A client recently told me they were concerned they didn’t want to “clutter” their Tweet stream. They were concerned they didn’t want to Tweet too much.

My thoughts? No one reads all your Tweets.

Twitter is a communication tool.
…not a publishing platform.

Twitter is for holding conversations.
…and to have real dialogue and interactions without physical time and space constraints.

In the early years of Twitter (2006-’08), people actually read ALL the Tweets from the people they followed. Twitter was new, fun and only the geeky early adopters were experimenting with it. Today, the average person follows 100+ or 1000+ of people. To physically read and consume the Tweets from that many people is impossible. And more importantly, it doesn’t happen.

Twitter is like gigantic gushing stream or river of many things…
It’s filled with link referrals, pictures, thoughts, opinions, and conversations (look at this- click this- read this- watch this video-). This tool has evolved to this incredibly fast moving “river” of content. People do not consume all of it. Instead, it’s people jump-in-and-out of “the river”.

If no one reads all your Tweets, what should you do?
The more you communicate and appear within Twitter river of content, the better. On a day-to-day basis, people log-in and log-out of Twitter using multiple types of tools and at different times. People will open Twitter when they’re at work, check the latest Tweets, then their @replies, and log-out. Some people will turn their phone on, launch an application, read their Tweets and @replies and then log-out.

My point is, Twitter is flooded with content, what people see come through on their stream is dependent upon the time of day. Your followers will not see everything you post. The more you Tweet, your chance of being “noticed” in the huge river of Tweets increases.

@replies are the “email” of Twitter
Recently, I blogged about a study that found the first thing people do when they sit down at a computer is check their email. In the same respect, the 1 thing everyone checks when they login to Twitter is their @replies. People do want to know if anyone is talking to them. If you or your company had unlimited time and resources, I would tell you to Tweet as many relevant @reply interactions or DMs with as many people as you possibly could. As a general rule of thumb, when you login to Twitter, spend as much time as you can to @reply and interact. Twitter is worthless if you aren’t able to augment existing relationships or create real interactions with people of like interests. While you can use Twitter as another publishing platform, its biggest value is having real interactions through @replies with real people.

Time of day DOES matter.
The chances of anyone consuming your Tweets after 5PM on a weekday or over the weekend are less likely to happen than if you send a Tweet between 9AM to 5PM on a weekday. In my client work experience with Twitter and my own personal usage, there are more interactions and greater chance for consumption that occur Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. As a general rule of thumb, if your Tweet isn’t dependent upon time, or in response to a specific Tweet- you should tweet between 9AM to 5PM on a weekday. If you’re too busy to Tweet 9AM to 5PM, use a tool like Hootsuite that allows you to schedule your Tweets.

Twitter sucks if your friends suck.
Twitter is only as valuable as the people you choose to follow. If the people you follow provide value, then Twitter is a valuable resource you’ll keep using. You’ll keep coming back to it for more. Tweets also need to be timely, relevant, and/or provide some kind of value.

The next time you’re sitting in front of the open-ended prompt that reads, “What’s happening?” you should dismiss the notion that everyone is actually reading everything you’re Tweeting. They’re not.

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