Your mouth is so big, one bite would kill a Big Mac.

December 14, 2009 | Filed Under Social Media 

When it comes to twitter, is there a such thing as too much information? And if so, when is too much, too much? I asked this very question earlier, via Twitter and received an amazing pool of thoughts and opinions. 140 characters limited me from explaining my question in real detail so I’m going to elaborate here for you in hopes to continue this great spark of conversation.

First I have to go on a tangent and explain to my readers how I “use” my twitter account: I am an online marketing gal. I live and breath online marketing in all forms. I have many opinions and thoughts on my industry and when asked, I oblige. When asked. Other than that, I don’t do the numbers game. I don’t mass follow. I don’t push for higher followers. I like having followers for the same reason people like having friends. It makes me feel loved. No lie. Smoochie, smoochie and whatnot. I don’t push my own crap, beg for followers or retweets, or try to sell you any of my oil. In other words, I don’t have a hidden agenda. I get my fill of this with twitter accounts I manage for clients.

My twitter is me. All me. 100% pure Madness, er, I mean Mandaness. Most of my followers know this about me and still continue to follow me anyway (for reasons well beyond even myself). So… when I tweet, it’s me sharing my life with my followers, 160 characters at a time. but twitter isn’t the only place where I share bits and pieces of my life.

A friend of mine suggested a flickr tool to me that would update my followers every time I uploaded a new image. Not being new to twitter, I’m well aware of the many tools available to connect your social media outlets to your twitter account. I’m also aware of just how thin that line is between simply staying connected and being annoying. I decided that instead of playing the “how many followers can I get to unfollow me” game, I would simply ask my fellow peers what they thought. LOTS of great food for thought. Here is my question, what I got back and how I interpreted these thoughts:

1.) Go easy on it.
@saffyre9 “it’s cool when used sparingly, otherwise annoying“
@ArcticLeo “Separation enables filtering what I’m interested in following. Dislike when folks tweet every song thru last.fm for example.”
@elysa “blog posts yes – flickr no. I’m okay with things that aren’t in mass quantity (like photos).”

My thoughts: I think this is an overall sentiment. I’ve always been fortunate enough to be in the kind of company who would give me “the look” when I was nervously overtalking or making an ass out of myself. Too many tweets can be annoying. Period. If you’re ALL I see in my home stream, I’m gonna unfollow you. Especially if majority is music related. Not because I don’t like your taste in music. Ok, that’s a lie. I have unfollowed someone for posting how much love they love,love,love lady gaga. I don’t need a play-by-play of your music experience. Just as much as I dont need a play-by-play of your bathroom visits. I do welcome the occasional “song I’m digging” tweet but I don’t think this requires an annoying plug-in.

2.) The channel is important.
@bradfucious: “I feel fine about it and try do that where possible; I don’t think that some of my friends care much for it, though, esp on fb.”
@carondelet “But posting to tumblr and having it tweeted and vice versa seems to be taken better. So perhaps its more about the channel?”
@ArcticLeo “Too much when people mix what’s suitable for RSS feeds & Twitter. Different tools are suited for different jobs.”

My thoughts: I personally like when my followers post their newly updated images and blog posts. For me, its because I’m far more connected to my twitter activities than I am to my other networks. It makes my life a lot easier. HOWEVER… I am not too fond of seeing twitter activity on my wall or reposted on your blog without any explanation of it’s intent or what it’s in support of (just in case you felt like calling me a pot. or a kettle). Why? Because twitter is a different type of communication. It’s continuous and always evolving. You’re facebook page is it’s own pivot point, your life’s stream.  Twitter streams are much different in that they are equal parts sharing and conversing. No one like to see a one sided conversation you had with someone on twitter. Especially if I’m one of those people who just doesn’t get twitter (yes, they exist).

3.) Don’t use it as a replacement
@jonmikelbailey “it seems that there is no effort in finding information that the tweeter finds useful and thereby wants to share”
carondelet “I think it might be a bit too much. Occasionally there should be some organic updates and true interaction on these channels.”
@jonmikelbailey “too much and a loss in tweet value if you ask me”

My thoughts: Do I really need to go into details here? I can get past the redundant auto-posts if you are engaging enough to make it worth my follow. But if you’ve long since forgotten the password to your account because its been running on auto-pilot for so long, I’m out. “There, that should take care of my tweeting for the day”. With the exception of news-reacted twitter feeds, I’m not into following robots. Don’t lean on these plug-ins to be your value. It’s easy to abuse things that make our life more convenient but if you’re looking to these tools to add value to your tweets then you should be ok.

Overall I think if you’re being genuine, your safe but if ever in doubt just ask. I’m sure someone will be kind enough to give you “the look”.

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