The future of Twitter is anyone’s guess, and you can imagine I have some opinions on that (who, moi?). I mentioned recently, something’s afoot in social media land and I couldn’t quite tap a crystalline here’s-what’s-wrong answer.
I think I’m getting closer.
Since Triberr hit the landscape, and I’ve seen everyone in my social media circle (hi, >) run to adopt, my stream is, ahem, littered, or shall we say cluttered, with Triberr short url links to everyone’s blog posts. In fact, in my list of favorite peeps, there’s nary an original 140 without a link to Triberr. OK, maybe not ever, just frequently. (This is NOT bad; it’s an observation that’s bothering me a tad.)
Back in the day when I launched Twitter 2 ½ years ago, it was absolutely a channel to create community and engage authentically. In fact, to Mark W. Schaefer I owe much of my community growth as we began the same time, and his blog {grow} was our (community) home base.
In the last many weeks, I’ve noticed a change in my Twitter stream content. (Have you in yours?)
* There is less original thought to anything without a link attached.
* Followers who are real people are fewer and far in between; there’s a plateau and brick wall obstacle in the speed with which you can create a genuine community.
* There are more spammers sifting through the cracks and sending DMs with links from my trusted peeps. I opened a few of those just this week several times; clever, too: “Jayme, is this you in this video?” I fell for that.
* I have often promoted Twitter to my clients as the hub from which links stem and drive traffic to blogs, landing pages and websites. This is still sound strategy, but it’s becoming more of a challenge to get peeps to open links.
* This is where community building comes in, STILL. To build a community, you need to be a trust agent. To be a trust agent, you need authentic content, to develop authentic content, you need to be original and not spammy. To be successful you need to cut through the clutter of automation and keep the real you you.
I’d love to get your opinion on this; who else is seeing this something happening with Twitter? (And, OK, Twitter is NOT broken, necessarily, it’s evolving to a new level for the masses; it’s the post-engage phase where ROI takes over.)
I have a couple observations on this. First., I can’t wait to talk about this kind of stuff in person nest week!
1. There is a shift, but its been happening for a while. I’ve read quite a few early birds lament the “olden days” of engagement and true discussion and debate” and how that’s given way to a more promotional version of same where its more hit and run.
2. From a brand perspective, I still see great opportunity to create listening and engagement outposts on twitter with a genuine (albeit relatively small) community.
3. From an individual use perspective, Twitter is many things. Its a platform, a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. Its driving almost all of our traffic to https://12Most.com – so I/we are using it as a promotional or media tool. But it’s also a great place to connect with and learn from real people…it’s just that the learning tends to take place away from twitter – whether via skype, phone or in person. Ultimately, to me, its a place to connect.
I seriously LOVE Mark W. Schaefer. That said, the way he views twitter, or blogs for that matter are his views. They work for him and for what he’s trying to achieve. If I had a business like Mark’s I’d probably be trying to use both the same way. BUT, that’s not everyone’s business. Engagement and community are wonderful, when they fit the strategy and model you’re pursuing.
What’s interesting is that I’ve begun following everyone that RTs or otherwise engages with @12Most – and as a result, I’d say its become massive easier for me to find authentic, real humans on twitter. I’m not engaging one on one with every one of them, but I’ve already created and deepened a few relationships within the last 45 days with this new policy and the total # of spammers following me have decreased significantly.
Crud. I knew I forgot something.
I am using Triberr and enjoying it. It’s driving a healthy amount of traffic to @12Most:disqus. Again, we’re not selling things there, just building brand and trying to share great content (sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much) – but overall it has given us a great deal of exposure.
I can see and understand the objections to it, but its working for me.
Love you for taking so much time to say all this here. See you soon, Friend!
And, you’re right; I noticed the adjustment awhile ago — the peeps from early days are now more than friends, and I still love how you’ve used @12most:disqus to engage on a higher plateau. As for Triberr; I love it, too. What is tells me about my stream is that I need to work harder to branch out in different circles. You know the common complaint — we’re all talking to ourselves!
As for other comments are above, I’m gonna save that for the 1:1. Yeah! Rock Hot.
There was a guest post on Spin Sucks a few weeks ago, about the good old days of Twitter, and how the noise is drowning it out. Today I think via G+, @twitter-29827578:disqus I saw a Jay Baer video on the numbers, growth, reciprocity and how it’s counter to real connections. Agree Twitter is a tool, a platform.. all about how we use it – and why.
