I've used twitter's advanced search, but like you said, you can' search within lists.
If it's doable, I haven't found it on the web yet.
We may just write our own. Any VCs out there want to fund that project?
Again, John, you are bang-on with this advice. A few months after I joined Twitter I completely ignored it because I was overwhelmed with information. Now with 3 different lists (and some strategic pruning of followers) it's a daily source of insight for me. Another example where less is more, yes?
I think I have a “get out of jury duty” pass in my wallet!
Exactly Bill. Exactly.
I like the concept Tim. Worth investigating…OK I'm done. Here you go (wink).
Its not seamless, but its fairly simple and free.
1. Convert a Twitter list into an RSS feed: http://twiterlist2rss.appspot.com/
2. Filter RSS by content: http://www.feedrinse.com
3. Example: Filter @deliverbliss/cscx for “twitter”, “happy” and “money”: http://www.feedrinse.com/services/rinse/?rinsed...
Yahoo Pipes is a possible tool too, but while powerful Pipes is not for the faint of heart.
Whats cool about John's model is that pruning isn't even needed. There is good value in private lists to avoid any feelings of “why am I not in the cool list”?
Just to play devil's advocate for a minute… This is a huge problem for Twitter and why, as it is now, won't ever catch on for so many 'everyday' people. In my experience, most people are pretty lazy. They don't want to go learn a new system, much less go through and create lists of people, search through a Twitter search or even prune the list of people they madly began following in their first few hours of Twitter virginity. They want to pick up a tool and instantly be able to use and get exactly what they want out of it. Like it or not, that's the reality of (especially, I think) Americans today.
So what's the solution? Bottom line, I have no idea, but I sure wish I could figure it out because I think there are some great people out there with some great ideas and valuable information to share that just can't get past the barriers. I'm not a fan of 'we need to change XYZ because if we don't it won't become popular' but on the other hand what good is true social media if it's the same minority — in the grand scheme of things — group of people spouting the same things over and over?
That's a good point Ryan. I am just enjoying the many people that do add value on Twitter. For me this was a good solution. For the hard adopters I can see how that can be a challenge. Anyone else? I think Twitter will continue to grow and morph. Some are calling it one big rss. I still think it is a valuable community tool. Time will tell though.
We need this time. When I plan Like Minds (http://www.wearelikeminds.com), I always make sure I factor this time in – it's essential.
That's cool Scott. I spent some time on your site a week ago. It looks like a great group. I wonder how many organizers actually plan for time like that.
I knew I could get @loyan to come up with some type of solution.
Very cool Loyan, thanks for looking at this for me. Those are two tools I haven't seen before.
It's a good start, but far from the type of unicorn-tool I'm imagining in my head. The main issue is you can only add one channel for the feed. And I want to filter a stream live as I see it. And I want it in Hootsuite (the REAL issue). lol
Yah. Pipes would be able to handle multiple feeds. It is reasonably live though.
I'm with you on Hootsuite. When Hootsuite allows us to import RSS into a column, I'm gonna be very happy.