@NowSourcing.Com

Hello, my name is Brian Wallace, and I’m a Twitterholic.  I’ve been on Twitter as @nowsourcing nearly 2 years now.

(image credit: whendidyoujointwitter.com)

So if I’ve been on Twitter so long, you might be skeptical that I only have 5,000 updates and not even 5,000 followers. Other people are flying by in follower counts.  And that’s fine.  What you must understand is that I’m more concerned about reach and influence vs. just a follower number.

When we take a look back over the past year, some would even go so far to criticize my meager average of 8.5 Tweets per day:

(image credit: tweetstats)

Keep in mind that the average number of Tweets per day is actually 4.  Dan Zarrella might argue with me that I’m not reaching my full potential, as he suggests 22 Tweets per day is optimal.  Maybe he’s right.  Am I a Twitter slacker though? Hardly. (Funny, some might argue that being on Twitter so much makes you a slacker).

We manage several different Twitter accounts and advise on a significant client base.  So if you put all those together, I’m actually Tweeting more than is suggested

Even so, let’s just stick with the 8.5 Tweets per day number.  Some days I’ll even Tweet just a handful.  Why? I would prefer to make each Tweet count and be relevant, entertaining, and helpful to my followers.  They took the trouble of singling me out, so I’m here to provide that value.

A trend that is appearing is that fewer people read blogs (at least, it’s slowed down due to lifestreaming and microblogging) as well as expected RSS usage.  People are looking to their Twitter friends to point them in the right direction.  So, I dedicate my 5,000th Tweet and this further analysis to you, dear reader.  Hope it got you thinking.

How do you approach the whole follower/following/velocity vs. influence discussion? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Twitter, while excellent, short circuits the full potential of the thoughts that we seed into it. I’m putting a clock to the amount of time that it takes to write this blog post from start to finish, and will have it take no longer than 2 minutes.

Why? Because I’d like to get some of my brain back away from Twitter

Kidding aside – it’s important to elaborate on one’s thoughts. For me personally, I seek to strive in full abundance theory mode. People from all around seek advice from myself and my company, and we’re here to deliver. Sure, I could have lead in by putting out a short Twitter post. But this goes slightly beyond that 140 characters. File this away and before you do, let it serve as a reminder and a word of caution. Your thoughts should remain yours. Tweet away, but don’t forget that important lesson.

You’ve probably noticed the new change of clothes around here.  Why just have a change of clothes when you can have a whole ensemble though?  Here is a list of things to come:

Social media case studies – enough buzzwords already.  Let’s get into the meat and potatoes.  We’ll cover some examples of what worked, and perhaps even some examples of what didn’t.  And these case studies won’t just be coming from us – send us your best and brightest, and we’ll talk.

PPC – what’s that you say? Yes, it is a social media blog and will remain a social media blog.  Still, let’s face it: social media is one new branch of Internet marketing (and yes, you can tell me how it is soft sales, branding, engagement, customer service, etc, etc…but that’s still marketing).  A branch that should be supplemented by organic SEO and PPC.  So, we’ll be focusing on PPC.

Widgets, widgets, and more widgets – we’ll be evaluating and adding the best of breeds in search (i.e. Lijit), comment systems (intense debate, sezwho, disqus), Tweetbacks, and others like Google Friend Connect.  Plugins too.

Webinars – plans are in the works to have actual in person and web classes.  Stay tuned.

And as promised, we’re delivering a fresh post to you once a day.  Peace.

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A few days ago, you might have seen my claim that I would begin blogging daily.

I’ve been thinking that while this site is a great resource, many might miss it due to infrequent or unexpected updates.

Regardless of our past update frequency, blogging daily sounds like a tall order.  Here are some steps I plan to employ in order to keep daily weekday blogging (and quality) up to par:

1 – More regular writers. Having guest posters is fun and gives people some fresh ideas, though having regular contributors takes on a whole other voice to your blog.  Select these people wisely, as they should balance your normal tone.

2 – Nightblogging. I’ve just found it most effective to blog in the middle of the night.

3 – Assembly line method. One thing that has been particularly effective for me is what I’ll refer to here as assembly line blogging.  Literally, if you look at your blog post as pieces on an assembly line, they become easier, especially when you’re looking to keep up a frequent pace.

So let’s say I come up with a great idea to blog, but don’t have the time.  I quickly jot down the idea in notepad, or put in a draft in Wordpress, usually with a catchy title.  When time will allow, I will continue to develop the idea.  Unless it’s a pure research post, the last steps I will do will be adding links, images and video.  Give it a final edit, and the post is on its way.

4 – Delayed Publishing. Thanks to the beauty of Wordpress, we’re able to schedule posts to publish in the future.  While I might have some great ideas at 3am, it might not get the best exposure should I choose to publish at that time.  So I could publish at 6am and have the blog do the publishing work by itself – just in time for my morning coffee.  Does it really take that much time and work to publish a blog post? Of course not – it’s just nice to know that your post is on its way in a scheduled fashion.

5 -  Keeping Fresh. Nothing keeps you on your game like blogging on a daily basis.  Once you fall off your schedule, you may find yourself in a pattern of “paralysis through analysis.” I’ve fallen into this trap too before.  You haven’t blogged for what you think is far too long, so you over think and over analyze the “perfect post.” You sit on it for days, maybe even weeks.  Last I checked, nobody has won the Nobel Peace Prize for writing a blog post, so break your behavior here and publish already.  It’s a self-defeating behavior that doesn’t help you, and your audience would appreciate the updates.

6 – There are some things Twitter wasn’t made for. Yes, you heard me.  Twitter can’t make your coffee (though you can order coffee from it), and it can’t blog.  Not beyond 140 characters.  So this can lead to a lot of noise.  Also, you don’t “own” your Twitter blog and links are nofollow, so the more you Tweet, the more you’re actually working for Twitter.  Reclaim some of your blog power – your readers will thank you for the focus.

7 – Keep one step ahead of yourself. Try to keep at least one full post ahead of your writing.  If you can’t do that, at least have a few half written ones, ya slacker

I’m not asking you to blog daily…though I’m curious: what do you do to keep up your pace?

Ever since being immersed in microblogging – Twitter and to a lesser extent Plurk – I’ve noticed that I have been blogging way too infrequently.  That’s just not fair to the readers.  While I may have a good Tweet or two, what’s the chance that you caught it? You are probably more likely going to regularly visit my blog or RSS feed of the blog to capture the latest news here. (Yes, I know you can subscribe to one’s Tweets, but who really wants all the noise?)

That said, I’m going to try a one post per day (not counting the weekend) pace for a while.  This will allow me to elaborate beyond the sometimes too brief 140 characters, yet get to the point of a daily piece of wisdom.

As I mentioned on the new Collective Thoughts Twitter account: expect more.