So, my blog is ticking along nicely and I am gaining new likes on Facebook and learning more about Twitter and other social media channels daily.
I got to thinking about what it’s like to be a newbie to the Twittersphere and how daunting it can seem initially – it’s true it can seem baffling, so here are my 7 reasons why joining Twitter can suck.
1. Feeling inadequate alongside influential people
It’s not confidence-building to first join Twitter and see other people already have 150,000 followers.
Just quietly, that’s like having the entire audience of Glastonbury music festival follow your tweets.
Wow, I’m sure if I gain followers from family, friends and others on Twitter who like my ramblings then I might get to 1000 followers (fingers crossed).
In the meantime I have joined mailing lists for excellent and inspirational advice from people who have ‘been there and done that’ including Neil Patel at Quick Sprout and Alexis Grant.
2. Learning Twitterspeak is like learning another language
I remember when SMS’s made communication easier with mobile phones my Dad texted me ‘LOL’ one day, and I texted back ‘Do you know what that means?’ and he had no idea – it was just something he included on his text messages as everyone else used it.
image: thebiznavigator
Learning the abbreviations and etiquettes of Twitter is like learning another language – how many newbies are still floundering with the meaning of RT, #FF and even the significance of hashtags? Still stuck – check out Twittonary
3. Feeling overwhelmed with gaining followers
So, you joined Twitter and told everyone your Twitter name. Soon all your family, friends, and work colleagues followed you.
Then you typed in keyword searches to stalk anyone related to your industry or niche and added them hoping they shared the love back.
Then – BAM! – there is a plateau of no new followers.
image: seoclark.com
I feel grateful to Social Media Examiner for alleviating my feeling of having no friends (I’m kidding!) and who gave me the savvy heads-up to use tools such as Twtrland and justunfollow to find people that matter.
4. Voicing yourself in 140 characters
Some days I really struggle to simplify my thoughts into a tweet and I want to tweet six paragraphs!
Simple is good though.
I just need to think of each tweet as a small slice of the ‘big picture’ pie.
For those of you who struggle like me to condense a tweet, you can create a sneaky extension to your tweet by using something like Twishort (a tool I haven’t used myself as I am trying really hard to stick to 140 characters).
5. Crushed expectations
It’s happened plenty of times, I have been super excited to follow someone then my expectations curl into a ball and roll into the ‘Don’t go back there’ corner of Twitter.
I have followed someone on Twitter then I’ve been disappointed with boring tweets, constant retweets with no original material, or a continued hourly stream of poetic quotes about the sun, moon and stars.
Sorry to the guy who tweets about the sun, moon and stars but I still need to read something new, funny, informative, motivating, helpful or inspiring.
6. Being unaware of tools to help you
When you join any social media channel, it’s a big learning curve to learn all the tricks and tips.
As a busy mother working part-time and also trying to maintain my blog, it’s been helpful to schedule and manage my tweets and I stumbled across Commsaxis who had useful advice about tools such as Buffer, Plugg.io, and dlvr.it.
Thank you Alexis Grant (again!) who reminded me about the benefits of Hootsuite and Twitter lists.
Making lists in Twitter has saved me time reading my feeds and by curating people into common themes, for example Family Travel, it helps me to focus on them.
7. Random fans
I have a new appreciation for accepting Facebook friend requests now I’m on Twitter.
My Facebook friend requests usually come from people I directly meet or friends of friends, not random people around the globe.
Joining Twitter has opened the floodgates for unknown people to follow me, and while I appreciate most followers on Twitter I have not met in person (or may never meet) there are a select few who are followers for no reason other than to hope I follow them back to increase their own followers.
Do you have any suggestions of tools or tips for Twitter you could share?
What was your biggest learning experience joining Twitter? (mine was the importance of targeted hashtags and I have been using this to help me)
All opinions in this blog post are mine. If you like this blog post please retweet on Twitter, share on Facebook or comment on my post. Thanks!
Access Riviera 