Why I Have Zero Tweets
October 20, 2009
In the past year my interest in social media has drastically increased. The topic area appeals to me for sure; though I have a feeling that my role as a marketer at a Boston venture capital firm has contributed to this new source of intrigue.
In my personal life, I am an avid Facebook fan. I enjoy exchanging pictures, writing messages, and simply keeping in contact with old and new friends. I also like to use LinkedIn to build my professional network. I take pleasure in checking out new social sites and learning about the new features and capabilities of each.
As interested as I am in this area, for whatever reason, I have never been able to get into Twitter. It wasn’t until recently, that my interest was piqued and I decided to give it a try. Working at a VC firm that takes an active interest in expansion stage tech companies, it’s difficult not be influenced by all of the techies swarming around.
I joined Twitter about a month ago. I currently follow 43 people, a combination of family, friends, and professional contacts – and have 29 followers of the same type. I have 0 tweets.I recently became connected “following/followed by” a gentleman by the name of Andrew Davis, who spoke at one of our events two weeks ago. He responded to my follow with “no tweets?”
I read this message and pondered it for quite some time. No, I don’t have any tweets. Is this because I don’t have anything to say? Nope, that’s not it. Is it because I don’t know what to say? Well maybe that’s getting a bit closer. Is it that I don’t know what to say or when/how often to say it? Yes, I think that might be it.
When I think about the social sites that I frequent, there is a clear distinction in my mind that Facebook is for my personal life and LinkedIn is for my professional life. But where does Twitter fit in? I am following friends and groups of interest, also colleagues and professional connections. The lines are blurred. Do my family and friends care about the newest fads in raising venture capital? I doubt it. Do my professional contacts care if I’m out to dinner with my sister? I doubt it as well. What to write…
Another factor contributing to my 0 tweets is the “content promise,” a phrase coined by Joe Pulizzi, content marketing extraordinaire. When you promise your followers or target audience a content delivery schedule, the expectation has been set. If you don’t deliver on that promise, you’ll lose the trust of your audience. If I add 4 tweets one day, followed by a week of nothingness, what are my followers going to think? I don’t want to disappoint them, so I have yet to tweet.
A recent article states that “more than a third of [Twitter accounts] have not posted a single Tweet.”After seeing this, I am intrigued that I’m not the only interested yet inactive Twitter user; though I wonder if anyone else shares the same tweeting anxieties…