How I save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others

Posted July 7, 2009
14 Comments
ari herzog How I save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others

@ariherzog

I’ve been getting in the habit of documenting (via screen casts) how I do social media for an interactive ebook I’ll be publishing soon. How I do social media isn’t special, but it works for me. In this video, I talk about how I save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others.

Because I do most of my commenting at night, I developed a practice of scheduling tweets (using Tweetlater) to go off during peek US hours in order to give more exposure to the author of the blog post (@ariherzog, in this example).

How do you save time commenting and tweeting?

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  • I manage several Twitter accounts, my personal one and clients, and I subscribe to numerous RSS feeds on the topics of interest. I don't like inundating people with tweets all at once so I too use a scheduling service (CoTweet) to spread out posts throughout the day of interesting articles/links I've found in the RSS feeds. I usually log on personally 2-3 times a day to do RTs and replies and handle my conversations. I would love to just be able to do it all organically without scheduling but sometimes that gets to be a bit much!
  • Amy,

    Cotweet is another tool I use. Spreading tweets throughout the day so that you don't inundate folks is just being considerate.

    Thanks for stopping by - again!

    John
  • Wow, thanks for the kind words, John! With AC/DC to boot!

    I try to promote others' blog posts I like in one of two ways:

    First, everytime I comment somewhere, I always tweet the link afterward.

    Second, everytime I add a blog post to my shared Google Reader - http://www.google.com/reader/shared/00320768352... - it is echoed as an action to my FriendFeed and Facebook walls. And for both, people can opt to "like" the action of adding it to Google Reader; or at a minimum, click over and read what I like.
    .-= Ari Herzog´s last blog ..Stop Spinning Business and Government =-.
  • I'm a huge fan of Friendfeed - which is echoed over to my Facebook page too!
  • Hi John, I'd like to know why you like FriendFeed so much. Is it a good way to combine everything so you only post once and have it selectively show up on multiple places like Twitter and a Facebook Page?

    Thanks
    Val
  • You can stream FriendFeed on your Facebook Profile, and you can Tweet Friendfeed comments, but unless I'm missing something, FriendFeed doesn't allow you to post to multiple sites like Ping.FM or Posterous does.

    That said, here's why I like Friendfeed:

    1. FriendFeed as a "reader" - Google Reader can be used to read blogs, but only FriendFeed can be used to get a complete picture of an individual's social media "footprint" - 58 services! This information can be used to help you develop a more "intimate" relationship with folks. You might learn, for example, that they do a lot of "liking" of Youtube videos. It's hard to get this information easily without FriendFeed.

    2. Friendfeed as a social media "business card" - FriendFeed allows users to create a "one-stop" social media widget with all your social media hubs and outposts. If you're using your blog as your hub, you can simply embed this widget into your sidebar.

    3. FriendFeed give you peripheral vision - Much of a blogger's life is, well, their blog. For me, this mindset has overly focused on their blog: "I wonder when Chris Garrett will publish another post to his blog?" Now, I subscribe by email to Chris's blog - so I wouldn't use FriendFeed to track his blog posts. However, I can't get an email subscription to stuff Chris Stumbles, or tags in Flickr. FriendFeed gives me this peripheral vision.

    4. The FriendFeed as "first responder" - A combination of many factors are important when nurturing any relationship, but one factor is speed. This is where the FriendFeed Notifier comes in handy: The moment a friend of yours bookmarks an article in Delicious, or reviews content in Stumbleupon, the FriendFeed desktop notifier window pops up. You can view, like and comment directly from this notification window, right away. I keep it open on my desktop as I work, and if something catches my eye, I'll jump right in and like or comment. This also keeps me connected to folks even when I'm busy.

    Does this help? I know I blabbed on and on...

    John

    *Choose updates from your Home feed or any of your Friend lists
    *
  • Thanks John. "Blabbing on and on" is more than welcome. I appreciate your insights! That's helpful. I'll have to check it out soon.
  • Do you want to save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others' blog posts? @johnhaydon shares tips: http://tinyurl.com/llt2l3
  • @ariherzog By the way, thanks for involunteering to be in my video post. ;-) http://tinyurl.com/llt2l3
  • John,

    Nice post. I especially like the comment re: being human vs automation... I've held off on Tweet Later for that same reason but I think you're post tipped me.

    Quick Question for you: what software did you use to make the video... I like how it handled the screen grabbing.

    Thanks.
    @TomMartin
    .-= Tom Martin´s last blog ..Finding Your Way Out of the Abyss =-.
  • Tom - I use Screenflow - a mac program.
  • simple but smart RT @DannyBrown: RT @johnhaydon How I save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others http://tinyurl.com/llt2l3
  • (Shh..it's Tweetlater) RT @RichBassett: RT @johnhaydon How I save time commenting, tweeting and promoting others http://tinyurl.com/llt2l3
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