How to lose credibility in one easy lesson
I read an article in a recent issue of Success magazine the other day where Guy Kawasaki offers 10 tips for startups. I'll admit I didn't really know who Guy Kawasaki was. In fact, I don't think I'd really heard of him. But I the article was good (read it online here) and I thought I might buy one of his books also. So the next day when someone retweeted something from him, I figured I would follow him on Twitter as well.
Following Guy Kawasaki on Twitter lasted just over 24 hours. Why? Because of repeated tweets. Guy seemed to be posting the same links over and over and since I try to read everything that is posted on Twitter by the people I follow, I found it nothing short of spam. For the first handful of repeated tweets I figured that it was probably just an error, either by Twitter or by an API he was using. But then I discovered this:
@GuyKawasaki How to avoid my repeat tweets http://om.ly/bzNw
(original tweet is here)
Long story short, Guy has decided that he should post his tweets four times, eight hours apart to ensure maximum coverage and click convergence. And if you don't like it, you should go to the source or just unfollow him.
Yes, I know Twitter is an open service and that users, without breaking the terms of service, are free to use it as they see fit. But the general consensus is that you shouldn't use Twitter as your RSS feed. Furthermore, like good content is to natural SEO, the best way to ensure followers read your posts is to make sure your posts are worth reading. And that you aren't spamming people. If you have good things to say people will seek out your stuff.
So Guy Kawasaki might have lots of followers at any one point in time, but I'd be curious to know what his turnover is like. And for the record, I've decided against buying any of his books -- I don't need advice from someone more concerned about how many people are hearing his message for a true messiah is happy if he's helped just one person.
Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:30 Posted in General
