We’re seeing a disturbing (at least to me anyway) trend in how people are using Twitter these days. Take a look at the tweet streams for some of the people you are actively paying attention too. Are they links to interesting articles? Are they random insights that may help you with your job? Are they general interest stuff that you might find useful in your personal life? Or, on the flip side, are they an amalgamation of tweets about their own blog posts/comments?
Let me say this, though, that if you were to look at my stream you’d likely see some of my own blog posts mixed in, and that’s OK. I’m not trying to be the Twitter police, but some people are sharing their own blog posts so much that we’re sort of defeating the purpose of what social networking should be about – real conversations about real issues. Not link dropping at every turn.
So what’s the appropriate mix? Is it sharing it once in the morning, once at lunch and before leaving the office (what I sometimes do)? Is that too much? Should you just rely on your content being tweet worthy and leave it up to your community?
I should also say that I’m not sure there is a correct answer. It really is what your community wants, right? If you know there are some people who you constantly interact with that are on at different points of the day then tweeting at different intervals probably makes sense, right? Anyway, who am I to judge? You guys know better than me what your tolerance is…
*Image from Zazzle.com
Alternate Perspectives 
This is a good questions. Self promotion on Twitter can be annoying. There’s a difficult balance between sharing your personal brand with humility and letting people know what you’re talking about.
I agree that if you’re going to self promote, limit it to three times a day. if your content is good, you will know it by the retweets.
thanks for this post!
Thanks, Andy. Appreciate the comment and for you taking the time to stop by.
Great post. What gets cluttered for me is when I follow someone on Twitter and subscribe to their blog in my Google Reader. What would help me is labeling their tweet somehow as being a link to their own blog. Then I would know to skip it and I’d catch it in the time I set aside to catch up on my Reader.
Interesting. Thanks for the comment. Yeah, some people do highlight the fact that it is their own blog post. Maybe we could do that more often?
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One of the worst offenses I’ve seen recently? People tweet their own post. Then 45 minutes or an hour later, they tweet it again. Then again in another hour. Only when you go to pull up their entire tweet stream, they have DELETED previous tweets so it only LOOKS like they tweeted their own content once! *sigh*
I will certainly tweet my own posts. Heck, I want people to read my content just as much as the next blogger. But I try to limit it to 2 or 3 times per post. If there’s a particularly good discussion going in the comments, I may tweet again with a link to a particular comment.
I try to stay cognizant of the fact that I have a range of followers. Some follow me because of my social media/PR background. Others because I’m into cycling, craft beer, college football, or local to Albany. These non-social media folks don’t really care about my blog. And I don’t want to annoy the crap out of them by tweeting my own posts all day.
I guess I just really suck at all this self-promotion stuff.
Thanks, Amy. I know exactly what you are talking about. I’ve seen the same thing from a couple of folks.
Yeah, like I said, I don’t have any problem with someone tweeting about their own blog posts a couple of times, but when they are doing it 8-10x a day that’s a bit much for me to stomach.
I think this is one of the main issues facing Tiwtter. Where is the line between sharing your thoughts and shamless self-promotion?
My general guideline is the burger rule, or 80/20. 80% of your tweets should be comments on others posts are conversations with others, and 20% should be promoting your blog or whatever else you’re working on.
Good post!
@Ryan_J_Smith
Hi Ryan – thanks a lot for tweeting about the post and commenting here. Really do appreciate it. the 80/20 rule seems to make some sense to me as well, though I don’t know where we came up with the data point.
Is it just me or is it true that the people who should do the most self promotion tend to do the least?
How often is so completely relative. Honestly, I hardly ever tweet my posts — for whatever reason I feel like those in my stream who want to read my blog will do so on their own time, regardless of my tweet about it. Maybe I’m doing my blog a disservice but, if a post is read-worthy, others will tweet it around for me, right?
Not sure there’s a perfect formula, but I think a couple times a day is reasonable. If an interesting comment thread pops up, I think that’s perfect promotional fodder, and maybe warrants an extra tweet.
I’d say the appropriate mix is the one that makes you feel good at the end of the day. Less is more? Maybe that’s the rule we should live by in Twitterland. 😉
Hey Teresa – thanks for the comment! And sorry it is just now showing up. WordPress thought you were spam! sorry!
You’re right in the sense that it is whatever we think our community can tolerate. However, tweeting a lot about comment threads and your post is just flat out obnoxious.
And yes, you’re right, the people that should don’t and the people that do shouldn’t. Thanks again!
I want to defend the self-promoters, but only up to the first Tweet! I don’t subscribe to all the blogs authored by the folks I follow, so I rely on Twitter to point me to them.
Hi Jen – thanks for stopping by. I’d hope you would subscribe to this blog anyway? 😉 (a little self-promotion if you don’t mind)
Anyway, so many folks are using Twitter as a modified RSS, which could be at the root of our problem. It isn’t, and shouldn’t be that.
I never have a problem with someone sharing their post once, twice or even three times. There are some legitimate reasons for doing that. However, 8-10x, like has become customary in some instances, is over the line.