stop tweeting and create something tweet-worthy

With the release of Google Buzz I have been thinking about social media quite a bit. For some reason I seemed to spend a TON of time messing around on Twitter and not actually doing much work last week. The more I thought about it, the more I realized what was compelling me to spend my time this way. Other than flat out procrastination, I was spending a lot of time trying to see if people were talking about my work. I was finding other blog articles to find and comment on with less than pure intentions. Basically, instead of creating content that will bring in its own traffic, I was trying to get more traffic with the content I already had.

This realization kind of hit me all at once and I tweeted (relax, I appreciate the irony):

I’m slowly coming to realize that my time is better spent creating something tweet-worthy than tweeting.

At a more basic level, I think this is about having the faith in my ability and my work to let it stand on it’s own. I don’t need to see if people are re-tweeting my tweets or spreading the links to my articles because that’s not what I should be worried about. My writing doesn’t need me standing by it and holding its hand while I introduce it to the world. I am not a parent and my writing is not a child going to school for the first time. Instead, I am trying to cultivate the mindset that I have put all the work into the preparation and actual writing of my work that once I have deemed it worthy, I can push it out into the world and let it find it’s own way.

This approach allows me to use my time to crank out excellent content instead of trying to goad as much publicity out of my work as possible. If the prep work has been done well and the content is compelling, interesting, and well-formed, it doesn’t need me checking for RT’s or Diggs.

Remember, you and I are content creators. You can control your content and your content will determine your reach into the world. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to squeeze every bit of notoriety out of sub-par content. If you write or paint or draw or perform or otherwise create something tweet worthy, it will be tweeted, buzzed, and lauded beyond your wildest imaginations. But that means your attention must be on creation and not promotion; content and not marketing.

Photo by tveskov

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under personal, productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Sam
    @Karo

    I agree 100% about Buzz being conducive to conversation. I've had some great discussions in the past week or so that would have been nearly impossible on Twitter.

    @Jeffrey Tang

    I agree 100% with you as well. I find that I do my best writing when I forget about the fact that I am reading something that other people are going to be reading and just concentrate on writing something that I would want to read. The rest seems to take care of itself.

    @David Damron

    The occasional promotional Tweet doesn't hurt anything. It's when I found myself spending so much more time messing with Twitter and not creating that I decided to write this article. The balance must always be tipped in the favor of content creation, in my opinion.
  • I agree and disagree. Sometimes I post stuff for promotions or PUSH'n for others. However, as long as I USUALLY tweet something tweet-worthy, I think most people will handle the 25% promo stuff.

    Once again, I get your point, but I am still torn.....
    You may enjoy this post from today... http://theminimalistpath.com/2010/02/twitter-si...

    David Damron
    TMP
  • I've read a lot of advice that says: write what your audience wants; tailor your content to your audience. And while these guidelines make sense, the more I blog, the more I come to understand that my audience is, first and foremost, myself. Content that's created without engaging the soul of the creator is empty. You write to understand; you write for yourself first, and your audience will find you.

    This isn't about selfishness or writing "self-centered" (in the negative sense of the word) content - it's about writing something that resonates with you, something that you can be proud of and call your own.

    Otherwise you're just another echo in the chamber.
  • It's definitely easy to obsess. Though I have to admit, since trying out Buzz I am spending less time on Twitter. Twitter seems less conducive to following an interesting conversation, and Buzz seems like a great place to start. That, and there are relatively few users so far, so it doesn't seem overloaded with useless stuff and I see people following very few other people - only those who are interesting or relevant. I hope that doesn't change.
  • Thanks for the reminder, Sam! It's easy to fall into the trap. Looking at RTs and stuff, at least once in a while, can be a good judge of how "compelling, interesting, and well-formed" your content is though, don't you think?

    I'm going to grab a cup of coffee and focus on content now... :-) Thanks

    - Luke
  • Sam
    Absolutely-- in moderation. I found myself spending so much more time doing that than actually creating content though. Writing this post was supposed to be a bit of a wake-up call for me :)
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