Author Topic: Twitter overload  (Read 1643 times)

Twitter overload
« on: 17 October, 2018, 06:50:15 pm »
I have recently taken over the Twitter account for an organisation I belong to.
My predecessor was following over 1500 accounts, with the result that the feed is a bit like standing in front of the proverbial fire hose. I can't have the feed visible on my screen as it's just too distracting.
This means that none of the information is actually of any use, as I can't work out which bits I do want to see without reading all of it.

Does anyone know of any tools (web or Mac based) which might help me work out which accounts are worth following properly?

Thanks
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #1 on: 17 October, 2018, 07:41:26 pm »
If it's an organisation account, then really the only things you might reasonably benefit from following are those of partner organisations that you might expect to retweet.  Eg. The campaigns account of $cycling_organisation might occasionally retweet announcements from the social rides account, or the council's invitations to respond to relevant consultations.

Organisation accounts tweeting or retweeting about irrelevant stuff is a good way to get unfollowed.  Less is more, as you've just discovered.

Follow things of general interest on your personal twitter account.


Historically, Twitter required people to be following each other in order to have a conversation in Direct Messages, which might explain why so many accounts are being followed.  AIUI there's now a setting organisations can use to allow them to receive DMs from anyone.


I don't know about Mac specific software, but you can use Tweetdeck on the web, which is probably helpful for high-volume stuff.  Bear in mind that Twitter have been working to kill off third-party clients by repeatedly changing and restricting the API, because usability interferes with the important business of selling users to advertisers.

Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #2 on: 17 October, 2018, 07:55:31 pm »
I haven't looked at my Twitterfeed for about a decade now. Tweetdeck + strategic use of private lists was a good step towards managing the noise, as was muting a generous handfull of keywords and hashtags.

Working out which accounts make it to which list probably has to be done the hard way, but you could start from scratch rather than trying to reverse engineer it from the original 1500 accounts.

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #3 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:15:47 pm »
Don't worry about it

Spend 5 minutes a day looking at it.  Retweet stuff that is worthwhile.  Unfollow spammers
If you "miss" stuff, it doesn't matter

Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #4 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:17:51 pm »
I’m going to assume there’s some merit in most of the 1500 follows - members, orgs with a relationship, follow backs, follows to get a follow back etc.
Lists, muting, twitter’s own notifications and suggestions, and searches for particular mentions, hashtags etc is the way to go. Or software that does that with more sophistication for a price. Just use those and don’t read the raw feed. At some point no one reads that for fun.


Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #5 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:18:18 pm »
I haven't looked at my Twitterfeed for about a decade now.

The Twitter website is probably the worst way to interact with twitter.  Although they do at least now have an option to disable the algorithmic timeline, so you don't have to use lists just to make things appear in chronological order.  It's still trying to turn into Facebook, though.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #6 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:57:28 pm »
Nikki is sensible.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #7 on: 17 October, 2018, 10:58:01 pm »
Following lots of accounts is a standard way of hoping those accounts notice you and follow you back, thus inflating your follower count and meaning someone might read your tweets. The previous owner may have little or no interest in what was actually written by those accounts.

Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #8 on: 18 October, 2018, 12:24:40 am »
I ignored the twitter feed for one account I helped run, simply because it was full of nonsense as we just followed people to get them to follow back/etc.

Periodically you will need to check the mentions or DMs on this primary account.

But create a separate account(s) to follow the people you want to follow that might be useful and filter that as you require, there's no need to ever look at the firehose of the primary account.


"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: Twitter overload
« Reply #9 on: 19 February, 2019, 10:52:01 am »
In case anyone is interested, I've ended up doing what Greenbank suggested; only worrying about notifications and messages. I've set these up to email me and will ignore the feed.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."