I’m sorry…. Spin sucks? What’s that? Sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place it…..
I’d ask if I knew you but, pretty sure @ginidietrich:disqus will start charging royalties on that one.
In fact, Queen D, that post inspired me somewhat for this content. I was searching the Spin Sucks (what is that) archives and saw that guest post, too. I yearn for the fond moments of how we did more real-time Twitter banter later in the evenings; now, the streams are so full it’s hard to get that traction. Of course, until I heed @ginidietrich counsel and move on up into the business side of PR where numbers rule and dictate my softer side, I will be content to live on memory lane.
That post has been one of my inspirations as well (so many ideas I can’t get out of draft mode), funny. Anyway, will send you thoughts, ideas on the experiment in progress that may or may not be blog fodder someday.
@soulati:disqus and @davinabrewer:disqus I’m humbled that my post on Spin Sucks inspired your thoughts. It certainly got a lot of people talking and I appreciated the dialogue and opinions that were shared. While I’m seeing all of the same things you’ve described in your post, here, I’m still as active on the platform as ever. I still get value from it (heck, I’ve made some amazing connections there) but that doesn’t change the fact that I miss the way it used to be. And, the reality is, nothing ever stays the way it used to be, nor should it.
Interestingly enough, I wrote that post prior to the launch of G+ and, for the moment anyway, I see that launch only reinforcing my thoughts. Folks are jumping over there, eager to start fresh with their lists, have more intimate conversations, etc. I haven’t checked out Triberr, and am not sure that I will, but this begs the question (and I’m not the first to ask; in fact, Geoff Livingston wrote a nice post about it) – as we spread ourselves across platforms, what’s going to give? The content? The connections? I guess it remains to be seen, but regardless, more change is on the horizon.
Great thoughts here. Happy we connected.
Hey, Kary! Yes, yes. Although we sit here and rant I see no one disengaging (well, Davina and Erica are trying) and I’m just complaining about where the heck is the time. What’s going to give is our own burn out, really. We who service others are being spread so thinly; hours turn into three hours earlier and earlier trying to keep all this alive!
And, I’ll keep it up; it’s the jazziest thing ever and I’m afraid I’m gonna miss something, you know?
Ha – that phycological desire to not miss out and be included is why all of this exists in the first place, isn’t it? 🙂
You got me thinking.. and looking for options, solutions. In the next few weeks, I’ll have a few posts linking back and discussing all of this as I too have seen a lot of changes – and am still active. You mentioned G+ Kary. I’m already trying to decide a ‘strategy’ – winging it as I go of course – as I’m already suspecting that network will be the same people I know elsewhere. It too has refocused my thoughts, as I am considering refocusing my lists and doing things ‘differently’ there. Nice to connect here as well.
Looking forward to reading your post!
I disagree about the noise killing Twitter. All about how you use it.
The noise is drowning some of MY experience; YMMV and what I consider noise may not bother you or anyone else. So I am adjusting the way I use it starting with changing up follows/unfollows, cleaning up lists and groups, etc. Trust me, still very much a Twitter fan. 🙂
Hey Jayme, love the post. Since started using Triberr I got a bit lazy. At the same time I got some piles of work to do so I got even more lazy when it comes to Twitter. I never really sent messages like quotes though, most of my tweets are RTs of great posts I read and conversations with people. But, Klout did move me to the broadcaster shelf, because there are way more tweets with links I tweet now (Triberr again).
I did “get” Twitter after reading Mark’s The Tao of Twitter, and learned to love it, but the problem is not Twitter, it is the people that keep blasting us with stupid stuff. I am especially annoyed with one group of people now – sharing and tweeting and G+ing everything under the sun and then they post about “how you should not do that”. I mean, come on!!!
I also thought the same thing, ASAP, about Triberr. It makes you lazy and doesn’t make me read more, either! There’s so much to learn and your side of things being more analytical, I’m slowly moving myself in that direction; well, fast moving in that direction, but I’m kicking and screaming all the way. I’ll be writing more on that front.
Get me through summer and I’m gonna call you. Need to connect the minds, goals, approach to this stuff. Thanks for being here; means a ton!
