Take a look at this graph. It's my record of activity as a neighborhood blogger on Twitter (jseattle if you want to follow :) ). Thanks to Tweetstats for the cool visualization of my account. I'm no technical analyst but that looks like an uptrend.
What's behind my explosion of activity in support of my work on capitolhillseattle.com? Part of it, I'll admit, is me finding a new toy. But I'm not really one to spend time on something just because it's fun. There's purpose in my Twitter-use.
While I've had a Twitter account since August 2007, I didn't really start using it until this fall when I noticed pro writer friends using Twitter in a way I hadn't really given much thought in relation to my neighborhood blogging. They were planning stories, sharing early tidbits, promoting completed work and pointing at other sites and tools that were related to their areas of expertise. And, yeah, they were also occasionally mentioning what they had for lunch. I started experimenting with the same kind of conversation around my content area -- my Seattle neighborhood.
The results were awesome. If you want data, in two months, 834 tweets netted about 1,800 referrals back to my site. Relatively insignificant to my business in terms of ad impressions but more importantly, there was another dialogue around my work that was incremental to the experience happening on my web site. The Twitter audience provided feedback and advice, tips and news. And they were lightning fast.
Of course, jumping into Twitter does create yet another audience to support. I've been busy with Twitter updates every day of the week and, often, around the clock when I'm working on breaking news. Tweetstats can show you more about my Twitter behavior. Here's my distribution by day of week. Neighborhood tweeting, apparently, does not take a weekend break!
But Twitter does sleep. Here's my pattern of updates by hour. Haven't given this part of my behavior much thought. Basically, I'll send off a note to Twitter as time allows or as I'm working on things and have something new to share. Peak activity in the 8a-noon period likely mirrors my peak activity of updating the blog.
What do I, um, tweet about? You can check out my recent stream here. I also made this cloud visualization on Wordle.net. In the cloud, you can see a few things of note. For one, check out the relative size of snow -- it's a good reminder to hit a topic hard when it has people's attention. That's the same rule in blogging -- Twitter, if anything, accelerates it. Also note the big huge RT. RT stands for a 're-tweet' -- basically, when you use Twitter to do little more than to repeat somebody else's 'tweet.' I do a lot of re-tweeting. One, it's a great way to include site contributors in your information flow. Two, it makes my information richer. I can only cover so much of Capitol Hill. Again, echoes of the best way to go about your blogging, too. Twitter's focus distills the activity to its essence.
I'm not the only local blogger who has made this leap. If you think I had a Twitter-y December, check out the Twitter behavior of neighborhood blogging leader, West Seattle Blog. Sensing a trend?
