How Tweet It Is

It took a while before I got a Twitter account. I wasn't sure that I had enough going on to set one up. Once I did, I was amazed at just who had one. You can follow me @Nprogram or @JohnHughley.

I set up the second account after considering to give the music done in my name as much of a separate identity as I possibly could.

Twitter is an interesting concept in communication. I'm sure by now everyone knows that you have to say what you want to say in 140 characters or less. While this may sound easy enough, this constraint forces a tweeter to be as concise and to the point as possible. As an artist, I thought that most other artists would be tweeting constantly. But, what I found is that what works best for just about every artist at every level, is that tweeting only when it's informative, entertaining, or promotional is really all that's necessary.

Anyone can set up a Twitter account, having something meaningful to say is entirely up to each tweeter. In fact, some tweeters are having whole conversations just tweeting to each other. The site offers direct messages, but you've really got to pay close attention to your personal email if you want to keep up.

My first few months on Twitter were very interesting. I tried to follow back everyone who followed me. Slowly, I found that some who will follow you will tweet very interesting bits of information and some tweets will make you wonder. It wasn't until I read the blog of a fellow tweeter who writes for a magazine, that I found out that if you're following a lot of tweeters, you're stream could become congested with tweets that may be of little value.

This tweeter suggested unfollowing everyone and starting over, only the next time around, follow only those whose tweets hold some significance. This tweeter also said that it was a very difficult decision for them to make, but one that made their tweet stream not only more manageable, but also more informative. Personally, I didn't want to start all over, and the idea of unfollowing everyone who was following me was a little difficult to digest. That was, until Twitter cut off my ability to follow others. When you reach a certain number of people that you are following, and if you aren't being followed by at least a third of that number, then Twitter blocks you from adding any new tweeters until your followers increase.

I like to follow music, technology, science, and news tweeters, so I was forced to go through my list and look for anyone who was first of all, just having fun, or maybe not even tweeting at all. From there, it was a matter of relevance to my interests. I didn't carve away as many as I thought that I might. But, the result was the loss of some followers, who were followers of those whom I had unfollowed. I was sure by this time that this wasn't the way that Twitter was supposed to work.

As time has gone by, I found that improving the content of my tweets has brought followers back to my account. That, and replacing those that had been unfollowed with tweeters more in line with my interest. I'm certain that, depending on who you are and what you do also makes a big difference in your ability to grow your following. If you're national or international at what you do, it's very likely this will provide you with ample opportunity you add followers. Access to Radio or Television doesn't hurt either. However, some tweeters appear to be able to add followers, just by the use of provocative subject matter within their tweets.

One of the most interesting things I've observed while on Twitter is the accounts of those who seemed to have a small number of tweeters when compared to who they are and what they do. But, as I've read their tweets, I discovered, and this is just my opinion, that this is probably due to a close connection to their audience or peer group. Or, perhaps it doesn't matter who or how many tweeters are following them. Maybe what they do or how they live, is what it's really all about.