That’s why I liked it, I am lazy and it meant I might not have to do any work……….just sayin’…………..
Interesting post Jayme. I am not using Triberr but have been reading/following many of the conversations surrounding it. I’ve also been noticing more spam follows in my box. But the conversation in my stream isn’t as filled with Triberr as folks are talking about. It seems to be specific to the person/handle. What I’m noticing more than ever is a fluidity to social media tools and quick changes/reactions by the providers. It means more time spent evaluating and adapting to what works for the individual. There are so many choices that it means we need to be always on our toes and able to adapt/change quickly.
Hi, Mary! Thanks for your perception, and if you’re a blogger and would like an invite to a tribe, please advise! That said, you’re spot on. Being able to adapt quickly/being highly nimble is what will set apart the wheat from the chaff. Not sure whether you’re in my field (PR); however, that’s the name of the game on a daily basis for me!
Hi Jayme,
I appreciate the offer for the invitation. Regularly blogging is one of my goals right now as the effort has fallen by the wayside. However, I know what you mean about needing to stay nimble and up to date. It’s a PR person’s ace in the hole these days but also a never ending cycle. I love it! The changes in our field in the 30+ years I’ve been involved are amazing. If you want to check out my blog, it’s at barbergp.com
I’m going to be a visitor soon, Mary! Thank you for that link!
Thanks. Would be interesting in your thoughts.
Shoot, forgot to say…when you’re ready, shout at me. We’ll get you connected somewhere, if you’d like to play that channel. I’ve found tremendous exposure via Triberr; meeting more peeps and yet it’s a change up in behavior. All good!Thanks, again!
You’re right, Jayme. I’ve noticed some changes too. I think that maybe it’s just that everyone in our little Tribe was gone last week. And, if they were like me, they put Triberr in auto mode. Now that I’m back, I turned it off. I’m seeing more and more Triberr links now and yes, there maybe seems to be a little less engagement. I think, as @Brankica_U:disqus mentioned, Triberr’s auto mode have made folks a wee bit lazier. I like it, but yet, I still struggle with out to best use it. I don’t know that I feel right about auto mode, but it does make life a lot easier. But, when you take reading and engagement out of the equation, much is lost with the social media experience, don’t you think?
I think as people’s network’s grow, it gets that much harder to keep up the meaningful engagement while also running a successful business. It seems we all want to have a massive number of followers who share are stuff, but the larger the network, the greater time and responsibility it takes to maintain it.
I also need to spend some time branching out. I think that we tend to develop nice, comfy little communities where we’re all sharing each other’s stuff. That’s nice, but there are lots of new voices that we need to go out and find and connect with. The challenge is just finding the time.
And, last, but not least, do you think that the time of year has to do with what we’re feeling? Maybe auto mode is happening more and more right now since it’s summertime. I don’t know if there’s anything to that or not, but it just makes me wonder.
Okay, that was a mouthful. Thanks for getting me thinking, Jayme! 🙂
If you’re like me, Laura, summer sucks me dry. I have fewer hours to devote to more work and too many distractions, too. Triberr does in fact make you “lazy” — actually, I admit it makes ME lazy! And, it takes really a lot of time to develop a network, too. Again, with the onslaught of Google+ time is much more precious. Great seeing you here today!
I have to agree with your assesment Laura (and @twitter-223833082:disqus )…I think we are in our own little summertime world, where the heat (and auto mode) can make us a tab bit lazier and when that happens, our world gets a bit smaller. We (by that, I mean me) might be viewing our world through our Triberr lens and slowing down on the aggressive networking that we (by that, I mean me) once did. I was a machine when I first hit the Twitterverse in the right way (Jan) and worked hard at building my relationships. I’ve reached a sloth-like plateau now (like @Brankica_U:disqus mentions) and as you know, juggling kids, work, and business. In fact, that same aggressive approach I applied to my network building in January, I’m now applying to my business development. For me, that means Triberr is my lifesaver while i get my business head on straight.
I also agree with you, Jayme @soulati:disqus and see less banter and more link sharing. However, I’m really not sitting on my “dashboard” all day and watching my entire network (not as large as yours or Laura’s, but much larger than it was even 2 months ago). I’m only really watching my Favorite Tweeps (it’s my go-to Twitter list) and my Triberr mates. As a result, I’m naturally going to see a lot of Tribr.url because most of my favorite tweeps are all using Triberr. I’d bet if you stepped away from the Triberr stream and looked at your entire network, it would look and feel a LOT like it used to. Just a thought.
