10 Resources That Might Keep Twitter Quitters Engaged

Posted by John Todor on May 5, 2009

1 comments | 2793 reads

Recently, Nielsen Online reported that more than 60% of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate is about 40%.

I quit once. The learning curves seemed just to steep for the perceived benefits. I’ve been back at it for 5 weeks and I’ve been working at making it pay business dividends.

Here are a few realities that you have to work around. Twitter and twitter apps lack any real consideration for the user experience. Most apps are simply tools. People who successfully use Twitter for business purpose realize this and work around them. The majority of people Twitter for reasons other than business. Learn to detect them and avoid them. Twitter is evolving, fast and the business uses are evolving from the ways real businesspeople use it.

To twitter for business successfully you need a purpose or agenda. The idea that you should join and listen is nonsense. Listen to people talk about there cat or the peanut butter sandwich they had for lunch, no thanks. I started by interviewing business people I know who twitter and still run a successful business. You might want to check my blog post Why Businesspeople Use Twitter – Tales for the Trenches.

My approach to anything new and different is to ask these questions in sequence. Why should it warrant my attention, or what could possibly be in it for me? How does it work? How can I uniquely use it to serve my purposes?

Here are 10 valuable resources that I have discovered over the last 5 weeks. If I had found them the first time I got on Twitter, I might not have quit. Hope you find them helpful.

Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People
http://tinyurl.com/cplzdb

Twitter Tips: How to Search Twitter Smarter
http://tinyurl.com/c97n8k

Twitter Tips: How and Why to Use Hashtags (#)
http://tinyurl.com/cvffkz

Twitter Tips: How to Safely Blend the Personal and the Professional
http://tinyurl.com/d7arvh

13 Tutorials & Resources for a Perfect Twitter Background
http://tinyurl.com/dl2upx

40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them
http://tinyurl.com/8bkoxp

The 10 Users You’ll Meet on Twitter
http://tinyurl.com/9x3ely

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
http://tinyurl.com/5u75pe

Get Your Free Twitter Personality Test! (and those you might want to follow)
http://twanalyst.com/

Exectweets: Find and Follow Top Business Execs on Twitter
http://www.exectweets.com/

John Todor

John I. Todor, Ph.D. is the Managing Partner of the MindShift Innovation, a firm that helps executives confront the volatility and complexity of the marketplace. We engage executives in a process that tackles two critical challenges: envisioning new possibilities for creating and delivering value to customers and, fostering employee engagement in the innovation and alignment of business practices to deliver on the new possibilities. Follow me on Twitter @johntodor

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John Todor

May 6, 2009

Twitter at work

Yesterday I tweeted about this blog and got an immediate response from a follower (Sylvia) with another great Twitter resource.

The Ultimate Guide to Everyting Twitter
http://tinyurl.com/djnho6

John I. Todor, Ph.D.

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