Todd Earwood

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How Do You Handle Twitter Overload?

December 4, 2008

social networking cartoon

I’m starting to get overloaded by Twitter. I really enjoy their service, but I struggle to see what my friends say because my feed is too crowded with my web contacts. Sometimes I get asked did you see what some local person says on Twitter and usually, I’ve missed it.

I started using Twitter in March 2007 and while you definitely need a critical mass (imo) to enjoy Twitter (it was slow at first around Louisville), there has to be a line where too you can’t follow any more. I used to buy into the twitter theory of follow back everyone who follows you, but that made my twitter experience even worse.

A few months ago, I dropped over half of the people I was following, but in that time I’ve added 50 more people who first added me and I personally know. With the Twitter audience on such a rapid growth rate, how do you handle who to follow? Currently I’m following 426 and that’s still too many. This comic strip above reminded me of how we can get trapped into the obligatory friending or following. So what’s your solution?

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Todd Earwood

Total posts: 144

This post was filed in Social Networking

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  • Don't follow back everyone that follows you. Follow the people you actually want to see the real-time updates for.

    If you see someone you're interested in what they're doing, but not really sure you want to keep up with them, add them to your feed reader. Make a folder for twitter people. You can check that and skim it for interesting stuff/bulk mark as read.
  • Alex- Great idea. I don't use RSS for tracking others, but easily could.
  • Read @s and DMs and do a quick *vanity* search of my name everyday -- don't want to ignore people. Jump in the stream and converse as time permits. When someone follows me, I check their page, read through their tweets and bio, if they're a fit (professionally/personally) I follow back. Take Sundays off.
  • Same here and I should have stated I use summize/search.twitter to check who's talking to me. My issue really is more interesting people are following me, but where do you draw the line?
  • You need to decide what you want to use Twitter for. If its to keep in touch with what your friends are up to, then only follow them. If your trying to build up a large network to promote yourself and your business, follow everyone.
  • Johan - It's definitely NOT to follow everyone and self-promote. I find great links from Twitter and want to learn about new people, but I need to find a way to track my personal friends as well. Alex's suggestion above with RSS may be the trick.
  • I'm actually working on a solution in this area ...
  • Todd, Tweetdeck is pretty nice. Being able to put people into groups really makes it a lot easier to follow.
  • David - Great call. I like Wheeler (commented below) use the web mostly, but I should try Tweetdeck more. Thanks for the comment.
  • Varsity cuts!

    I use the scan test. I personally don't use any twitter clients, primarily because I would never get any work done, so all of interaction is directly with the site itself.

    This means that I pop in and out of the site when I have a spare 5 min here or there to catch up. What I've noticed is that when I pop in to read pages 1 - 6 (typically) I automatically skip certain users posts (eventually) because the content that initially caught my eye from that user has become less interesting. Could be me or them, no blame here.

    When you catch yourself skipping over those users, you know it's time to make the cut.

    I also have several RSS feeds setup to aggregate specific search terms or users data. Works well.
  • Wheeler - Good advice... you and Alex are smart to use RSS for certain data. Also, good advice on when/who to cut.
  • Participate when you can. Don't feel obligated to dive in to every conversation from every friend. And use a Twitter search of your user name to keep an eye on conversations about you. Might seem a bit ego-centric, but aren't those the people you want to engage with most often, anyway?

    I get the overload, too. I just treat it like the folks at the bar when I'm there. While I'm there, we chat. When I'm not, life goes on.
  • Falls - I should've stated earlier, but the search for @earwood is a constant. Smart advice on NOT having to get into every conversation and when there, enjoy.. when not, it's cool. I appreciate the input.
  • I tihnk it depends on your goals with Twitter. If you want to be able to know the ins and outs of some people's lives, and not miss a single thing, then reduce your numbers greatly and follow only those few people. Personally, I use two Twitter accounts and have them both open at the same time using http://twhirl.org One is 654 people and the other is following 9. I also supplement this with occasional searches on http://search.twitter.com

    Next, use a service to watch who quits following you. Each time someone quits, check and see if they look like a spammer. I've found that most of the people quitting me do look like spammers. http://realityme.net/2008/10/17/who-quit-follow...

