This Post is by Keith Bond, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews.  You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.


If you were to ask my four year old if there’s any such thing as too many tweets, he would emphatically say “NO!”  To him, a ‘tweet’ is something with lots of sugar.  And the more the better.  I too enjoy ‘treats’ – sometimes too much.  Once, years ago, a co-worker brought some dipped chocolates to work.  He told us all to help ourselves to a few.  I eagerly obliged.  When I popped the chocolate into my mouth, it tasted anything but sweet.  It was a flavor completely foreign to me and totally unexpected.  It was gross.  Assuming I just picked poorly, I chose once more and popped yet another chocolate into my mouth.  I suddenly realized that I had fallen victim to a practical joke – chocolate covered silk worm larvae!  Yuck! Sometimes something undesirable, even awful, is disguised as something desirable and sweet (no offense to those who like silk worm larvae).

Also, when I am on a long road trip, I often get way too much junk food into my system.  It’s just too convenient to have a bag of junk next to me.  To keep me occupied while driving, my hand habitually goes from bag to mouth and back again.  Even though I may enjoy the treats, there is definitely a thing as too much.  I end up feeling sick.

Both of these ills can also happen with Twitter if not used properly. It is possible to tempt potential clients, then turn them off by offering a tweet that is not what they want or expect.  And you could potentially make them ill by giving them too much to swallow at once.

I admit that I haven’t done Twitter for very long and I am certainly no expert on the subject.  I have, however observed a few things that I would like to address.  There has been quite a bit written lately about content (how to effectively tweet - post sweet not bitter tweets), so I will focus on the quantity issue.

I follow a variety of people on twitter.  I follow them because they have something of value to me.  Their insights or links are useful and informative.  One of the downsides to Twitter is that tweets can quickly get lost as more recent updates come in.  To see everything, you would need to click through multiple pages or else be constantly checking for updates.  For those who use it like me, only the first page of the most recent tweets are read. Because of this, it was frustrating to me the other day when I logged into my Twitter account and found that it was bombarded with tweet after tweet from someone I recently started to follow.  I valued the person’s insights, but was given way too much at one time.  I follow several people and want to see what each of them have to say, not just one person.  Is it possible to send out too many tweets?  I only log in a couple times a day, so for me the answer is ‘yes’.  Perhaps others feel differently.   Some people may log in so often that it isn’t a problem.

But this does raise an issue for me.  I want my tweets to be seen, and I am sure that you do to.  Do you become one of those who sends so many to ensure that they are seen?  Maybe you don’t realize, but are just tweet happy.  Or are you like me and think that too much leaves a sour or even bitter taste in people’s mouth?

I suppose that most tweets are unseen by most people.  I don’t have any data to support this other than my experience as a follower.  Many won’t see your tweets, because other updates will push yours off the page.  But, some will, and if you have meaningful tweets, they will be re-tweeted.  Re-tweeting will enable your messages to spread across the web and they will be potentially seen by countless people.

So, how often should you tweet?  In my opinion, 3 to 5 sweet tweets up to about 3 times a day seem about right.  Too much is over-kill.  Too few and they will get lost.

In short:

• Update with 3 to 5 tweets about 3 times a day.

• Realize that many tweets won’t be read by many of your followers each time.  But someone will read them.

• Make your tweets meaningful.  They are more likely to be re-tweeted, resulting in them being read by more people.

As a newbie, these are my observations.  What are yours?  What about you who are more seasoned?  Am I on the right track or way off base?

Share your thoughts and insights.

Best Wishes,

Keith Bond