Great, thought-provoking piece! Really enjoyed it, my friend!
What you said; Spot On, blogger.
Word. To Your Mother.
Well, this is exactly what I blogged about as my hesitation about Triberr on @dannybrown:twitter’s blog (https://dannybrown.me/2011/05/31/why-im-hesitant-about-triberr/). Everyone loves the exposure that Triberr gives their blog, but nobody likes the inundation of largely irrelevant links flooding their Twitter stream. If Triberr is smart, they will of course add sharing to Facebook, LinkedIn, and G+–which means floods of links on those platforms, too.
We can’t have our cake and eat it, too. The really bad part is that people will start ignoring the links or trying to block/filter them, because it’s too much noise. I wouldn’t be surprised to see tools that filter any Triberr links out of your stream, to get back to seeing only the tweets/content you really care about. This is the same reason people unLike pages on Facebook. Too many irrelevant posts cluttering their stream. (I’m not saying there should be filtering tools, I just wouldn’t be surprised to see them developed.)
Again, it’s not the tool, it’s the way people are using Triberr. If everyone (or the majority) of people only used manual mode and read what they shared, there wouldn’t be as many links shared and wouldn’t be as much clutter. Moreover, the shared content would be more relevant because people would share what they thought their network would like. That’s the benefit of Circles on G+. But, doing that means that your fellow Tribe members lose some value from you as a member. For those really using Triberr to increase reach and traffic, that’s not what they want.
G+ won’t save us, either, despite those wonderful Circles. If Triberr supports sharing on G+, they would need to let people share to their specific circles, and people will still get flooded with links. If Triberr doesn’t do it, someone else will. It’s not really Triberr specifically, it’s just the way the networks are evolving and the evolution of the way people use them..G+, Facebook, LinkedIn, they all eventually encounter the same issues to one degree or another.
I always love your insight because of your analytical views. What you said. It’s an exciting time, really, and all these tools and automations will help once we/I (ahem) get over what used to be instead of what’s to come. I see Coherent Interactive as having the next new tool for us, Neicole!!
We’re trying. Hope to be able to show it to you in the next week or two.
Really? I had no idea! Was tongue in cheek on that one. How very exciting.
I always love your insight because of your analytical views. What you said. It’s an exciting time, really, and all these tools and automations will help once we/I (ahem) get over what used to be instead of what’s to come. I see Coherent Interactive as having the next new tool for us, Neicole!!
Community vs. audience. Are they the same thing? I would have to say no.
Community is us, here, right now, discussing issues affecting us. Audience is other 99% of lurkers that will never engage but are a crucial link in bloggers reaching their objectives.
Do I smell a post coming on? I think I do, I think I do 🙂
Hi, Dino! You guys are rock hot right now at Triberr. I just brought in 3 newbies to launch my new tribe; excited.
I agree with you. The question is how to gain audience without alienating them through the methods. I’m worrying that we are over-conversing and over-sharing with people and they are getting tired of it…It’s tough to find the right balance!
Let me know when you do that post!
Nicole – as super twitter users, we may see the Triberr activity as excessive, but I;m not sure the rest f our networks do. In the last 30 days on our new blog, fully 11% of our visits have come from Triberr (I’m working on a post Dino). I’m sure this will change over time (again, its new and we’re not really getting much in the way of search engine traffic).
My eyes have been opened a bit, because I think of it the same way you do, as a lot of noise, but the data tells a somewhat more complex story (at least for us).
I get it and your’s isn’t the only success story I’ve heard as far as traffic. I actually really like the Tribe aspect of Triberr: keeping your favorite bloggers blogs front and center. I only don’t like the auto-tweet, though I think that’s probably a big part of the reason for the increased traffic. Because I think it adds to the noise and creates this longer-term effect on the networks. But you may be right that not all users notice the flood as much. It would be interesting to know how much the triberr tweets are reaching into the streams of users who are following much smaller numbers of people.
