The 66,000 Tweet – Twitter Advice, 2009 vs 2012

At the beginning of using anything new, no one is good at it and everyone makes mistakes. Maybe I can help you avoid tweeting boring things on Twitter that also make you look like a beginner. Plus, I want to share some fun stuff with you.

On June 1, 2009 my blog post started with: “Late last night (I can’t say what time or my family will think I’ve lost my mind), I finely started a Twitter account.”

By October 19, 2009 I had 915 followers even though I mainly tweeted contests and giveaways that I entered. Actually, I was a very boring and ignorant Twitterer when I first started tweeting.

I don’t have my first tweet, but I’ve been able to find some of my oldest tweets and I have been rolling my eyes at myself. Obviously, I didn’t know how to tweet!

There is a point to showing you this, so try to bear with me.

The first is a comment I made on a blog…

I didn’t tweet much in the beginning. I mostly just had tweets for giveaway entries and I actually did win quite a bit of stuff. Most of the things I won I gave to my daughter either to use or to put in her hope chest for her future.

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/15655165089

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/2660119365
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/2746623856
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/2834616418

Could these three tweets be much more boring?

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/2834469757
http://twitter.com/TheRedheadRiter/status/2909985021
https://twitter.com/#!/theredheadriter/status/3573253075

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/4768296990

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6136992588
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6137008333

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6293622040
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6338501258

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6387719639

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6403352496
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6490403191

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/13666347091234816
https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/6604766315

I didn’t win any of those giveaways, but they were teaching me a little bit about Twitter. As time passed, I learned how to create more interesting tweets and I also started using Hootsuite so that I could program tweets as well.

Eventually I found the TweetGrader site. It has all the Twitter users ranked so that you know where you fall in the millions of people that tweet. Right now my “grade” as a Twitter user is that I rank at 24,813 out of 9,938,660 users.

Not bad!

The site also ranks users by location. My location is Richmond, Virginia, USA. My first goal was to actually get on the top 100 and then my goal was to be above NBC12. It took a long time before I moved past the television station, but I was totally pumped when I did.

My next goal was to get past the playboy bunnies for obvious reasons followed by the GOP Leader. Who wouldn’t want to pass a politician!

So now I am number 13 and my next goal is to be number 2. I don’t win anything. My name isn’t written across the sky. It’s just something to keep me motivated and it means that my social media influence is growing.

http://tweet.grader.com/location/?Location=Richmond%2C+VA%2C+United+States

On February 18, 2012, I tweeted my 66,000th tweet. That is a mind boggling number of tweets even to me because I am a rather quiet person most of the time. That many tweets makes me sound like a yapaholic! Without even planning it, this was my 66,000th tweet…

Yep! It was the Twitter art I had created that says, “REDHEAD” in big letters and then in letters that are in small circles it says,”THE REDHEAD RITER”. I immediately grabbed a copy of the screen because I couldn’t believe that was my 66,000th tweet!

If you want to see it actually on Twitter, here is the link to my 66,000th tweet:

https://twitter.com/#!/TheRedheadRiter/status/171087475446530048 #sweet

Twitter is a totally different experience for me now and my tweets are actually more like conversations. I’ve also developed relationships/friendships with many people while learning Twitter etiquette.

To show you that I’m more interesting on Twitter than I was in 2009, this is how my tweets look now…

I tweet ascii pictures…

I sing songs and tweet the real artist’s video…

I share interesting information…

I create my own quotes…

I thank people who send things to me…

I thank people for retweeting my posts and I use my Twitter man, Humphrey, to spice up my tweets…

I tweet merchandise that I like…

I retweet other people’s blog posts…

I tweet famous people’s quotes…

I have learned short abbreviations to thank people…

I tweet and retweet beautiful photos…

I express myself…

I tweet fun facts…

I thank people for following me and reading my blog…

I advertise blog posts by attaching them to Twitter art pictures…

I participate in Follow Friday #FF where I shout out my friends. Since my list is long, it takes many, many tweets throughout the day…

As you can tell, my Twitter thread is dramatically different than it was when I first started tweeting years ago. Being active on Twitter has given me many opportunities to increase exposure to my blog and to strengthen friendships. It has definitely been worth the time and effort I have put into it.

If you have a blog or a business, you should be on Twitter working it every day. It won’t even feel like work. If you’re not following me yet, jump on over to Twitter and follow me! I followback! If you are already on Twitter, great! I’ll be looking for you, so just give me a holler!