My friends who have come to know me almost certainly will not be surprised that this article really doesn’t tell you how to to what the title suggests. My experienced blogger buddies of course will recognize the title as a clever come on. And my real friends on Twitter will be either amused or enlightened by what I want to share with you today. (If they’re annoyed and #unfollow me, they were never my friends. No great loss.)
The other day when I visited my friend Hajra’s guest post I couldn’t help but notice that it was on a blog that I would call too slick for it’s own good. While it is not true that every blog out there that has the latest hot theme, all the latest widgets and a slick design that screams ME TOO! is filled with crappy writing that is not worth reading, the fact is that the Slick Me Too is more often than not a sure sign there is no good writing on the site. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but by and large if I happen upon a site that looks Slick Me Too, I may not even glance at the posts and give them a chance. Bloggers need to realize that they often have only seconds to make a good impression and draw the reader in. You may notice that I have a very spare theme on this blog. I don’t have anything that flashes, and this theme has been optimized to display well on mobile devices.
And finally today, since I don’t want anyone to be too sore at me for drawing them here with promises of exploding Twitter tips, I will make three suggestions for growing your Twitter following:
1. Remember that Twitter is a conversation. Don’t follow as many people as you can get away with. Follow a few people and tweet to them. Lather, rinse and repeat every day and you’ll be getting #FollowFriday ‘d in no time.
2. Participate in hashtag chats. No matter what your interests there is probably one and likely many hashtag chats held at scheduled times throughout the week that you could participate in. Click the link and explore the listings. Find a few chats that sound interesting to you and attend. Chat with the other participants, and follow any who interest you. Chances are as you follow people, some of them will follow back.
3. If you want me to follow you, play #definethis. The link will take you to my Tumblr where I post the word of the day and concise instructions every day.
I do feel just the slightest bit guilty for having drawn you in here with a very slick headline, only to warn you against too slick design and provide just a smidgen of advice that may be helpful. And yet this combination of slick appeal, pointed observation and common sense help really can be the essence of a successful blog.
PS– I know I was supposed to continue with the saga of Mr. Everything today, but I’ve gotten just a bit side-tracked. I can’t promise when I will talk more about Mr. E. But I do promise that if you tune in again tomorrow at this time, I will have a new post up about Something.
Libdrone's Thoughts and Musings 
Reblogged this on lastbabyboomer.
Thanks so much for re-blogging my post.
Nope, not going to #unfollow.
Clever bit of hooking to get us in and very valid points!
I try, Steve. I really do try 🙂
too funny. and spot on
Glad I was able to give you a laugh or two, Daria.
Great read as always Alan. That’s an interesting observation you make about why a great guest post might not get read.
Thank you for sharing that …. I hadn’t understood any of that before now.
Gaye
Well…I did read my friend’s post. But I will not visit that blog again unless another friend has a guest post there.
Thanks for the interesting insights here, Alan! Greatly enjoy playing #definethis, it’s one of the things I look forward to when I come online everyday. 😉
So glad you are enjoying it, Emmanuel. I’ve come to really treasure my #definethis regulars.
I would say too many today make the mistake of making social media a one way conversation
I’m highly inclined to agree with you on that.
I enjoyed that being lulled into increasing my twitter followers and reading this content instead! TBH, I learned more than I would, if I had visited such a page!
Glad to hear you found it helpful, Alan.
I’ve used hastags where nobody was listening, I’ve followed with no response, I’ve tweeted and got unusual replies, I’ve played #definethis and enjoyed myself, most of all though I’ve enjoyed reading your posts. Thank you
Thanks so much for being a regular reader and commentator, Tom.
Trust me when i say this. Mr.Everything can wait given this brilliant write-up. Amazing.
Hee hee. Thank you so much for stopping by and for commenting.
Thanks for sharing, as usual very interesting Alan
Thanks so much for being a loyal reader and commentator, Majdi.
Danced away, and it is a easy read, good for people like me. thank you
So glad you found the article helpful, Geoffrey.
Thanks for sharing!
You’re most welcome, Erin.
I hear what you’re saying – and others as well. I visited that blog to look at the post and make sure it was clear in my mind what we’re dealing with here before I commented. I didn’t read it. I saw lots of buttons, way too big font, obnoxious subheads drawing away my attention and all of that bombarding me at once made the little man that lives behind my eye (the left one) and screams at my brain start jabbing me with an icepick as punishment for the full frontal assault.
However you draw someone in, if you bombard them with TMI too soon you tend to lose them. I don’t like sharing options at the top – how do I know I want to share something? I haven’t read it yet, and when i have I am then expected to scroll back up for them? Isn’t that a bit presumptuous that I’m just going to like and share stuff just because? Then there is that floating sharing box thing on the left of everything now that makes me feel like I’m being stalked. That’s creepy and I either feel compelled to run from it (click off the tab) or hurl obscenities at it and threaten it with a restraining order. I will get that raw!
But back on point – If I go to a blog, particularly for the first time, and it feels like a full court press of “promote me” and worry about the actual content later – odds are I leave the blog having done nothing – no reading and certainly no sharing. I share you however. You have festive food porn backgrounds, good content, and you indulge my need to express things at length that no one is actually going to understand. I like that!
Mandy, the sad fact is that many blogs put the share buttons at the top because they are foolishly chasing traffic and all they really care about is getting their posts shared so that they get more traffic. But if visitors are coming to the site only to click a button, the bounce rate is going to really errr, well, ummm SUCK and they will find that the traffic does them very little good. It takes real time and effort to create a site that is attractive and sticky. And not amount of cool new widgets, poorly chosen fonts or Slick Me Too interfaces will ever substitute for that hard work. Thanks so much for stopping by today.
Mandy beat me to just about everything I was going to say! I will echo the ‘food porn’, though – it bears saying twice 🙂 I always leave your blog drooling.
At the moment, the roasted corn salad with avocado and cherry tomatoes is a vegan offering for Elsa– who maybe didn’t stop by today 😦 I promise to have something sweet tomorrow.
FOOD PORN!!! lol I had something to say but I saw okra and that ended me.
Love okra or hate it, Mandy? (in my experience it’s one or the other….as Supertramp sang ‘there really ‘aint no in betweeen’)
I prefer plain site – no flash, no nothing. I’ll stop reading if there’s anything flash or distraction. That’s candy for the petty owner, not for readers.
Honestly, I think that more often than not it’s ignorance. A celebrity blogger puts up a widget than all of the copy/paste experts race to have the same widget, without ever stopping to ask if it really works well for their particular site.
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Alan, you fulfilled your mission and gave more than one great piece of advice. Just staring at the juicy citrus quenches our thirst for more. Blessings, Debby
Thanks so much for your kind comments, Debby. So nice to connect with you in several places today.
Thanks Alan, also tumblr’d
Thank you so much, Anne. Hope you’re having a good week.
Thanks for the article. Cheers.
Nice Post. And you are right about twitter chat sessions being great for engagement and “earning” followers. You are also right about all the slickness and fancy gadgets can distract from sharing your content.
Reblogged this on michellegilstrap and commented:
This is a good commentary on increasing your Twitter Following. Check it out, written by a friend on Empire Ave. If you haven’t joined the Ave this is another way to increase followers and social media following.
Great article Libdrone. Will share with my Word of mouth marketing students.
I did get drawn in by the title however moreso because you were the author. I have only recently been exposed to your writing but even with that little exposure, thought there may be a twist to the topic which drew me in. I was right! Thanks for sharing this perspective.
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