On my 1280×1024 screen, Twhirl fits 13 messages at a time. TweetDeck and other tools like it show even fewer messages.

TweetDeck fits only 9 messages per screen, for example

The mobile device clients can handle maybe 7 messages or maybe even fewer. PockeTwit is 4 messages, Twikini is 5 messages.  If you continually fill that space with filler content or with multi-tweet dumps, you will be unfollowed.

Solving the TwitterFeed problem

While TwitterFeed by itself is a great service, by default it is was setup to be very invasive. It dumps 5 messages at a time. I submitted a suggestion to change that default setting. You are welcome to add your voice and make this portion of the article obsolete.

Note: Mario has implemented this change

Remember that we have very limited screen space to read your messages. Unless your content is so astonishingly good as to take up half of my screen, please don’t monopolize it. By the way, no content from an automated feed is that good.

I know that 5 messages per hour doesn’t sound like much. I follow 700+ people simultaneously and will probably be following thousands soon. Even 10 people with such a misconfigured account can substantially spoil my experience.

Your followers are more likely to read your message if it does not seem automated

Whenever I decide whether to follow someone, I have to evaluate whether they will take over my screen. If I see posts “via twitterfeed”, I have to pay special attention to the potential volume.

Whenever I am reading my Twitter stream, I tend to ignore posts posted in blocks. My brain tunes them out as automated, thus less likely to be interesting.

As is always in computing, the solution tends to require one click. Knowing what to click is the tricky part. I charge an awful lot of money to fix Microsoft Exchange servers with a few of those hidden clicks.

For Twitterfeed, we simply need to reset the “Post up to” setting to something more reasonable. 1 per 30 minutes is better than 2 at a time once per hour. Why is that? If your message is sufficiently compelling, I will probably look through your 20 most recent updates anyway. Twhirl lets me do that with a single click. You are more likely to catch my attention if you post twice per hour rather than once per hour.

Please try this and you’ll likely see that you will gain more followers and garner recommendations.

Quotes overload

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to program a bunch of quotes into software like Tweet Later and Easy Tweets.

Look at it from my position – I follow literally thousands of users. There is no way I can keep up with everyone if everyone tweets at the same time.

Regardless of how thought-provoking your quote stream might be, it ultimately delivers zero value to me. What do we do with those twitizens who provide us with zero value? If you guessed unfollow, you were right!

It is common knowledge in direct marketing world that your brand needs to be in front of your customer’s eyes. That’s why we create our newsletters and try to keep them sent out at least once per month. On Twitter, your last 20 posts are a click away.

If all I see from you is quotes, I assume you have zero value to provide to me. Quotes fill up my screen. Regardless of whatever information you may have for me that is useful, I have to manage my information overload. Just try following a few hundred internet marketers and see how long it will take before you start looking for the unfollow feature.

If you must use lots of quotes for whatever misguided reason, give me an easy way to filter them out. For example, use the ~ character or #quote. I can filter on -~ and -#quote and call it a day.

In summary, if I want to see quotes, I’ll buy a quote book

• I am more likely to look at what you have to offer if you tweet less.
• Twitter marketing is about writing great headlines.
• Ignoring my advice costs you money and loyal followers.

Let me show you an example of someone who really understands how to market on Twitter

This person is so good, he wound up on my #FollowFriday list even though that person never interacts with Twitter. Are you intrigued?

Meet @TeddyShabba. He has a dating advice website, which is one of my niches. Not all content on that site is even his. One reason I follow him is to study his various headlines.

The headlines are designed for high CTR. He also posts quotes, unfortunately, but they are intermixed with lots of action statement headlines. Unlike most, he does not overpost. You will notice that the posts are very infrequent and spaced out.

Even though the updates say “from web”, in reality they are from an automated tool.

That automated account has 51000 followers

Be a good Twitizen – help us manage the information overload.

• Don’t dump information on us screenful at a time.
• Don’t make us drown in your choice of quotes.
• Don’t make us unfollow you.

About the author

Leonid S. Knyshov (@wiseleo) writes about social media and other topics of interest on http://Knyshov.com

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