5 ways Jason Silvestri Tweets on Twitter

Twitter is one of the most interactive places on the internet today. Still, many people do not hop on because they feel it is just some other social network, not realizing the potential of it in terms of building your social equity, building genuine relationships (if used correctly), and of course prospect potential. Conversely, Twitter is also a place filled with lazy people. Rather than take their time with their interactions, they abuse the privilege of the DM and signup for 10 ways to make their interactions easier on Twitter. Don’t get me wrong. Apps like TweetDeck, Seesmic and even Ping.fm (pushing it) are viable solutions to just get your brain wrapped around how you would go about organizing your authentic Twitter followers and those you follow. However, once you start setting up TwitterFeed or even worse, unregistered APIs, things get so robotic that the interaction is almost useless. Yeah, you see all these people with 40,000 followers, but so what! They are all robots in the scheme of things. Furthermore, getting involved in robotic tweeting takes away the authenticity of you as the human. Why spend days, weeks, months, or even years building a following of people that do not care for what you are about? As I have heard others like Gary V say in the past, “You need put in sweat equity”. You really do too. In the scheme of things though, it really isn’t that hard to build a following of genuine tweeters that actually give a crap about you. You just need to interact with your following. You have to be willing to tweet-listen, not just tweet-speak.

Listed below are some of the fundamental rules I kind of go by while on Twitter:

1) I am avid RTer. I think sharing other people’s content is an important part of the Twitter process. People want you to RT because they are asking for your generosity. By simply RTing, you are pushing someone else’s message to others that may need it, even if you don’t. Stop worrying about what your followers see you re-tweet, because they know it is an RT. If you truly want to take back an RT you did, simply remove in a few hours. Let it circulate for your fellow tweep first.

2) I no longer check DMs. All the people with their automated feeds and lazy approach to networking; spewing out their cheesy brand; have abused the privilege as many can agree. If you would like to have a genuine, private interaction, you may visit me via my website, facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or The Toppler Project.

3) If you do not follow me, I will not follow you. I know that sounds lame, but the reality of it is there really comes a certain respect between two people when there is an interaction happening. I would not expect you to just listen to me if you saw me at an event, at a party, or even worse, while on a phone conversation with me. Moreover, there is an immediate unwanted relationship you create by not following back. Unless a person in unlawful or disrespectful, and even they need love too, you should be actively following those who follow you. They may need your help; they may even be a prospect. The may just want you to follow them back so you will be a potential prospect to them. So what? Really! If someone on Twitter can actually solve a problem you have one day, why not have them around? You can just stop following them or block them if need be.

4) I do not follow people that use unregistered APIs, tools like TwitterFeed, etc. I often do by mistake, but then eventually remove them from my follow list once I see a tweet from them. I need genuine tweeps to talk about. The people who squish together brilliant quotes - and awesome headlines with a link to their blog or brand - within a 140 character micro blog, are the people I want to be around. Not a list of scheduled bites of reoccurring content that regurgitates itself throughout Twitter land.


5) Upload a profile pic, will ya!? I often follow those that post a profile pic even if it is fake. It’s a psychological thing for sure, but it means something else too. Procrastination is an interesting act we all do one time or another. Not posting a pic, especially after several days or weeks of having a twitter account, is like one of those signs that says you are not really in engagement mode. You may not have a pic. However, it is even those peeps I admire that post a default pic from their sample pics on Vista that shows an effort in wanting to engage as a member of the Twitter cult. Upload a pic. Create a twitter back. Don’t know how? Tweet out this, “I need help with a Twitter back. Can someone help me?” People will most likely send you a link to a place that will do it for free. Architect your brand, make it known. Think of a twitter profile preview done by another Tweeter as a big headline plug. Have a website or blog? Throw it up in your profile. Make sure your twitter back has your brand. People like it when deal straight with them. When people can see what you do just by coming to your twitter page, it gives them the quick DL on what you do so they can either follow or not, and then move on to the next person in their list of people to follow back.

Having the ability to follow people and have them follow you back is a simplistic concept; a binary on/off switch. Tweeting, however, is a difficult concept to master. To make friends on twitter, you need to be genuine, realistic and have something to talk about.