Posted By Tough Cookie Mommy on August 23, 2011

    Many of you who are on Twitter have probably seen a lot of tweets from others with the #Triberr hashtag or referring to Triberr. It is the latest craze taking over Twitter and some people are very happy about it while others don’t seem to be so happy. Since I do participate in Triberr and am the member of two tribes, I have had the distinct pleasure of seeing many of its pros and cons. A colleague of mine on Twitter thought it would be a good idea if I wrote a post about this topic in order to enlighten the masses so, here we are!

    I’m sure many of you don’t know exactly what Triberr is all about so let me attempt to explain it to you in laymen’s terms.  The basic premise behind Triberr is to increase the exposure of your blog posts on Twitter.  Each tribe is made up of members who attach the feed to their blog posts directly to the tribe.  As a result, every single member of the tribe sends a tweet out to their followers about every blog post that every member of the tribe has published to their blog.  The benefit is that, instead of just sharing your post with your own Twitter followers, your potential audience reach expands when your fellow tribe members share your post with their respective followers as well.

    The developers of Triberr suggest through their Beginner tutorials that one use prudence with regards to how large they allow their tribe to become.  There are many reasons for this such as the fact that, the larger the tribe, the more tweets that will automatically be posted to your Twitter stream from your other tribe members.  They also suggest that you focus more on the quality than the quantitiy of your tribe members.  It is important that everyone in the tribe be in the same blogging niche so that there will be a level of trust with regards to the post tweets that are being generated.  For example, if your blog is strictly about reviews and giveaways, you should be in a tribe with other bloggers who blog about reviews and giveaways…

    Unfortunately, as much as I love Triberr and I think it is a great tool to expand your readership and gain exposure for your blog, I have seen a lot of bloggers abusing it.  This is most evident on my Twitter stream.  It has gotten to the point that some bloggers only publish tweets from their tribes which takes away from their authenticity, in my humble opinion.  Although I am a member of Triberr, I make sure that I sign on daily and have personal and meaningful exchanges with my Twitter followers.  After all, my followers signed on to talk to me and read my thoughts not to see an entirely automated stream. 

Triberr is a tool to be used to expand your social media reach not to substitute you on social media!

    Allow me to share with you some of the pros and cons of Triberr that I have observed.  Please note that I am not, in any way, an authority on the subject and am just sharing my experiences as a tribe member:

PROS:

Great way to expand your readers and expose your blog and blog posts to a potentially wider audience.

Although the program is still in the Beta phase, the developers are very proactive in addressing all of the members’ concerns and any bugs that might affect how the system is functioning.

It is a great way to connect with other bloggers who are in your niche.

It has a positive impact on the traffic and stats related to your blog or website.

It allows you to maintain a presence on the Twitter stream even when you are not able to tweet personally.

CONS:

Some people’s entire Twitter stream is flooded with tweets from Triberr making it seem kind of impersonal.

People who belong to too many tribes never tweet out all their tribe members’ posts creating a tweet balance that is not equal.

Some never tweet anything personally anymore and depend on Triberr tweets for their entire Twitter presence.

Bloggers who post multiple times per day are flooding and monopolizing the Triberr stream and the Twitter stream.

Due to the misuse of some, Triberr tweets are being erroneously categorized at Spam.

    There are ways to capitalize on the true function of Triberr, which is to expand the reach of great bloggers and great quality blog posts.  Try to focus on being a part of only a few intimate tribes that focus on the niche of your blog.  Also, make sure you visit the Triberr stream daily to weed out any outdated tweets or tweets that might be irrelevant to your followers. 

    Lastly, take advantage of using the “auto” and “manual” settings for individual bloggers in the tribes you belong to.  After all, we are all there on a voluntary basis and, if you feel uncomfortable giving a specific blogger carte blanche to post tweets to your stream, setting them on manual gives you complete control.  You can view their tweets and approve or not approve them before they go out.

    Remember, Triberr is a great tool to help you appeal and reach to a wider audience if used properly and to its full potential.  The key is to use some common sense and to not allow yourself to get lost in the tribe…

© 2011, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.

Categories: Blogging, Brand, Twitter
Tags: Audience, Networking, Reach, Tribe, Triberr, Tweets, Twitter