Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Difficult Decision Regarding Twitter

When I first began on Twitter, I was stunned that there were people out there who not only wanted to follow me but were also willing to retweet my book announcements. I've now reached the point where I have over 5,000 Twitter followers and wake up every morning to dozens of retweets. I get dozens more during the day and what I used to do was thank each person individually, click over to their Twitter stream and retweet something of theirs.

As my list of followers grew, I found that this was taking up more and more of my time. I started a list, "People I like to RT" and would go through that every day. Then I started thanking people in batches for their RTs and mentions.

Now even that is becoming too overwhelming. On top of that, Twitter, for some reason, is really sketchy about sending me the email announcements when someone RTs or mentions me, so I'm missing tons of people in my "thank you" Tweets.

All the time I spend putting people on "thank you" lists, searching for tweets of theirs for me to RT, and just generally trying to manage everything going on on Twitter is just taking too much of my time. So beginning today, I have decided that I am not going to send out the "thank you" tweets any longer. If you do RT or mention me, know that I am, of course, thankful for it.

This is a difficult decision for me because it causes me great distress to think that someone might find me rude or unappreciative. It is simply not the case, and that is why I am writing this post rather than just stopping the thank yous and RTs without notice.

But in compensation, I am doing something now, which you may have seen me Tweet about before. If you want me to RT something specific, just add "#RT @MichaelKRose" to the end of it (without the quote marks) and I will RT it as soon as I see it. I will try to do this without fail to anyone who adds that to their tweet, assuming it is a Tweet relevant to the interests of my followers and not vulgar or crude in any way. I'll also be occasionally sending out this tweet (or one like it) so everyone knows how to get an RT from me:
Writer friends, want me to #RT your book? Just put "#RT @MichaelKRose" (without quote marks) at the end so I'm sure to see it!
I'd like to again thank everyone who has been so helpful and generous. I will, of course, continue to chat with people who tweet to me, and I hope that many of you will add the "#RT @MichaelKRose" tag to your tweets so I can continue to return all the kindness so many have shown me.

Best,
Michael K. Rose

20 comments:

  1. Nicely done, Michael. With courtesy and grace, I will retweet yours, and politely code my book tweets to catch your attention.

    Terry, of @thoughtsthreads.

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  2. It's completely understandable. Once you reach a certain number of people on your timeline, you have to take a step back, or twitter becomes a day job. It's very considerate that you offer a possibility for a RT, and I think every writer who is trying to build a network, balancing the the networking and the storytelling, will understand.
    -Barb @demeter94

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    1. Thanks Barbara! As a self-published writer, I've had to become a marketer but I don't, like you said, want it to become my day job. Idling is my day job. :oP

      Michael

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  3. Mike,
    I like your idea. Honestly, I always feel a little weird when someone tweets me a thank you for #RTing something -- do I respond? Do I not?

    I'd love to get to the point where writing was my day job, by the way. Persistence!

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    1. I'd say respond. No need to feel weird at all. :o)

      Michael

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  4. You have found a proper way to remain polite and to keep your sanity without alienating fans and future fans :) Great Job

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    1. Thanks, Dale. That was a worry, to be sure (the alienation part, not the sanity part. Alas, that boat has sailed.).

      Michael

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  5. It says something rather fine about you, Michael, that rather than throw your hands in the air and cry out enough, you find something still within your power to do that feels right in your heart. I'm honored to know you.

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    1. Thank you for the kind words, Christina! :o)

      Michael

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  6. Michael, you are brave enough to do something we only dream of. It's so true about the time consumed when thanking everyone. We are so grateful to everyone for their RTs. We try to RT in return, but we are not able to thank every single person. It's impressive that you have found a resourceful way to handle this. Our hats off to you!

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    1. Thanks, Karen. I hope it is a solution that will work out well. My biggest worry was that people would think I take the RTs for granted, but based on all the responses here, I'm feeling better about that.

      Best,
      Michael

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  7. Completely understand, Michael. Twitter could easily become a full-time job. I hate to imagine somebody thinking I'm rude or unappreciative, but maybe we just have to make our books that much better so they continue to follow us regardless!

    My hope is that people understand we're busy, we're real people, and we can't please everyone (though I certainly give it my best shot).

    Keep it up, Michael, and good luck. :)

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  8. Thanks Michael. I will add you periodically too. As the caregiver helper to an old ill Mom and other family members- plus being a senior myself - coupled with all the daily chores here- and trying to publish more of my Dad's books, learn to blog and more- I too, can't cover all the thanks I owe to people on twitter. I sure appreciate you all very much.

    Thanks again Michael, for saying what you had to, so eloquently. Good luck to you.
    Hella

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    1. And thank you, Hella. All my best to you. :o)

      Michael

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  9. I think most people will understand. Besides, all the thank yous get redundant. This will give you more time for even better tweeting.

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    1. Thanks for the comment. Yes, already I feel like I'm engaging more on Twitter because I don't burn myself out with all the thank you notices. I'm enjoying my time on Twitter again. :o)

      Best,
      Michael

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