Five Stages of Twitter Acceptance
When I found this on Rhohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog, I was absolutely delighted. Because they’re dead on.
Personally, I’m at Stage 4 with Twitter most of the time, and fight to stay in Stage 5… I have ushered clients through Stages 1, 2 and 3 regularly, and hope they’ll figure out how to hit Stage 4 and 5 when they’re meaningful to them.
When you hit (or follow someone who’s hit) Stage 5, you will experience the true power of the Twitter experience.
To check your Stage, here’s what you should do… check your own personal Twitter profile every time you login. Ask yourself:
- What does your most recent page of Tweets say about you?
- Are you having meaningful conversations and publishing information of interest for others to read?
- Are you Re-Tweeting (RT) other people’s posts and replying to posts as much as you’re telling others what’s up with you?
As I’ve said before, with Twitter (and with any other social media tool) you’ve got to give to get. Seriously. The conversation economy is thriving because (as my friend Marsha noted in her comments here):
“Our brains are wired via 350,000 generations of community cooperation - looking out for one another.”
Let’s go online and help each other out. Keep me honest, folks… is my profile screaming Stage 5 to you?
How true. Thanks for finding the five stages.
I cannot say that I am consistently in stage 5, however to get the full zen of twitter one can strive. Those folks at stage one will resist adopting this medium without a roadmap to make steps more visable. While social medium appear to take twitter to a sixth level… As stream of conciousness.
Great post Janet! Very interesting. I think I’m only at stage 3. I wonder how to best go about having meaningful conversations when I’m limited to 140 characters?
Hey, @kenneyotto - Love the idea of Stage 6 - wondering whom you’d nominate for that level?
Would also be interested in knowing whether you’re following anyone who’s Tweeting consistently at Stage 5?
And hey Larry - I think you’re in good company at Stage 3… We all have to go through each of the Stages.
Since you asked, meaningful conversations (to me) means that you’ll reach out to Tweeps and ask questions.People love questions. Or to respond to something they’ve said, or retweeting particularly great posts.
For example, today @7thscreen is Tweeting from the hospital bedside of a friend. I wished him well this morning, and am about to thank him for sharing his experience with us.
It’s sometimes the tiniest gestures that can be the most meaningful. And meaning is in the eye of the beholder.
What a great synopsis of the world view of twitter! I’ve been through all the stages and like to think I’m at stage 5 on one of my accounts and working my way there on the second.
Yes, it’s ridiculous, I have two twitter pages. On the other hand, it’s not ridiculous. I have engaged two different communities of interest and one would not care about my tweets on the other, so I keep them separate.
One thing I promise never to do is tweet about the coffee I’m drinking. But it seems to be a common tweet topic!
@boldlygosolo - I hope you share both of your pages with us so we can follow your communities of interest, if we share them with you. Regardless, thanks for stopping by…
BTW, I think it’s perfectly okay to Tweet about what you’re eating/reading/doing. It humanizes us and helps us to know with whom (literally) we’re dealing.
There’s nothing better than that…