While you guys @Neicolec and @SeanMcGinnis:disqus are clued in to your analytics, I can add to the success story anecdotally in re Triberr. I’ve seen a steady new stream of folks commenting, RT’ing, and following my material on Twitter. I rarely encourage FB follows or LinkedIn; to me those are second-tier channels (although useful, too). My goal is to back this up with numbers, too; i.e. posts traffic and if I ever can get PostRank to load the right way…well, perhaps that’s a start!
I think, like anything, how we’re using Twitter is evolving. And now, with G+ here (and seemingly NOT going to fail), we’re going to evolve how we use the other social platforms even more. If G+ figures out how I can read in my Reader and let me link directly, I’ll stop using Twitter to curate content for my followers. It’s going to be an interesting few months. I hope Twitter makes it!
You are so right. So right. It’s an exciting time, and we need to be nimble. Oh, my; the thought — linking to Reader from G+?! LOVE that; can’t wait. Heard you got a hug today!
I did! Quite unexpectedly!
Kewl!! (that has 2 exclamations; here’s a warning for one coming from me soon!)
I think, like anything, how we’re using Twitter is evolving. And now, with G+ here (and seemingly NOT going to fail), we’re going to evolve how we use the other social platforms even more. If G+ figures out how I can read in my Reader and let me link directly, I’ll stop using Twitter to curate content for my followers. It’s going to be an interesting few months. I hope Twitter makes it!
For me, Twitter is literally broken in one area: I haven’t been able to add people to lists for the last 2 months. The system will let me add one person, but when I get to the next one, I get an error message. Without lists, I can’t segment my streams. This is an ongoing technical issue in the Twitter help section. Very frustrating.
I am definitely seeing a huge onslaught of spammers. Many of them are monitoring keywords and will jump to send you spammy links when you mention those words in a tweet. It’s a pain to go through the list of followers and block the spammers. I wish Twitter had a stronger authorization process.
I’m also seeing that community-based conversation has moved to blog comment sections 🙂 and Twitter chats. When the noise gets too loud, people will tune out. Twitter needs to make some significant user experience improvements if they want to keep their customers happy.
Really? I commend you for even trying!! I bet you’re loving G+ circles, then? Back in the day, I had fun looking at followers’ profiles, but the spammers are getting smarter on issuing profiles with key words that fit what we’re looking for, too. Are you liking circles?
Yes, the circles are brilliant. So much easier to group people quickly, and switch between streams.
AGREE. I need to change up how I’m using Twitter because all I see is the same stuff now thanks to Triberr. I didn’t want to say that on Twitter though because it seemed mean.
Hah! I totally agree with you! Have been thinking that awhile now; is that why you want out, Girl? But, what it says to me is who we’re engaging with, right? If all the peeps in my faves stream are on Triberr, then we’re in a sort of following a circle of peeps who follow one another. So, our behavior has to change, and as @lauraclick said…it takes time.
Nope, was thinking I needed to bow out because checking in to “oky” posts I had already read and possibly tweeted already seemed skipable. It’s just adding a step.
No overall thumbs up/down on triberr – just thinking it’s not for me. Still giving it a shot though!
Nothing is forever. Things grow and they either scale or die. For every early adopter, there are now 100 mainstream users (not a scientific number) that see Twitter today as normal. This includes having automation, sales messages, ads and more.
The system isn’t broke per se; neither is the way people are using it. The only thing that’s “broken” is the ideal that everything will always be about the most quality-led platform around.
But the truth of the matter is that the only place you’re really going to get that is right here on your blog, where you have full control of content, house guests and party rules. When you have that, as opposed to the pretend control we’d like to think is ours on other platforms, that’s when the good stuff happens. 😉
Interesting thoughts as always, miss. 🙂
Has anyone ever called you Danny Boy? Just askin. Great to see you today; always a plezh. (I’m in a good mood; you’re getting the brunt of it.)
Fab point; well taken re the blogger’s home being control central. I think many of us need to be reminded of that, too. Just sat @johnhaydon suggest many peeps interested in replacing a blog with Google+ — I don’t see that happening in the least. What’s your thought on that?
I get called Danny Boy all the time. Usually before that person hits the deck…. (JK!!!)
