Aesop for Twitterers

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May I share a story with you?

You might have heard it before, it’s one of Aesop’s Fables. It’s title is The Man, The Boy, and The Donkey.

One day, a man and a boy set off to the market to sell their donkey.

As they were walking, a group of people went by and laughed. “What use is a donkey,” said one of them to his friends, “if you don’t ride on him?”

Hearing this, the man hopped on the donkey while the boy continued to walk beside.

Soon another group walked by. “Look at that lazy man,” commented one. “Riding while he leaves his young son to walk. Look at how tired the poor boy is already.”

Hearing this, the man turned beet red and quickly jumped off the animal, lifting the boy up instead.

Before long, they came to yet another group. “Can you believe that boy? Riding while his father walks. What a spoiled child!”

Now the father was running out of ideas, but finally climbed on the back of the donkey with the boy. While the donkey plodded along, another group came past them.

“As perfect an example of animal abuse as I ever saw,” said one traveler. “Look at those two sturdy men straining the back of that poor donkey. Why they should be carrying him instead of making him carry them.”

As soon as the group passed, the father lifted his son down and tied the donkey’s feet to a pole. Hefting the pole over their shoulders, the man and boy set off with the struggling animal.

Soon, they came to a bridge, and as the donkey stuggled, it threw the man and boy off balance enough that donkey and pole were dropped into the river below. Being unable to get to his feet, the donkey drowned, and the man and boy were forced to go back home penniless after the day’s adventures.

Recently, Mark Allan of StumpMarkus had me on his show to discuss Twitter. I always enjoy our discussions, not least because Mark comes from a purely marketing background and I’m a social networker through and through so our approaches are often radically different.

The great thing is that people get to hear two different approaches and can decide whether they like one or the other, or parts of both, or perhaps neither.

After Mark’s broadcast, I went looking to see how other people thought twitter should be used.

My conclusion was that I feel sorry for anyone who’s just getting started and trying to figure the “right way” to use it. In fact, that’s when I recalled this fable.

I need to admit that I’ve been the man in the fable before too.

When I first started twittering, there were people who were saying “follow everyone” and others saying “follow only those that you know.” Then there were the people saying “tweet about everything” and others saying “you should limit your tweets each day and only send a few.”

Gah! After a while if you’re not careful, you’re afraid to follow or tweet about anything.

A few of the twitter debates I’ve seen recently:

Follow everyone or follow (almost) no one.

Tweet often, carry on conversations on twitter or never carry on conversations, take them to another medium, and tweet only a few times a day.

Retweet or don’t retweet.

So what do you do? Especially if you’re just getting started on twitter, how do you decide on a plan that will help you ignore all the people telling you that you’re doing it wrong?

I’d love to hear your ideas.