If You're Finding Twitter 'Boring', It's Because YOU Are Following Boring People

A friend of mine recently announced that they were planning to leave Twitter to pursue other projects. Why? Because it’s “dull”.

Here’s the thing: if Twitter is boring, it’s because YOU made it that way.

It’s YOUR timeline. You chose who to follow, and who not to follow. You have complete control over the stream of updates you see, and if it’s dull, you take full responsibility.

I’ve written before about how the three keys to success on Twitter are to be famous, useful or interesting, but it works in reverse, too. If your Twitter feed is jam-packed full of random people you’ve added just for the sake of it (nor attempted to engage with), internet marketers and the very, very dull, it’s never going to be somewhere you desperately want to be.

And the only person you can blame is yourself.

The good news? It’s easily rectified. Just unfollow everybody who you find uninteresting. This may well be everybody in your network. (Including me – if you find me dull, don’t follow me. No hard feelings.)

This possibly will also include some of your ‘real life’ friends. Here’s a little secret lots of people don’t like to talk about: our friends and acquaintances can be dull. Often, they aren’t as enthusiastic or gripped by our interests, whims and fancies as we are, nor do they read the same books, watch the same TV shows, love the same rock bands or devour the same blogs. (This of course works both ways.) That’s perfectly normal and it’s really okay, because there are thousands of people on Twitter who are interested. Who do care. Who want to know more. You just have to make the effort to find them.

(As an aside, I’m starting to realise that an awful lot of the people who ‘don’t get Twitter’ are those same individuals who spend a lot of time chatting on MSN and similar interfaces, and then follow the exact same MSN friends, and a few token celebrities, on Twitter. It’s no wonder they never see the potential.)

One of the best things about Twitter is it’s an open social network. This means that even if you’re not following somebody, you can still communicate with them. And vice versa. So, if a few of your friends use Twitter for chit-chat but that’s not something you want to see in your stream, unfollow them. You can still communicate, but you won’t have to suffer the pointless babble.

To make Twitter interesting and fun, try these simple tips and guidelines:

1. Size doesn’t matter, unless you’re really, really small. Following tens of thousands of people is almost as pointless as following nobody. But following just a handful of people, particularly if they’re only folks you already know, isn’t productive, either. It’s absolutely about making your network relevant and interesting, but if you’re following less than 100 people you’re probably not trying hard enough.
2. Twitter lists are a great way to find cool people to follow. Study the lists of people you admire and follow accordingly.
3. Use #hashtags (sparingly and always where relevant) to get the attention of like-minded folk who share your interests.
4. Use Twitter directories such as WeFollow.
5. Be mindful of adopting the herd mentality; if you’re only following people who feel the exact same way about the exact same things, you’re going to have a hard time reaching out to others. (Note: this is especially true if everybody you follow thinks Twitter is boring and/or updates once per week.)
6. Start conversations with complete strangers.
7. Ignore your replies and mentions folder at your peril. If somebody asks you a question, answer it!
8. Unless you have a genuine reason, don’t protect your updates. This cuts you off from most of the network.
9. Don’t be a hater.
10. Above all, be interesting yourself. Don’t be a robot. It’s great to share content and links, but we want to know you’re a real person, too. And if you’re boring and don’t make an effort, why would you expect others to be any different?

There’s definitely value in not taking Twitter too seriously. It pays to take breaks and we all get frustrated with it from time to time. But nothing becomes this important and embeds itself in the public and media consciousness this quickly without being significant, relevant and game-changing. And Twitter is all of these things.

So, if you think it’s ‘boring’, you need to look a little closer to home. Twitter is very interesting; it’s YOUR Twitter that’s dull.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Michael Brito (Edelman Digital), and Tim Devane (bitly). Register now.