I saw @JohnHaydon:twitter ‘s post on that. I’m not sold. You’re still giving away to third-parties, and Google’s Terms of Service advice they can take anything you upload and sell it or use it for their own needs. Riiight…. I’m really going to give them my best stuff, then. 😉
Thank you, SIR! I wonder how many peeps have no clue about what you just said. We ought to ALL be reading terms of service in all these apps; heck, all we do is hit “I agree” with no clue to what.
@dannybrown:disqus @soulati:disqus – I think there’s a disconnect here. I’m in agreement with the content ownership idea, and am not saying that Google plus will replace traditional platforms for everyone.
Hey, John! Thanks for popping over to defend yourself against Danny. Wow, he is such an instigator. So, what you may be saying is that Google+ MAY replace traditional platforms for some?
Not trying to needle you; it’s a fascinating discussion b/c there are people not present here who may, indeed, believe that. Thank you, John!
What did I instigate now? 😉
That’s exactly what I’m saying. Kevin Rose is no idiot, and I believe that in the not so distant future, small businesses could use Google+ plus at least as an adjunct blog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU
Hey Sean, you know that agreement you, Dan and @TroyClaus:twitter came up with? Consider it off. 😉
No idea what you’re talking about…. Just a whisper campaign so far as I can tell… When are you coming to Chicago so i can knock a few back with you? Jayme’s coming next week! You should fly in!
Hopefully this year, mate. Not sure – possibly in New York again in November, but we’ll see on schedules. 🙂
New York’s a long way from Chicago. They did teach you that in Australia, right?
I called him that once……………..and Dan the man………………
Were you virtually bopped? Looks like @SeanMcGinnis:disqus has a bunch of Muppets up his sleeve; he could help you fight.
Reading all the comments I noticed a lot of you noticed that you’re seeing all the same stuff in your streams now, from Triberr. I hate to say this, but isn’t that what happens when you connect with everyone you know on Twitter on Triberr, too? That said, I guess it depends on whether you’ve done that or not. I’m in a few different camps (colleagues, related industries, and “Clientopia”) but I’m only in one tribe. I haven’t noticed whether many of the people I follow are in tribes now, except a few of the folks I would expect. Also, another admission: the repetitive tweets were already happening to me, before I got on Triberr, because I followed folks who followed and promoted each other just as religiously before there were tribes. I learned to tolerate it only from people I genuinely enjoy interacting with. They still love to chirp at each other and I, the perennial people-watcher, love to watch.
Personally, I still use Triberr manually, and because it’s such a great group of content producers (if I do say so myself), I do end up retweeting every single post, but not before at least reading it and promising myself I’ll get back to comment later. But because such a large portion of my “crowd” is outside of the circles our tribe members run in, I doubt they’re seeing the same stuff over and over. I wish I could say it was making me lazy, but I can do that all by myself, lol.
I love what you said. You’ve provided the answer — those in social media circles who are early adopters of new channels, apps, gizmos, and toys WILL amplify the echo chamber. That. Is. All. More coming on that note; thanks for the inspiration.
* Will not comment bomb. Will not comment bomb. Will not comment bomb. *
This gets a trackback or two someday; I’m experimenting with ‘fixing’ what ain’t exactly broken. Per the SS post I mentioned, one thing I suggested is to unfollow those that no longer offer value, engage per your style. But there are times we don’t want to do that, just filter the noise. I think for Twitter to fix itself (blogged this when I wrote its obit) is to offer what no one else is via all the APIs and Apps: real USER control. Anyway, will let you know how the experiment progresses.
After all of 10 minutes on G+ I see duplication not just because of the cross-posting, but b/c it’s the social types who have invites and therefore are in those Circles for me. My other friends will likely be the last to adopt. IDK.. just means it’s tricky to figure out, for those of us who share different things to different audiences for different reasons. I JUST drafted a post about this, probably to run next week when I have a little more time to kick the tires off of G+.
One quibble: sometimes the non-link tweets ARE the most original in my stream, when someone’s not pimping a book or hyping a blog post, and just putting their thoughts out there, sans agenda. And FWIW I just started reading Trust Agents. 😉
Hunh. Really? Love all that correlation. Now the sad thing is WTH is your G+ ID? We are not connected! I’m linked in the blog post. I’ll plug in your name and see you there. (Yes, need to know about the experiment, please.)
I put you in a circle, will send you a message or whatever.. when I figure out how.
