It’s true, yes, it’s true. Some of you out there are not using your “Favorites” section on Twitter – and we know who you are! In fact, all of your followers know who you are, too.
They’re easy to find – and even easier to ignore. They’re called “Favorites.” If someone sends out a great tip or links to a great article – click the little star on the right hand side of that Twitter message. It will land in your “Favorites” section (and stay there).
Below Tom Gray (@tomjgray) has sent out a link to a a couple of articles “fer” and “agin” Outlook. I like it, so I save it as a Favorite. Thank you, Tom.
Lasting Recognition
Favorites are another way you can recognize and give credit to people (remember, social networking is not about you). For instance, we all tend to follow those who provide value. Your Favorites section is a way to give those folks a little more (lasting) recognition.
For instance, I follow @TWalk (Tim Walker of Hoovers) because he points me to interesting stuff that I can waste huge numbers of hours on (smile).
I follow @Poynter (the Poynter Institute devoted to journalism excellence and ethics) because they are a national treasure and I want other people to know about them. (We’ve written about the Poynter Institute many times in our blog, but “When Speakers Do Their Job” is perhaps our best attempt).
And, there are any number of ways people use Favorites. Below Claire Wadlington (@Wadlington) has saved an article about great blog designs, as well as a way to score some Coldplay tickets:
Getting to Know You
I don’t know about you, but quite a number of shady looking characters have shown up in my “Followers” section lately. Favorites is one of ways I can check out the questionable folks, as well as get know the others better.
Social networking is about relationships. But, relationships take a while to develop. I have no idea where our relationship with Elli St. George Godfrey (@3keyscoach) will go, but her Favorites section indicates that she’s a complex and interesting person:
Separate the Poseurs from the Real Folks
Favorites also provide an insight into who really cares. True, there are plenty of folks on Twitter who care, but who haven’t yet discovered their Favorites button. Tell them, OK?!
Certainly, there are a lot of celebrities who don’t use them at all – and it’s kind of a dead giveaway. I’d even go so far as to say that the amount someone uses Favorites tends to be in inverse proportion to his or her fame.
So, Michael Phelps, for instance, just can’t be bothered. Nor can Mischa Barton or Penn Gillette or even, sob, Tina Fey. If your heart goes Twitter Pitter because your favorite celebrity is “oh my gosh” using Twitter – just check their Favorites and you’ll come back down to earth.
Yup, some people use Twitter while many others are just using Twitter. By checking Elli’s, Claire’s and Tim’s Favorites, you can tell – they actually use Twitter.
So, start to use Favorites – because we know who you are.
Editor’s Note: You can check our favorites on Twitter – Michael @MichaelBenidt and Sheryl @SherylKay315.
21 comments ↓
oh, wow, have I been remiss in using Favorites! shame on me… but you guys are going right into mine now
it gets harder and harder to keep up with followers when one gets up over 1000 — this is a great way to help alleviate that problem!
cheers,
Graeme
http://www.twitter.com/graemethickins
Another trick is to use the “favorite” function as a temporary “conversation bookmark” function. For example, search.twitter.com lets you find a message and then view the related conversation, but that’s far from a perfect system. It never works as well as you’d like, leaving out major parts of the conversation.
Instead, if you’re interested in, say, blogging about a few back-and-forth Twitter messages, mark them as favorites. Unless you’re a rather rapid-fire favoriter, this pretty much guarantees they’ll be listed one on the of another in an easy, screen-capture-ready arrangement.
A small but useful tip.
I love the favorites button for links that I want to come back and read later and for sharing things that others say that are just FAB! You two are definitely on my real life FAVORITES list!
Hello Graeme, Mike and Gina,
Thanks so much for the comments. Graeme taught us a lot about Twitter, just sitting next to him at a conference. Mike is our leader and Gina is a Favorite Right Back At’cha.
Thanks, guys and girls.
Thank you for using me to illustrate the use of Favorites on Twitter. Like Mike and Gina, I use the Favorites function as a bookmark for a variety of reasons. There is almost too much good information on Twitter and saving some of it for later is just marvelous.
It reminds me of compliments I have received. (Good for those days when the ego is bruised.) On the business side of things, the testimonials enables others to see what kind of resource or advisor I may have been.
You are definitely one of my Favorites too! Looking forward to growing our relationship!
hah! I didn’t think I’d used Favorites at all… but I clicked on that page and found I had a bunch there — all were “accidental” clicks from way back when I was first using Twitter
but I figured out how to delete all those from my Favorites — just click on the star icon in each one, and, poof, they’re gone! so, I’m now starting from a fresh page…
it’s worth pointing out that these are favorite *tweets* we’re tagging, not favorite followers per se — though the two would equate in most cases, I guess…
cheers,
Graeme
Your honor, the defendant would like to plead guilty as charged….
O.k., busted. I have used Favorites 3 (yes, three) times, but I am not a poseur!
