I’m on Triberr. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a platform for sharing blogs and promoting a like-minded group of people on Twitter (and possibly other social networks) with the click of a button.
In theory, this works well. It’s easy and quick to do. And according to the stats of my tribes, my blog posts could get exposed to 100,000 people if everyone in my three tribes promotes my post on Twitter (and if everyone they follow is on Twitter and reads that tweet at that time).
But I think I kind of suck at Triberr. Or at the very least, I use it differently.
I love the people in my tribes. In spite of that, I likely send-out (i.e. promote) only a quarter or a third of their content. I suspect this makes me an annoying tribe-mate.
There are a few reasons I don’t send out everything:
- I love my tweeps, and I don’t want to spam them.
- I get annoyed when I see numerous, identical Triberr tweets in my Twitter stream.
- Some of the posts wouldn’t interest my readers.
- I sometimes get behind on reading blog posts and press “clear all” in Triberr.
When people “approve” a post on Triberr without editing it, it will go out on Twitter looking like this:
That identical tweet has been sent out by my lovely tribe-mates at least five times today promoting my new post at IronicMom. After a while, these tweets look like spam. I know I click on these factory-automated posts only about 1% of the time.
But there’s another option: promote less and personalize more. Quality over quantity.
Read the post first. And show evidence of having read it in your tweet. I try to find an angle that will interest my readers (writing/humor/parenting in my case), and I write an intro to the tweet.
Something like this:
My tribe-mate, Karen Rought, does the best job of introducing and personalizing blog posts through Triberr. This is how she sent out my Mother’s Day post this morning. It personalizes the tweet and reveals a bit about her, which means she won’t annoy her tweeps (and will entertain them):
So, do I like Triberr? Yes. Does it drive me crazy? Sometimes. And should I apologize to my tribe-mates for my lacklustre-y performance? Likely.
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If you want to find out a lot more about using Triberr, guru Jenny Hansen is your go-to gal.
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Do you use Triberr? If you’re on Twitter, what’s your perspective of tweets coming via Triberr?
Leanne Shirtliffe (Ironic Mom)
Elena Aitken
Trish Loye Elliott
Gosh! This was a nice surprise. Thanks, Leanne.
I only promote about half of the posts that come through my stream for pretty much the same reasons – mostly because I don’t want to be spammy or because I don’t think my followers will be interested. Triberr is a great thing for bloggers, but I don’t think everyone uses it to its full potential. (But I think you’re doing a fabulous job!)
Fantastic post Leanne. I couldn’t agree more. I am definitely one who has been guilty for not personalizing enough. I do try to add content-specific hashtags or remove hashtags that have obviously already been used but I could definitely take it a step further. A few months ago, I was always personalizing tweets so that it was more apparent what the post was and why I was promoting it but I’ll admit it…I got a bit lazy. LOL!
This post was the exact kick in the pants I needed to get back to doing what I know not only I APPRECIATE but I know my tweeps appreciate!
BTW, I absolutely AGREE 100% with your rules about what to choose to push out and what not to push and I support it whole heartedly. If you think something of mine would interest your peeps and you send it out, fab! If not, I don’t offend or think a thing about it!! So…rest assured and be guilt-free my friend!
FAB post!
This is exactly the right way to use Triberr, Leanne. Everyone is busy and it’s easy to just hit approve. I don’t even mind if my tribemates do that, if they’d just hold off for a day or two so all the tweets don’t come at once (looking like spam).
I purposely keep myself a few days behind so my tweet will stand out and help get my pals amplification (snazzy Klout word) and hits.
However, I LOVE the way you and Karen tweet. You absolutely rock it and, because of that, I pass on everything the two of you do.
p.s. Thanks for the linky love! The word Triberr is in my tag cloud, so one people get to More Cowbell, they can find all the posts there.
You pretty much stole the words out of my mouth. (Well, not stole, but you know what I mean)
Thanks for this post Leanne, now I don’t feel like i’m the only one who just doesn’t get it. I’m on there too and a part of 3 tribes, all of which contain other great bloggers. But I find myself getting seriously backlogged and like you, i don’t promote everything for the reasons you mentioned above. So far I haven’t been voted off the island, but I better make some alliances quick if I want to stay!
Leanne, I think this is great advice for everyone, regardless of whether or not they are involved with Triberr. I am a complete boob when it comes to Twitter, but have been trying hard to improve, and one of the things I’ve been working on is the way I retweet an item. Adding personalization is definitely a way to show that you’ve read the material and personally approve of it, and I’m trying to get better at this. This piece came at the right time for me! Now I’m off to check out Jenny’s info on Triberr (just found her blog and I love it!)….
I’m guilty of not personalising Triberr Tweets. Going to work on this. Thanks for this helpful post.
I agree that I have a love hate relationship with triberr. The auto tweeting also doesn’t allow for easy hashtagging, so then I think it’s not really reaching as many people as you’d like, or at least the tweeps who’d be interested. I find I like tweeting from the actual blog page a lot more, like you. But I’m still learning and getting a handle on this social media thing. By the time I catch up, I’m sure there’ll be something else called Rebells or Google 4.0 or Goodreads Gone Wild. *sigh*
Does this mean there are posts waiting for me on Triberr? Because I have no idea how to log-in anymore. And I lost my password. Also, I lost all my bones on day 1. I just couldn’t get the hang of it. So I’m still just tweeting by hand. And, confession: I don’t see a lot of traffic coming from Triberr. So… I just kind of stopped playing. I’m sorry. But you are right. Jenny Hansen knows everything about Triberr. And to think I used to believe I once thought I was tech savvy.
L, you’re a superstar at your personalizing tweets.
I’m a crappy Tribe member myself. Because…well I feel the same way. I was thinking of just getting off Tribber because I feel like there’s not actual interacting on Twitter anymore. It’s all blog push.
I’m totally good with some promo. But come on people…let’s chat!
Hi Leanne! Great topic. I am still on the fence whether or not I think Triberr is effective–but I love everyone in my tribe. I end up approving them all, but then my tribe is not huge. But I probably end up only personalizing half of them. I do read them, but sometimes I just don’t take the time to think of something clever. But I don’t like when my stream looks like spam, which is why I try to spread out my triberr tweets so they mix with my twitter conversations.
I agree with everything you’ve said about Triberr. I find I’m using it more like my google reader. It’s become another place to stash blog posts until I have time to read them. I do try to personalize my tweets and add hashtags so they’re not so spammy. However, I’m horrible at thanking all my tribe each day that they push my posts out there into the twitterverse. I’m trying to get better at that.
I think I need to cyber stalk Jenny Hansen to figure out Triberr. I’m definitely out of the loop on this stuff. Good post!
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I’m totally with you here. And trust me, your tribe mates don’t hate ya! On the contrary, I admire and respect you as a writer and blogger, and appreciate your shout outs more because it’s evident that you care—about your readers, our content and what you choose to promote. Please stay as you are (in case there was any question
).
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