Interesting questions Jayme! One thing to remember is that we are part of a very, very small population on Twitter — bloggers using Triberr. So, I don’t think the things you are talking about are necessarily universal to Twitter and its gazillion users.
Speaking for myself, I find a lot of what I might say on Twitter ends up being said in comment threads where there is more room, more topical coherence (unless you get blogjacked!), and less clutter. The fact that 1/3 of the sites I frequent use Livefyre, with its Twitter/chat-like feel, also takes away some conversational tweeting. This makes a higher percentage of my tweets link-based than might otherwise be. Triberr is still a small percentage of what I tweet (even on auto) but I am in one small tribe.
I hope @dinodogan:disqus and the Triberr team will figure out ways to end the replication — maybe so no person receives the same link from the same tribe more than twice, or even better no more than a number they choose in their settings. That would drastically help the issue, though it is probably a coding nightmare.
@twitter-29827578:disqus makes a great point about adding sharing. I think there needs to be a lot more focus from developers on either not “crossing streams” or allowing people to opt out. An example, I really do not like the new Livefyre feature that adds the Twitter stream as comments at the end of the blog post. This is the definition of crossing streams and repetitive noise.
Perhaps verbose, Adam, (as you suggested on Twitter); however, highly relevant. Agree, especially, with your last comment re Twitter stream getting added to bottom; me no likey! Stupid. I responded to someone’s, “hey, Jayme, I tagged you at @Shonali:twitter today!” So I responded to a totally irrelevant topic, and, lo, that ended up at the bottom of the blog! I was bragging to @ericamallison about my Klout score being higher than hers (ahem, hi, Erica!) … yeah, like by 1 point. (We’re very competitive, you know, we women bloggers.)
yes, but who has the year’s supply of deodorant? and joint juice?
I gave you the gist of my thoughts down below – under @lauraclick:disqus , but would like to add that we need to get out more – outside of our circles of comfortable friends and tribe mates. I realized the other day that I had not really engaged with @bdorman264:twitter or @johnfalchetto:twitter nearly enough lately and it made me really sad. I used to interact with those folks on a regular basis and even though I’m in my “summer of balance” mode, I don’t want to just rely on Triberr for my daily interactions. Great kick in the pants, girlie! thanks!
Yeah, @Johnfalchetto and I were just talking about that; what are we, chopped liver or something? It’s all good, we won’t put too big of a guilt trip on you.
Uhmm, hi-yeh! You in my house? You saying hey? Or, you just talkin’ at your girl; uh-huh, now who’s chopped liver? Sheesh.
Thanks, Bill!
Yah. I like what @twitter-59802772:disqus has to say; her circles are NOT all Triberr peeps. She’s not having the, uhmm, problem.
Those are great points that I had not considered. What bothered me about scheduled tweets in the time before Triberr (TBT?) is that I didn’t see the point of them. You tweet….people respond…and, well, that’s the end of the conversation. Then you come back and say, “Ohhhhh I have too many replies to deal with!”
I don’t get it.
So it is with Triberr. You set up a tribe and any time those folks post, you tweet it out. OK, so, here are my concerns with that.
1. What is your incentive to add or subtract anyone from that tribe? It’s running the “promote others” segment of your Social Media experience. So it is written, so let it be done.
2. Are you actually going to read those posts? What if you are a devout Catholic and one of those automated tweets sends out a post saying there is no God?
3. Are you going to comment on those posts?
4. How can bloggers who get tweeted out via Triberr know when they’ve hit a homerun and when they haven’t? Everything gets tweeted. To quote The Incredibles, because every post is special, none are special.
If we all become automatons, is it still really social media? That’s the question in my head.
Thanks for allowing me to coerce you here, Margie! Love that! Promise I won’t beg and plead too much. Now, about what you said (4)…I believe I saw once on my Triberr dashboard a function that measured the popularity of my blog posts being tweeted out. I need to go back and revisit that as this was when I just had joined and was dinking around. That is a good feature; like a PostRank plug in.
As for 2, I have a confession. I’m on auto pilot; cannot read a thing unless coerced. Yes, automatons; it is a happening thing.
I like the word “invite” better than coerce 🙂
It felt more coercive to me as I rarely ask people to visit my blog to comment; so glad you thought otherwise and that it was indeed an invitation!
