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.
Very true. Some bloggers are using Tribrr as a lazy version of SEO and visitor enhancement. It’s just a tool, but some bloggers are compromising their writing standards to the lowest common denominator in their attempt at getting more eyes to their sites.
You did a good job providing a fair assessment of the pros and cons of Triberr. Since it’s still in the beta stage we’re all still learning how to best use it and I think with time all the kinks/bugs will be worked out.
Thank you for this post! I am enjoying the extra interactions I get from people who are responding to the posts I retweet.
I have seen a little bit about this, but wasn’t sure what it was about. I am glad that I read this post and can definitely say that while I would love to expand my reach, I don’t want to do it this way. Great post!
WM
I have my 2 tribes set on manual and go in several times a day to approve tweets. I have noticed several members only tweet giveaways several times per day. In an effort to not turn into one of those “giveaway only tweeters”, I only approve 1 giveaway tweet per day, per user. I would rather share good info, tips, ect.
I have my 2 tribes set on manual and go in several times a day to approve tweets. I have noticed several members only tweet giveaways several times per day. In an effort to not turn into one of those “giveaway only tweeters”, I only approve 1 giveaway tweet per day, per user. I would rather share good info, tips, ect.
OK, I really want to thank you for enlightening me about this new tool. You did a great job going over pros and cons, and I think if you are careful about your Tribrr group, it can work to your advantage. Thanks so much for posting this!
I can barely even figure out how to tweet my own stuff! I’m not tech savvy enough to ever do this! But it’s good to know about it.
I can barely even figure out how to tweet my own stuff! I’m not tech savvy enough to ever do this! But it’s good to know about it.
Great post about Triberr! I’m still adjusting to making the best choices about my own Tribes. I actually dropped out of one Tribe because it just wasn’t a great fit for me or my followers. As with any kind of social media tool, I think the key is to remember that social media is “Social” for a reason – and Triberr must be overseen as much as any other tool.
Really great work writing about the service. Thank you.
All the cons can be addressed with little bit of human prudence and thoughtfulness.
We should have placed limits on the size of the tribal network and the number of Inbreeding tribes from the get go, but who knew? This is the drawback of being first to market …we have to blaze our own path.
So, we now have limits in place. They dont affect (yet) people who already have 500+ bloggers in their network but it addresses the issues going forward.
thnx again for writing about us and I want your audience to know that they can always come to Dan and I directly with any concerns about Triberr. @dino_dogan:twitter and @dancristo:twitter
Hi, I’m a new follower from VB’s Hop Mania. Please follow my blog. http://www.kristy-s-place.blogspot.com/
Hi Maria. I am following from the VB grow your GFC. I really like your blog. It has a nice clean look, and good content. It’s a blog I will return to for sure! I read your article on Triberr which was excellent. I have been wondering about it and now I know what it’s all about! Not sure I’ll join. The whole impersonal thing about all this blog networking is starting to overwhelm me and I’m not sure how much more I want to do. But it’s good to consider for the future. Thank you for all the information!!
Thanks for some insight into Triberr. I had no idea what it really was. It also explains why I was seeing a lot of “spammy” type tweets 24 hours a day from the same person- obviously, that person was not awake 24 hours a day to post those tweets. I’ll check it out, but thanks for the tips and info. Checking you out from a hop and totally not one of those *follow you and you follow me* type of people, just *following* the rules. *bah* to the rules….
~Ashley~