It’s a hustle kind of day, been up earlier than everyone else to work harder than everyone else – Four O’Clock Project style. In keeping with that tradition, I’m going to share with my readers my opinion on the absolute worst social media element that is prevalent on most sub-par blogs – the Twitter Widget.
Your twitter widget sucks because you don’t use it properly. How do I know that you don’t use it properly? Here are 3 characteristics of the suck-ish use of a twitter feed :
1) Display the last 5 Tweets
First off, if you’re using a twitter widget to display your last 5 tweets, deactivate it, uninstall it and throw it across the room. It will do your blog more good sitting in a corner of your living room behind the yoga ball than taking up space in your sidebar.
I’ve said it before, people don’t read your sidebar text unless it stands out. Having a block of twitter text does the opposite. In fact, it probably fills up valuable space above the fold on your site that would be best served by something else.
2) Use the words “Twitter” or the phrase “Follow Me”
Forget the fact that the media is talking about Twitter or that it’s supposedly mainstream. What people should be paying attention to is the perception of Twitter from someone who doesn’t know anything about Twitter. You as the blog writer need to empathize with the person who comes to your blog knowing nothing about social media. Does a person who knows nothing about social media want to “tweet” or “follow you?” No. They do not. They just want to read what you have to say. In my humble study of human-computer patterns, I’ve found that people who come to a website don’t click on things they don’t understand.
If your reader audience are geeks, feel free to use “Follow me.” But if not, consider changing your entry phrase to get more people checking out your account.
3) The Twitter Bird
My beef with the bird is simple, it establishes Twitter as a brand instead of your tweets. Again, if I am person who knows nothing about social media, this little blue bird is meaningless to me. But, hmm, what image could possibly represent my own voice?
How about a talk bubble? How about a picture of you or your brand talking? Swap the picture of the blue bird with one of you so that people intuitively connect your “tweets” with you actually talking and I bet you’ll see an increase of people clicking over to your Twitter account.
Quick Recap:
To make a great twitter widget make these changes…
Be conservative with the number of tweets you display. Don’t waste space above the fold with your twitter feed if it’s not necessary.
Don’t use words that your audience does not understand. You shouldn’t have to convince a non-believer to “follow you.”
Don’t brand Twitter, brand yourself. Some people say it’s arrogant to have a big picture of yourself, I say it’s neither good or bad but instead a balance between a personal brand and a business brand and only the boss can make that call.
Future Directions:
My Twitter Widget sucks. I think it’s cooler than a lot of other ways people display their feeds, but still lacking in a lot of aspects. I know exactly what it needs to make it better, but I have held off doing much with it because I think that when a blogger reaches a certain number of followers it makes sense to downplay Twitter. Instead of a twitter balloon or feed, just a link will do. After all, it seems kind of silly to worry about Twitter integration when a blogger already has thousands of followers.
I hope you have either loved this article or hated it. Either way I would love to hear about it and what how you’ve integrated Twitter into your site.
If you want to find me on Twitter, I'm 
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