Using Twitter in the Dev World
I've been getting back into Twitter because it's such a vibrant community for developers, anyone have tips on how to connect with others or get the most usage out of it?
So far I've found tweeting genuine answers and questions (at or in response) to people I follow has generated good discussions. Tweeting regularly, and posting links to blogs seem to be pretty common.
When I started with Twitter some years back, my main goal was to get followers so that I can promote my (side) projects. Here is how I reached > 15k followers on my dev centric account (as a nobody):
Treat your Twitter profile as a microblog. Post only stuff you would like or retweet if you would see it on another profile. Don't tweet just to have tweeted.
Stand out. If your content is dev related, create own examples. Attach screenshots or screen recordings of it to your tweet (btw carbon.now.sh is great for creating code snippet screenshots).
Tweets that contain all relevant information in it, work the best. Links are mental hurdles. Just compare the following two "funnels": User sees tweet in timeline -> reads tweet -> like/retweet vs. user sees tweet in timeline -> reads tweet -> opens link -> if mobile, browser opens (big context switch) -> reads article / plays around with website -> navigates back to Twitter -> like/retweet. (3 vs. 7 steps)
Avoid using URL shorteners. This looks very automated. I've tested this assumption a couple of years ago and it turned out that tweets with "plain" links generated more likes/retweets by 20-30%.
Be unique and don't retweet too much. Why should I follow you if your account consists just of other peoples content? Keep your retweet-to-tweet ratio low. (mine is about 1:10)
Stick to your niche. If your goal is to gain followers from the dev community then avoid irrelevant topics like politics or sports.
Find out what's your best time to tweet to get maximum exposure. Ask yourself: "What are my followers doing right now? Where are they? Is it likely they will see my tweet? Do I have followers from other timezones?". Tools like Buffer help you to analyze and schedule your posts.
...or simply put: provide value at the right time and your Twitter account will grow 🚀 🙂
This is a gold mine of good information! Thanks, already using carbon.now.sh to start tweeting code snippets 😃
crowdfire
This is an awesome tool! Thanks!
That looks really cool! Are you using it?
Yeh i use it to manage users etc and schedule out tweets for my website , i sit down every morning schedule everything and they run until following day :)
Thanks! Do you find Crowdfire to be motivating in how it suggests things to do? I'm just wondering if you like it more than something like Buffer?
Never used buffer its only the past several months ive really taken to a tool like crowdfire but i very rarely pay for stuff and im strongly thinking of paying for pro as my twitter growth is now at 792 followers all worth while and i communicate with a lot
Interesting! Gonna give crowdfire a shot
This comment was deleted 7 years ago