Twitter Tuesday #25–Beware TADD (Twitter Attention Deficit Disorder)

Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of Twitter Tuesday. In the spirit of Twitter, this blog will be short and sweet and to the point. The tips offered here are all based off my best-selling book We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. If our goal is to build an author platform in the thousands to tens of thousands, then we will have to approach Twitter differently than a faceless corporation or even the regular person who does not possess a goal of becoming a brand. This blog will help you rule the Twitterverse without devolving into a spam bot.

This Week’s Fail Whale–TADD or Twitter Attention Deficit Disorder

Social media changes so quickly even us experts have a tough time keeping up. There is always some new fancy tool for Twitter, some app that promises to make life easier. One key way to use social media effectively is to get good at knowing what to ignore…which is about 85% of everything offered to us. I recommend TweetDeck. Maybe there are better information management applications. But I know that if I keep swapping tools, I will never get good at the one I am using. I will also be wasting time trying to learn a new application. As writers we need our time for writing books, so we must guard our time and not get into habits that drain time and energy from our writing. TADD, if left untreated, can cause wrinkles, hair loss and a weird eye twitch.

This Week’s Twitter Tip–Be a Focused Tweeter

There will always be some new application promising new and wonderful ways to manage your tweets. Here’s the thing. If you stick with one of the more popular applications, they are keeping an eye on the competition. Let them worry about social media, you have books to write. Trust me. If there is some new app that promises to rub our feet while we tweet, and it works, and people are signing up by the hundreds? Tweet Deck programmers will raise them a neck rub AND a cup of coffee.

Yeah, wishful thinking, but you get the gist.

We really don’t have to bounce from app, to app, to app. Focus on building a community and writing great books. At the end of the day, our goal is to be an author with a rockin’ social media platform, not a social media expert of a bazillion different platforms and applications.

Tweet ya later!

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    • John deVere-Loots on July 12, 2011 at 2:41 pm
    • Reply

    I have a feeling that this year will see an explosion of social media sites hoping to challenge Twitter and Facebook. They will try and offer some new twist or advantage and having too much choice will dilute the effectiveness of the whole concept.

  1. Lady Kristin

    With apologies to the Spice Girls (not that they ever apologised to _me_ :-P), I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want…

    What I really want is an app, something like Tweet Deck, or close to it, but that can be installed on a USB key, can run entirely from the USB key without needing ‘stuff’ installed on the machine the USB key is plugged into, and carries all it’s needed data with it on the same key.

    Tweet Deck is great, but I spend far too much time away from my home desktop.

    Yes. I’m unreasonable Oh, and I wanna red truck, anna Buzz Lightyear, anna pony…

    I’ve looked. I haven’t found my USB app yet :-(. And I don’t have a pony either. Mind you, with my waistline a Shire horse might be a better thing to not have, if I’m not going to have it anyway… :-P.

    1. Yes! What Graeme said. Except not about the pony. My computer at work won’t allow Tweet Deck. Not that I’m on twitter when I should be working, no, just during my breaks. So then I find myself logging onto regular twitter at home.

      I know I need to take the time to demystify Tweet Deck

    • KM_Huber on July 12, 2011 at 3:41 pm
    • Reply

    Frankly, the Twitter chatter and just sheer volume would make me nuts but as a WANA believer, I know a better world is possible, even on Twitter. Great post and thanks!

  2. I want the TweetDeck with the neck rub.

    You know, as long as FB and Twitter are working and they aren’t too obnoxious with their updates, I’m too busy to stray. Thanks for a great post.

  3. A favorite quote from one of my tweeps this week fits quite well here: “What is the best social media platform? The one where your market is.”

    Great post, Kristen!

    • Christine Fonseca on July 12, 2011 at 3:53 pm
    • Reply

    You had me at TADD. Bwahahahahahahahahaha

  4. I use two programs: TweetDeck when I’m at home, and Brizzly when I’m at work (Briz doesn’t work on my home computer for some reason, and I can’t install TD at work). I like them both for different reasons 🙂

  5. I’m still using TweetDeck, myself. Focus is good. (Considering I’m the one writing the guide, I’d be a bit hypocritical to use anything else!)

    Of course, I’m hearing the siren call of G+ lately.

  6. Thank goodness @WayneBorean is offering to school me on TweetDeck. That is like Star Fleet Space Control. Scary. I do like that you can take pictures and videos… But that is about all I’ve been able to figure out.

    Right now, I’m tweeting individual pages. I’m sure there is a better-er faster-er way, so if I’m tweeting you, know that it is with great love because Twitter is a time suck for me — which is why I set a time limit for 15 minutes every day. Because I really need to be writing. And planning my son’s bar mitzvah. 😉

    I’m guessing you are underwhelmed by Google …

  7. Tweet Deck saved my sanity!

  8. I use TweetDeck at home, and it’s great. I especially love creating search columns. But I’m away from home most of the day, and I find it’s hard to post links on the TweetDeck for iPhone, so I don’t tweet as much as I’d like to.

  9. I am so with you on this. Writing is much more important to me than stressing out about the latest software/gadget/blog tools. Your Twitter Tuesdays always reassure me!

  10. I just downloaded tweet deck yesterday day the hardest part was putting all my twitter people into lists, but now and I have for writing and one for personal- I actually saw a tweet from my sister this morning and it’s been over a week sine that has happened.

  11. Right Alica, this is what I haven’t done yet. I mean I’ve been putting them in lists recently — just haven’t listed my lists on Tweet Deck. Make sense?

  12. Love your humor, Kristen. Your comments make perfect sense. It’s so easy to lose focus on what the main task is, and we go down all these bunny trails. Thanks for the reminder.

    • Tamara LeBlanc on July 13, 2011 at 1:46 am
    • Reply

    Oh if only I could find an app that would rub my feet. How amazing would that be?
    And yep, finishing my WIP is the most important thing right now. I’ll let Tweetdeck do the grunt work for me:)
    Have a great evening!
    Tamara

  13. I tried out HootSuite out of curiosity (recommended by a few people I know) and looked around. But TweetDeck is what I know, so I headed right back to it pretty quickly. I concluded that I didn’t have time to learn a new system, and TD was working fine for me. Thanks for the ongoing tips! Your Twitter know-how is really helpful.

  14. Focused is good. It’ll help us accomplish a lot. 🙂

  15. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke….oh shiny…squirrel…thx Kristen.

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