I asked this question over on Twitter on the weekend and it was fascinating to hear the answers and see some of the thinking behind what different people do.
I thought I’d run it as a poll and open it up for some wider discussion here on the blog.
I’d love to get your comments on this topic. Why do you do the number of tweets that you do? Why don’t you do more/less? Do you use any tolls/automation to manage it – if so which ones?
Here’s some of the responses to my tweet asking the question:
“I only tweet a link to it once. I’ll tweet a second time if theres something interesting in the comment section.” – JadeCraven
“One. Sometimes two. Three if it really rocks. But I post daily and don’t want my Twitter to be an endless ME ME ME feed.” – CatherineCaine
“I tweet my new blog posts only once…to me, more is spammy, even tho I know not everyone will see it the 1st time…” – QuipsAndTips
“I always tweet a link straight after I post.Then maybe the next day depending on the post time, for those who may have missed it” – CptTremendous
“I space it out over days/times. Maybe btw 5-8 over a weeks time.” – MyMelange
“I usually retweet about three times, one in a.m., one in afternoon, one at night. Covers time zones.” – docudramaqueen
“Depends on importance and global relevance. If really important to me & relevant also to US audience, I may tweet twice in Aus..” – divinewrite
“Once. More than once is spam and makes followers unfollow and complain.” – Shuttlecock
See a full list of the responses to my original tweet here.
One time, right next posting. Twice, sometimes, if I think I’ve posted a good entry, but in different hours, like 1st tweet at 02 AM and 2nd at 3 PM
I have automation set up to tweet each blog post once. I don’t bother with more than that, just because I don’t want to be spammy. I’ve considered twice a day, one in morning, one in evening, but haven’t figured out how to automate that.
I usually tweet more than once because many people often miss the tweet on first attempt. I use URL trackers to see how many click my posts has got so far. But my tweet ratio varies if the post has highly important content or useful information to share.
We have one Twitter account that automatically tweets each post a single time. Through my personal account, I’ll occasionally retweet those that I find particularly interesting or significant. (We average 5-10 posts per day.)
I usually tweet my blog posts just after I publish them. If I think I did a good post I tweet it again (but only once and not in the same day). I really hate people that tweet the same thing over and over again…
I very rarely tweet links to new blog posts. I guess it’s because I like the other social networks more.
I only tweet my blog posts once.
I use the tweetmeme button myself and monitor the use of it to have a vague feeling for how many people truly like my piece. I feel doing it more than once sullies the results of this somewhat.
I usually ReTweet a post once. I never thought to tweet it more than once. But now that I think about it, retweeting it more than once comes off as spamy, in my opinion.
Thanks for sharing!!
I tweet one time. It’s automated via a plug-in I think. Or is it feedburner? I don’t really know but it’s tweeted automatically.
Anyway, there are several reason I only tweet it once
1.) Most of the times one or more StumbleUpon-friends will re-tweet it.
2.) One or more Twitter follower(s) will re-tweet it.
3.) I don’t tweet that much and I don’t want to have a list of tweets that all say the same thing.
4.) I think if you don’t have thousand of followers (and I mean real genuine followers who actually read your tweets) tweeting is like shouting out of the window of a Hillbilly shag on a Hillbilly hill somewhere in the desert.
If I got a really awesome comment on a post I tweet it again mentioning that there is a comment better than the actual post for example.
Oh yes, when I give it a second thought I think that 100 real followers are more effective than 10.000 Follow-me-and-I-follow-you-followers.
Thanks for all your insights guys!
Well, it depends upon the post.
If I think that it is interesting to people then I tweet about it more than once.
I tweet about my blog post right after I finished posting.
I tweet it again later, during lunch time so that those who missed it will see it.
I’m set up to tweet all new blog posts.
Your poll is misleading, Darren, obvious from the comments. Do you refer to someone tweeting one’s own blog posts, or tweeting anyone’s blog posts?
Tweeting to promote your blog post more than once can seem a little crass and lead to people unfollowing you.
The proof of the worth of your blog post is in how many people voluntarily retweet your original tweet.
By concentrating on creating great content, you don’t have to keep tweeting about it. Other people will do it for you.
Cheers
–Phil
I have my blog set up to automatically ping.fm (to twitter, plurk, and facebook) my link when a post goes live. Sometimes, if I’m particularly passionate about a post I’ll retweet it myself later in the day. Sometimes I’ll tweet a link to a post from the archives.
But, when someone ELSE tweets the link, I’ll often do a RT to thank them rather than a reply. RTing gives my followers another look at the link and a little of the associated comments and the @’s of others who have read and shared it. :-)
Very interesting topic. I am stepping into the blogger arena, and interested in seeing what everyone thinks.
I probably do about 3 a day because it helps get other people to tweet my content
I will retweet a blog post 2 – 3 times over a period of several weeks. An additional 1 – 2 times if the post is popular over a total period of 3 – 4 months.
I usually do one or twice. I think two times is fair number because this one neither come under over or less …
What do you think ?
I tend to do it twice, although it can make me feel a bit spammy. I reason that if I only see about 5 percent of the tweets coming through my stream each day (I follow around 700 people), many others will be in the same boat. Timezones is another big factor. I’m Australian, and tend to post my first tweet around 9 or 10am. USAians will still be up then, but Brits will be in bed, so I’ll often repost a link again in the evening.
Generally only once for me too, I might up that to three – I don’t think there is anything wrong in that due to the different time zones around the world.
I guess it’s how you count it. None for manual and once with the auto post from WP to twitter!
As I don’t want to bother my followers, I only tweet my post once. Sometimes I tweet the post a second time a few months later. I then name it a “Classic” post. This is of course only when it is not a news item.