Jayme, you can absolutely see how many times your post was “hit” and who in your tribe generated the most hits. I personally LOVE this feature. My last post got over 300 clicks (my highest yet on Triberr) and @shonali:twitter was my heaviest hitter. I can also see who doesn’t share my posts (that’s ok, I’m good with that, too – it’s usually because they’ve RT’d it on their own accord, sans Triberr). I find the information fascinating and have gained new followers from other networks that way.
Do I get a prize? Bacon?
Margie:
I’ll take a shot at answering your concerns:
1. The incentive to add people to an existing tribe are twofold – a) to expand your network and expose new people to your content, and b) to gain new great content that gets exposed to your network. The incentive to remove people from a tribe is to remove anyone who may be a disconnect – whether their followers are not interested in your content, or whether your followers are not interested in theirs….
2. You can read those posts if you choose – you can take your account or your tribe into manual mode which means you manually tweet out things before they go to your following – whether you choose to read before tweeting in manual mode is up to you.
3. You can still subscribe to those blogs and visit manually if you choose (even if you are in automatic mode – again up to you). Obviously, if you’re in manual mode, you can choose to read and comment prior to tweeting. Quick Q – do you only share things you find comment-worthy?
4. You can tell from your analytics. In addition to tour traffic reports on the blog, you can see how many times someone visited every tweeted post from a triberr link and which person from within your tribe sent them (a pretty cool new feature).
Thank you for your expertise; nicely done. Good Morning!
Thanks for that Sean. All great points. But are people doing that? Jayme’s point seems to be -> maybe not so much.
I’m all up in your house…………..:). Personally, I spend way much more time in the blogs than I do on twitter. Don’t tell anybody, but I catch up on twitter when I’m in my car in between appointments……….that’s a big yikes and don’t tell @47d58be98d1441a276245024c9457dbf:disqus . Triberr is ok for me or I probably wouldn’t be pimpin’ my friend enough.
I will never be accused of being an early adapter so I’m just along for the ride. I will let all you smart people figure it out and then I will just show up and eat all the food w/out doing any of the work. I’m good like that………
Good to see you and hopefully my comments followed your post.
You’re also invisible, but at least you’re not a lurker. (how does that work?) I see you lost your high position at Griddy’s, too! I think you got scared to repeat your presence there. Heh.
Thanks for saying we’re smart; anyone who visits here is a pretty smart cookie in my book anyway. (are you pretty?)
Pretty silly……………
It was John’s turn and now it looks like JackB has the early lead.
I said this the other day; you have to use the tool, not BE a tool. Not you of course Jayme. 🙂 there are a lot of fascinating people out there on Twitter sharing awesome content with whom we’ve never connected.
The key is finding and connecting with new circles. (hmmm, those people at G might have something there!)
My point is, it’s all in how we use it. It’s very cliquey. Gotta break out of that and it will no longer feel like am echo chamber. Not that I’ve taken the time to do that yet. But I think about it. And that’s the first step. Right?
OK, really? How did you know I just wrote tomorrow’s post about what you said? Unreal. Girlfriend. Thank you, and git outta my head.
i just found out about this triberr thing last week when someone invited me and I was immediately put off by it. Why would I ever tweet something I hadn’t written and enjoyed. Dumb.
Hi, Scott! Wonderful having you here to share your thoughts. I have to say Triberr is NOT intuitive; it took many of us awhile to dink around with it, and then when we noted how much traffic, new peeps, new comments, new analytics we are getting as a result of extending our community/network via our tribe’s automated sending of our blog posts, people began to dig it. There is a manual feature; you can determine whether to send someone else’s post or not. I encourage you to keep an open mind about it; put it on the shelf, and then re-visit again. Of course, it depends on the goals for your blog, too. Good night!
wow, i totally thought you would be agreeing with me LOL. Anyway, yeah it doesn’t really add up for me and my blog’s goal, but that’s ok!
LOL, Scott! Sorry, if I swerved on you!
Agree agree agree. I fact I met Dono Dogan and talked to him about these issues. I’m not sure if the model is sustainable. Great post and I’m proud to be one of the founding members of Soulati-tude! : )
Absolutely you are, too! You pushed and nudged and shoved and pushed me into blogging; now look what you’re responsible for! 🙂
nice post thanks
nice post thanks