Some Thoughts on my Twitter “Strategy”
I don’t really have a Twitter strategy. Well, I do…but it’s super informal. I don’t track engagement rates, I don’t analyze my best performing Tweets, and I’ve scheduled exactly one Tweet in my entire lifetime. I don’t see Twitter as a marketing tool. I see Twitter as a communication tool.
By marketer’s standards, I haven’t really accomplished shit on Twitter. I average about 1 new follower a day and only have 1248 followers. I am by no means saying I’m a guru and you should do what I do. With that being said, here is how I approach Twitter.
Make a Dunbar List
In 1992, British Anthropologist Robin Dunbar presented the idea that humans can maintain a max of 150 strong, stable relationships at any given time.
I was first exposed to the Dunbar number during an introductory Anthropology course back in my days at SUNY Oneonta. Ever since I’ve started using social media in a professional way, I’ve been fascinated with how the Dunbar number applies to Social Media. I see so many influencers preach about how much they love building relationships with their community, yet in the same breath they’re obsessed with trying to get dozens and dozens of new followers a day. I can understand this goal for a brand account, but for a personal account, you cannot possibly build meaningful relationships with all of these people.
I have a private Twitter list titled “ My Dunbar List”. Since birthing this incarnation of my Twitter existence in April of 2015, my goal has been to find 150 people and build meaningful relationships with these 150 people. According to Dunbar, a “strong relationship” means if you were passing through the person’s town, they would want to grab a coffee or drink with you, and vice versa.
I follow over 350 people, but I only have a couple dozen people on my Dunbar list. Increasing this number is the only thing that matters to me. Once you get your Dunbar list in the triple digits, you will find you have built the relationships necessary to achieve pretty much any marketing or sales goal. That’s my theory at least.
Take a Genuine Interest in People
Now, I’m not talking genuine in marketing-speak. I’m talking actual, genuine interest in people. To me, this means reading a LOT of Tweets. Even if I don’t respond to every Tweet, I read 99% of the Tweets from people on my Dunbar list. If I see one of these people had just created something they’re passionate about sharing, I retweet it without them asking. If I see someone send a Tweet where they’re venting about something, I’ll send them a DM making sure everything is okay. Sometimes I’ll send a DM because I’m inspired by some recent achievement they’ve Tweeted about.
I don’t do this with any ulterior motive. I don’t expect anything back from anyone. I just like to learn about people.
Live in Your DMs
“Engagement” is something marketers love to blog/Tweet/Podcast/Livestream about. Marketers get wrapped up in the things that are used to calculate “influence”. Things like engagement rates, number of followers, audience growth rate, etc. Most marketers don’t care about DMs because they aren’t quantified by any metric.
The fact that I regularly send and receive 100 DMs a week doesn’t show up in any KPI dashboard, yet I get the most value by FAR from these DMs.
If you don’t use your DMs, you might not know this, but there is no 140 character limit. You can also create a group DM that pretty much functions like any other group messaging app. DMs are where the real relationship building happens.
That’s pretty much it. Tweet me with your thoughts (@BPucino)
