If I could start Twitter all over again, what would I have done differently?

I’ve been using twitter for over 3 and a half years now..

Looking back and reminiscing at the “old times”, I’ve seen how much Twitter had changed and how it had helped to propel me in business.

I can’t help but to look back and think what I would have done differently if Twitter somehow loses all of their data and I had to start it all over again.

What would I have done differently if Twitter deletes my account one day because it changed its mind about me?

Perhaps thinking about it would help those who have not journeyed as far as I have on Twitter.

So, what would I do differently, you ask?

1. I would take my time.

When I started using Twitter, one of my biggest mistakes was that I didn’t really take the time to build relationships with others. Back then, I was in the rat race to grow my followers.

Mid-way through, I asked myself why would I want so many followers…and I couldn’t come up with an answer.

It was one of my biggest mistakes but also one of the best opportunities. I learned about the importance of building relationships and most importantly responding to every tweet I’d get. I was lucky that I had managed to realize this, because it changed my direction and priorities and has brought me to where I am today.

My mistake was also a blessing in disguise, because after changing my strategy, I ended up meeting some of the most remarkable people on Twitter.

I suggest that we should all have a goal on what we’d like Twitter to be for us, rather than just aimlessly exploring without any direction.

2. I would still follow my followers, but I wouldn’t follow every one.

The way I see it, Twitter is like a business conference or a never ending party. You’ll meet different types of people.

This means you’ll meet the ‘salesmen’ who wouldn’t stop talking about their businesses or you’ll meet amazing people who loves helping others.

When I started being on Twitter, there were no function to list our followers. If you were to follow all of them, your Twitter account would be too clustered and you might miss out on important information.

With the listing function, you might be able to categorize your followers more efficiently, but this is only a small solution, because sooner or later you’d get too many lists and information would cluster again.

Through this madness, I realized that I needed to choose who I would follow. I would still follow most people; however I would be more selective.

3. I would build my Twitter list earlier. . 

When i started using twitter, there wasn’t any twitter lists. Before that, I remember that “bookmarking” people on my toolbar and visiting them daily to see what they were posting was how I used to cope up with these interesting people.

If I could change that, I would start listing people earlier. I would list who are the top dogs in my niche, people who shares my articles, people who have taken the time to engage with me, and many more.

3. I would engage with people early on.

If I could change, I would definitely increase my engagement. I would take my time to build a solid base of 2,000 followers first, and then I would use tools like buffer to schedule my tweets and focus on engaging with others.

Having mentioned all these, the good news is, there really isn’t a right or wrong way to use Twitter.

The ‘even better’ news is, as Twitter grows older, and as ‘Tweet-ers’ grow too, there are plenty of advise you could get to improve (cough* askaaronlee.com).

Some users are successful while not engaging with others at all; some are successful only through sharing tweet. The difference is how you view ‘success’. How you use it is entirely up to you.

What about you? If you could have done it differently, what would you have done?

Photo Credit:  by Jamiesrabbits

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