What I need to sort out is my use of Favorites vs. my use of Delicious. I tend to click through to interesting links right away, especially when I feel my A.D.D. heating up. From the ones I like to refer back to I save to Delicious. Most of those are shared via a feed to my blog for my readers to consume.
One of the blessing of social media is the number of choices to get job done – it’s also one of the curses.
Thanks for the tip/inspiration.
Rob
@shorespeak
Thanks for the education, guys. I now see the value of favorites! I’ll favorite you!
Hi, Michael. I’ve used Favorites all along..not so much to pick my favorite followers but to “star” the tweets or links I want to go back to and record for my students.
If I were to re-read my favorites in one year, I wonder if I would begin deleting, as well, as Graeme suggests. For now, I know that people like Eili and you and Mike *are* my favorites, whether you’re on a list or not.
Michael & Sheryl,
You always teach me something new every I hear you speak or read one of your articles or blog posts. Thank you for always searching for new things to help so many people improve the way they communicate and do business. And by the way, I’ve never used my favorites star button but now you have given me several great reason why I should. Thank you!
Nice post. Interesting looking at my Favorites that you screen captured. They are a mix of posts I flagged to read later (since the Twitter stream is such a torrent) and posts I flagged to remember (guess I could have used Delicous). I saw that in the mix of my faves in that screen shot is Billy E Cole (@billyecole). I have never even exchanged tweets with him, but like his style of posting little videos on everything from Hassling Your Congressman so they work for you, to his little reflections on life. Of course I realize that the problem for me with Favorites, is that I need to clean them out every now and then (just like my email Inbox and especially my Follow Up folder).
Thanks for your kind words, sir!
I love to go back through my Favorites from time to time — I don’t use it that much, but it provides me an interesting mix of topics (business, friends’ news, just plain funny stuff) to reflect upon.
Graeme,
You are too funny – and too refreshingly modest. I’d venture to guess that it would be a small fraction of technology experts like yourself who would ever admit that they didn’t know something! Hmmm… come to think about it, these days, it would be a small fraction of any group of experts, technology or otherwise, who would ever admit…
And, yes – I didn’t do a great job of making this clear – but go look at any saved favorite – the name and picture of the person who sent that Tweet comes first. To me, that’s a way of recognizing them – as much as remembering the information. Information is overrated on Twitter (after all, there’s far too much of it). ReTweeting and Favorites are ways of bringing the people to the front – as much as the information.
Hello Claire,
My guess would be the I initially discovered most of the good stuff on Twitter because of either Claire Wadlington (@Wadlington), Mike Keliher (@mjkeliher) or Jim Storer (@jimstorer). I’ve got an article that I’m working on essentially telling new Twitter users to find people like this if they really want to learn what’s up on Twitter, or any new tech program that they are trying.
Claire, though, is constantly coming up with things I bookmark, tag in Zotero, make an Outlook task or throw into my Twitter Favorites. If it weren’t for her, I’d get a lot more work done!
And Claire, thanks for @billycole – I’m following him!
OK, the Wordpress Timeline wouldn’t let me pretend to respond as each comment came in – talk about busted, Rob! Yes, I was gone from the comments (and everything computer related) for 24 hours, but I have a pink slip.
So, for those I comments I missed individually – Elli finally helped kick out the ideas that were rolling around in my head; Rob told us about Username.com (what else do you need?!); Ed keeps our feet to the business fire; Ellen should have been included with the three who are teaching us Twitter; John Marx is a good, good friend and Tim Walker is just smart, smart, smart.
Thanks to all.
Wow! This is a huge help…you guys are so great. Thanks for passing this along.
By the way, not only can Tina Fey not be bother to use Twitter favorites but neither can the person who’s faking the Tina Fey Twitter account.
http://gawker.com/5153540/tina-fey-denies-mcflurry-payola-disowns-twitter-account
OK.. you got me!! I did not know or understand Favorites. Guess I have to add Michael Benidt, Graeme Thickins, and Mike Keliher to my Favorites!!
I did have 3 favoites, somehow, only 1 of them I really knew. So Graeme thanks for telling us how click the Star and remove Favorites
Belated Thanks to Scott, Mike and Gary,
Wish I could write and speak like Scott (http://collapseofdistinction.com/). Wish I had the social networking knowledge of Mike – who’s now taken up with a new company – Fast Horse in Minneapolis (http://www.fasthorseinc.com/blog/). And, I wish I had one-tenth of Gary’s knowledge of video production – and his commitment to service with what they do for the Parkinson’s Disease Foudation (www.pdf.org). You guys are just great and we’ll follow your favorites, anytime!
OK…I admit it…I’ve only been on Twitter for a few months and I had no idea about the favorites feature! I do now and I will use it! Thanks guys!
Thanks Sarah,
When we write things like – “Favorites are another way you can recognize and give credit to people (remember, social networking is not about you)” – it’s because Sarah taught us that networking of any kind (online or off) is not about you.
Considering the constant barrage of self-congratulatory puffery on social media sites like Twitter, it’s hard to remember that – but spend some time around Sarah Michel and the message will sink in.
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