Ten Reasons I Stopped Following You on Twitter

I love Twitter. I love the challenge of summing up life's moments in verbal snapshots of 140 characters or less (I'm @zadoodle).  Sometimes the information is banal, and sometimes I feel like a stand up comedian practicing one-liners before my night at the Improv.  Bantering with other Tweeks out there is fun too. And we can never forget the business benefits of Twitter. Just tweeting about a blog post or item in my Etsy store generates a bunch of traffic.

When I first joined Twitter I made the newbie mistake of following anybody I could in the hopes of building my followers (I call this the followback method).  As a result my timeline (the tweets of the people I follow) became pretty ugly, so I have come to the conclusion that there is a time when tweeters go too far.

Creating a Brand That Lasts

What's in a name?  Those of you who know the Zadoodle brand, as humble and small as it is, most likely associate it with vintage: vintage store, vintage blog, vintage sheetmusic.  I like that it also conveys the quirky side of my personality.  But maintaining an online vintage store is a huge endeavor, and I'm considering a reinvention of my Zadoodle persona, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on branding. 

Confessions of a Twitter Junkie

When I first signed up with Twitter (find me here)I didn't consider the repercussions of what I was doing.  At first it seemed like a popularity contest: how many followers could I collect?  So I started to follow people in hopes that, in true Twitter-karma fashion, I would receive followers and perhaps drive traffic to my Etsy store.

Indeed, I sowed... and I reaped.  Slowly my followers grew, and I grew... excited.  50 followers.  Hey, that's neat.  100 followers.  Ooh, I'm in triple digits.  298 followers.  Come on baby, need to get 2 more for an even 300.  400 followers.  Right on!

Then all of a sudden my offline life superseded my online life, so I neglected to participate in a few #FF (for you non-tweeters, this is Follow Friday, the day of the week when you mention your friends and spread goodwill around Twitter, with the general expectation that harvest principles, aka karma, will come back to you in the form of more followers).

So anyway, after a week or two of non-activity, I discover I have 478 followers.  Hey, cool! I think.  Not too shabby, especially considering I've been schizo lately that I haven't really been able to nurture my online friendships in light of my offline life.  I decide to DM my new followers (this, again for the uninitiated, means to send a Direct Message) with a "thanks for following" message.

In the middle of my process of thanking my new followers, I suddenly notice that I am at 477 followers.

477 followers.  That's one less than 478.

That means *gasp* I have lost one.

Panic begins to set in.  Where could that follower have gone?  Where did I put him (or her)?  How could this have happened????

I begin to look at the list, as if somehow I would be able to tell which username out of nearly 500 was suddenly missing.  What did I do?  How did I offend?  How can I get them back???

This is, of course, a ludicrous train of thought.  I remind myself that I have un-followed people in the past, realizing that we don't share the same goals or interests.  For instance, in my naivete I have discovered that "Retro" does not always mean 1950s kitsch.  Sometimes a search for #retro conjures up foul-mouthed rap artists, and more often than I would have expected.

So my advice to all of you Tweeters, including myself... stop tweaking!  If someone stops following you, consider it a blessing that your network consists of discerning people who are not following you only to inflate their own numbers, but because they actually share common interests with you.

Tweet you later!

It's All About Who You Know (Rather, Who Knows You...)

I was doing so well.  I was Twittering (or is it tweeting?). I was blogging.  I set up a Facebook fan page.  I linked my online shop to twitter and FB.  Now I check in the Forums at Etsy and find a list of TWENTY-FOUR networking sites to connect to in order to build my "online presence." It's a great list, find it here.

Now, before I start looking at the cup as half-empty, I must remember that I have been working my new business less than a week, so one day at a time, right?  So if I set myself up on one new site every day, within a month I should be done with the list.  Or maybe I'll give myself more time. Or maybe I won't.

This is my thought process.  Aren't you glad you're not a fly on the wall of my skull?  Who wants to listen to THAT all day?

There is so much to remember to have a successful online business.  You have to build your product.  You have to build your clientele, and you have to build an offramp on the information superhighway leading potential buyers to your door!

My brain hurts.