    I contend high numbers are how you get a feeling for the news on a particular topic. If you follow a few people ina particular subject area you will get a couple of opinions that may or may not reflect the community's true feelings. If you follow hundreds on that subject area you are likely to get a better picture of the real story. http://realityme.net/2008/08/21/can-you-rely-on...
  • Doug - Thanks for the comment. I really liked your blog post on Twitter for breaking news. Great advice there.
  • My solution - use TweetDeck, and classify your Twitter followers by category and/or location (one just for Louisville, for instance). Have one or two high-priority streams that you look at regularly, then just check the "All Followers" stream on occasion. Big help with signal-to-noise problem!
  • Steve - Sounds like you and a few others are on the right track. I'll start using TweetDeck more. Thanks for the comment.
  • I used to maintain a blog where I got so many comments it was ludicrous. Sometimes 70-100 per day, and I knew they expected me to leave some kind of reciprocal comment on their websites. Eventually I just couldn't do it (and didn't have anything of interest to say to some of them, not to mention the ones I didn't *want* to encourage!).

    I like twitter because I don't feel like I *have* to comment back. I think it's the same w/ following back. It's just not necessary. It's okay to "unfollow." I automatically unfollow anyone who spams up the twitter stream. I mean, seriously--give it 10 minutes once in awhile, people.

    I try to keep up with local friends/family on facebook. They seem more interested in family photos and things, so that's where the convo is easier to maintain.

    As for twitter, I'm going to add locals and people I know to my favorites, and prioritize what little time I have there for them, then read the stream in extra time.
  • Leslea - Thanks for the great breakdown on how you've approached the stream of conversations and different social networks. I now know what my next post needs to be... the how, who and why I use each network. Thanks again for your thoughts.
  • my 'rule' is pretty simple: with very few exceptions, i follow only the people i know [or hope to meet soon] in real life. the other sources i follow are useful filters of news and info i find interesting. i offer no apologies for my imbalance of 'twitter karma' and don't care at all when someone doesn't find me interesting enough to follow. ;)
  • Nick - Much like Leslea's comment above, I think I need to publicly outline my friending/follow approaches. Just to make things more clear. I also TOTALLY AGREE with my lack of concern for twitter karma. Twitter is great in letting us each "customize" it by entering, tracking and following what we want. Thanks for the input.
  • Take a break. My CFO tweeps do this all the time. They disappear for a week or so then reappear (especially during month-end, finance negotiations, etc.). Twitter will still be here. Your followers will still be here. Send a tweet to let everyone know, "Twitter overload. Taking a break. DM me in the meantime. Catch you in a week." I get DMs via SMS, but I don't know how I set this up.
  • MIke - Ahh yes, twitter addiction. Something we all struggle with. I think you're right... get in, get out and explain how folks can get a hold of you. Good suggestion.
  • I just did a video on this because clients are asking this very question. I work in the green industry. They will understand the metaphor that when you fertilize you grow not just the good stuff but get weeds too. Twitter is organic marketing and you have to let it grow - translation - follow everyone.

    Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzACMtGyj04

    Jeff Korhan
    www.truenature.com
  • Jeff - I agree, Twitter can be good for organic marketing and is a good place for newbies to start (per your video). I don't think following back everyone works for me. While I want to participate in many conversations, we all have our separate groups we wish to closely track (friend, industry thought leaders, etc). From the previous comments TweetDeck may be the fix for my twitter use. Thanks for the comment and video link.
  • As an extreme example, Tim Ferris has 1,000s of followers but follows absolutely no one. 'Course he's extreme in pretty much everything. I'm no twitterer myself so offer no solution except to wonder why FB and Twitter and LinkedIn and Plaxo all do what I want them to do without being hi-maintenance.
  • Lawson - great to see your name pop up here. Tim Ferriss for sure has a unique Twitter approach, but he's also very, very focused on self-promotion. I think you've hit it on the head... it must be low maintenance.
  • twalala.com might be of some use for this topic. It allows you to control what you see or don't see in your twitter stream.
  • Tweetdeck and a hard limit of 150 people that you can follow. Like a popular nightclub, no one goes out until someone leaves (involuntarily of course).
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