To be honest I thought as a general rule you should only tweet to each blog post one time. But I guess if you have a promotion going on you’d want to tweet to it several times especially if you have one of those time sensitive offers that will be expiring. I’m sure the SEO benefits of multiple tweeting are better as well.
i post automatically once from wordpress.com. i agree with marios list of four reasons. it often gets retweeted again by #wildlifephoto if they like it and its relevant to them. I do get a few click throughs from twitter
Only once. I hate to see the same tweet more times from the same user. I guess that my followers will hate too
I rarely tweet my posts. I prefer allowing NetworkedBlogs in Facebook pick up a new post and send it out. My clickthrough rate is higher with FB than Twitter.
If anything, I tweet other people’s posts that I find interesting.
I’m currently using FeedBurner’s social tab and auto post once to my Twitter stream.
The only exception would be if I’ve made a significant update to a post and flag the tweet accordingly!
Right now my frequency is just once. As I’m able to hire some writers I’ll focus more on social media marketing.
i rarely do Tweet because my follower is less than my RSS subscriber :)
I post on my facebook page about any new blog posts, and they are automatically tweeted.
Usually i tweet once when i posts an article,really i dont have more potential network to tweet my links.Thanks for a poll…..
I tweet twice, morning/evening because I interact with people on both sides of the ocean…
I tweet 3-4 times within the first 24 hours of posting. I space the tweets evenly throughout the day. My goal is to get it out in the working time zones of my followers which are all over the world. I don’t consider this spamming but won’t tweet old posts or anything more than a day old. That, in my mind, does constitute spamming.
The only exception for changing my tweeting habits is if a post has generated a lot of comments or controversy, When I tweet for this reason, I always say so in the tweet.
I usually tweet my new posts once. I use ping.fm to update 8 networks at once, so it’s fairly easy, but I don’t want to overload my followers with the same thing over and again.
If it’s something I really want to draw attention to I might do it 3 or 4 times, but that is not typical for me.
I follow Guy Kawasaki’s advice – Tweet the same post 4 times every 8 hours. It’s always worked out. I have readers all over the world and they are usually following hundreds, if not thousands of people. If you only tweet once, how can you expect that tweet to be read amongst all the other tweets?
Since most of my tweets are links, I’ve seen the same amount of interest from the first time it was posted, to the fourth time it was posted.
ObjectiveMarketer.com does the best job of scheduling & tracking this.
Once, and only once. I’m not a spammer.
I tweet most of my new posts once, but I also occassionally tweet an older popular post over the weekend just for some extra ‘traction’!
I only tweet the link which interest me. I also tweet the link which seems me that it might be interesting to my friends, and i only tweet the link once…
I have FeedBurner do it for me. Only once, and it does hashtags for me. I feel that is enough.
I’m not a big twitter person, wish I was, but I’m just not, and my number of followers really shows.
Difficulties at kingshorn were held and a tongue in the lothians was divided and witnessed by a modest portion of owners made by the grammar.
I always do one tweet. It generally gets done automatically as I use Headway which has a tweet now box..
But sometimes I will schedule another tweet a bit later in the day, particularly if my first one was early in the morning or late at night when fewer people would see it. I do this with Hootsuite.
Occasionally I will update a post and forget that I checked the twitter box on Headway so it gets tweeted again by mistake. Ooops1
I really like the tweets ‘from the vault’ idea – nice one!
I tweet almost all my posts everyday, or almost everyday. At least twice a day. Less is not an option, more if anything. One of the main reasons behind this is brand exposure. This is where many potential readers for my blog are gathered. So by putting my “brand”, (“Blogging About The Word According To The Word”) before them any opportunity I have, eventually readers will visit my blog. At first, nobody came but now they are coming! Now I have lots of friends on Twitter. Another good thing, they always retweet my posts!!
No, I don’t use any tools/automation but I’m considering it!
http://www.atotheword.com
I tweet a new post in the morning, on the first day and will tweet it again in the afternoon of the 2nd day.
I don’t want to do it too often. I don’t want it to seem as though I am ‘tweeting’ my own horn.
I think to say that tweeting a post more than once is “spammy” is ridiculous.
I know in my own twitter stream (my personal one vs. the one I use for my blog) I miss probably HUNDREDS of tweets throughout the day. So if I am only tweeting a post once, chances are most of the people who follow me will never see it.
I only post once a week (on average) so I tweet my post a couple times the day it posts and then probably once more the next day. In addition, since I only launched my website/blog this month, I have sent out other tweets encouraging people to check out my website.
There are people who maybe only need to tweet a post once…because they know it will get endlessly retweeted. Those of us who are not A-listers yet have to work a lot harder to get our message out!
I have a wp plugin that do it for me, and automatically Tweet my post. Usually, I manually tweet a new message in the night.
P.S: For those are interested I wrote a new post on how to get more followers and how I got 10000+ followers.
Recent post: “Twitter Guide: Tips And Tricks To Get More Twitter Followers”
I am building up my Twitter Followers on the blog. Because I also have Dropbox where they can be done better.
I always tweet right after I post, the next day I give it a Digg and tweet that, and than one more time before my next posting.
I resisted Twitter for a long time but once I gave in I quickly discovered a whole new community of readers that I never would have found any other way!
Well I just link my wordpress blog to twitter so it updates it every time. But I also post my own tweet about my blog so people can get a more in depth idea. Check out my blog at http://officialfreejay.wordpress.com/
I tweet once, because I don`t wantmy followers to think that I`m a spammer.
Just the once is plenty. Though I wish it was others retweeting it thousands of times like on Mashable. I guess a time eventually comes along for everyone to get massive amounts of retweets.