Heard of Inbox Zero? What about Twitter Zero?

January 22, 2009 · Posted in Social Media 

If you’re like me, you’re not in the top 5% of Twitter users (regardless of which system you decided is the best at rating you).  Most likely, you follow more than you’re followed.  Perhaps you follow @scobleizer, @davewiner, @skydiver, @mashable, @guykawasaki, or any number of tweeple that have 10,000 to 50,000+ followers.  Have you tried keeping up with the tweets?  I check every half hour or so, and realize that I still can’t keep up with everything that’s been posted despite following only about 150 tweeps.  @scobleizer follows over 20,000.

I remember the Inbox Zero project; epic fail for me.  But what would be the equivalent for Twitter, rather than just missing all the tweets I simply can’t keep up with?  Well, my honest and disheartening opinion is that I have no alternative.

Not today.

But, perhaps, there is some hope?  Let’s take inauguration day as an example.  At least 60% of my friends’ tweets were about the inauguration.  If  my Twitter client could group tweets on similar topics, perhaps this would have saved me from having to read tons of similar posts.  Sounds simple, although I know in practice it’s quite challenging.  Wouldn’t it be a great start, though?

In the meantime, here are some tips:

  1. Continue to follow people who follow you.  It’s not social media if it’s not social.
  2. Use an application like TweetDeck, that let’s you create groups.  I have one group for people I actually know, another group for news, and another group for social gurus.
  3. Perhaps you can’t keep up with all of your friends’ tweets, but make sure you read replies and direct messages.

Want to know how to be interesting enough for people to follow you?  I can’t help you there :)   But perhaps the @scobleizer and these other folks can.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Heard of Inbox Zero? What about Twitter Zero?”

  1. esd714 on January 23rd, 2009 1:08 pm

    Tweet Zero, I like the concept. Certainly would help a lot.

    I love the groups on Tweet Deck, the only problem i have with it is scrolling right to left, while tracking new posts vertically.

  2. halwebguy on January 23rd, 2009 1:22 pm

    Yes, that’s why I only have three groups (and the “all”). It does help that I have two monitors.

    It would be nice to have font size control on Tweetdeck, to make the columns narrower. It does have a narrow column option, but without a change in the font size, it doesn’t help much.

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