Let’s Vote Triberr Off the Island

PR Updates

Let’s Vote Triberr Off the Island

Jun 29, 2011 | PR Updates

Let’s Vote Triberr Off the Island

Jun 29, 2011 | PR Updates

Source: Triberr.com

I don’t usually do an entire post on one particular tool, but on the recent #solopr Twitter chat (held each Wednesday, 1-2pm ET), we discussed group automation tools, specifically Triberr. I’ve shared my feelings about Triberr via comments on numerous posts, and – with some encouragement from the community – it’s time for me to state my case here on the blog.

As I commented on Waxing Unlyrical recently, I think the litmus test for any automation tool should be, does it make both my life and my community's life easier? For example, if you come across several good blog posts in rapid succession that you want to share on Twitter, it makes sense to use a scheduler (like Hootsuite) so you don't overwhelm your followers with 5 links in a 5 minute period.

But Triberr, an automated twitter sharing tool, is all about driving traffic for the user, without regard for the followers/readers of these tweets. Billed as “The Reach Multiplier,” you join a “tribe” and then “every time you publish a new post, everyone in your tribe will tweet it to their followers. And you do the same for everyone in your tribe.” (source: Triberr’s About Us)

Noise Amplification

Content curation tools are all the rage, because we’re all looking for ways to cut through all the noise and find the gems out there. While some may try to bill Triberr as a curation tool, I believe it is, in fact, just the opposite.

To see what I mean, do a twitter search for tribr.it links and see how many are out there (stay on the page for a minute and see how quickly they keep rolling in, as the “X more results since you started searching” appears up top). This doesn’t include those who are clever enough to change the links to another shortener.

Triberr users will say that they only link up with other bloggers who they trust completely to have relevant information for their followers. But if you can’t take the time to read the posts you’re tweeting, why should I?

By not adding a human element to the “curation,” it's nothing more than noise to me.

In Practice

Suppose there is a tribe of seven people, and I happen to closely follow everyone in that tribe. I don't need to see the same headline seven times from seven different people, multiplied by seven (since they're all auto-tweeting each other's stuff). Triberr staggers the timing of the auto-tweets among the tribe members, but it’s still there. That is straight broadcasting, and goes against what social sharing is all about.

If I want to see every single post from a particular blogger, I don't need you to tweet it to me. I'll subscribe to them in Google Reader and/or follow their Twitter account for updates. Yes, there are some blogs that I know will always have good info, but what do my followers get out of my tweeting their every post?

The Ick Factor

Now, I know Triberr has added some moderation features since its launch, so the user doesn’t have to automatically tweet everyone’s posts, and they can even add a unique comment. This cuts down on the 7×7 repetitive annoyance factor noted above, but it doesn’t remove what I believe is the central source of the ick factor: Tribr.it tweets are based on a quid pro quo, rather than individual post quality.

Check out some of the avatars on this page and members of the top tribes – did you realize you were being force-fed friends’ links by these folks? Does knowing it change your perception of the links?

I’m old fashioned

I like to find posts organically (often with help from Solo PR Pro Community Assistant, Jennifer Spivak), and share links from a wide variety of sources. The thing is, I’m sure I could weasel my way into a tribe or two and get a lot more exposure for Solo PR Pro with less effort (and resources) than I put forth now. That would be nice, so I don’t judge those who can’t resist the siren song.

But, call me old-fashioned – I'd rather have less traffic and be a good citizen of the community, by not contributing to what feels like an ever-elevating noise level. What is the social media 101 lesson that has been drilled into all of our heads since the beginning (Cluetrain Manifesto, anyone?)? Be human.

The hands-free, non-human aspect of Triberr is its selling point, and that's why it has to go.

Update: Neicole Crepeau commented below, and shared that she wrote a very similar guest post on Danny Brown's blog. Check it out (including the comments).

Written By Kellye Crane
Kellye Crane is the founder of Solo PR Pro, which provides the tools, education, advocacy and community resources needed for indies to succeed and grow. She's a veteran and award-winning communicator with more than 20 years of experience - 19 of them solo.

93 Comments

  1. I’m going to start by thanking you for stopping by and commenting, Kell – I really appreciate you doing that. I’ve pretty much said what I had to say over at my place, but for the record – any tool can be gamed.

    Is there a quid pro quo aspect to Triberr? In my admittedly limited experience so far, no. Perhaps that’s because I’m part of a relatively small tribe, and I trust the content produced and/or published by each and every person in it. And I know that some of them use the manual feature as opposed to auto, and I respect that. It’s actually helped strengthen my own community, helped me give my followers more and diverse content (those of them who pay attention to my tweets, because I’m sure you’ll agree that we’re kidding ourselves if we assume everyone pays attention to what we tweet ALL the time), and made life easier for me. If it stops doing any of those things, I’ll reconsider using it.

    I think “force-feeding” is perhaps a little strong. To “force-feed” someone implies that the one being force-fed has no choice in the matter. We can put out all the content we like, but people will respond to/comment on what resonates with them. If I don’t like something, I ignore it. It’s as simple as that.

    I subscribe to a lot of blogs in my Reader, but if I were to share all the ones I find interesting on Twitter, I’d never get any work done. Time is scarce. It’s a fact of life. Triberr makes my life easier. At some point, especially as one’s activity scales, one has to figure out the best mix of manual and automated, and it seems to me that Triberr can be a good option for those who use it wisely.

  2. Thanks for the comment, my friend. I truly believe that Triberr would have been widely trounced if well-respected folks like you and Gini Dietrich had not come forward singing its praises. Everyone knows that you and Gini are generous and important parts of the PR/social media community, so people figure if you’re using it, it can’t be all bad. As I say, I don’t judge those who use it, just the tool itself. To me, it’s not much different from now-taboo automatic RSS feeds.

    Regarding Google Reader, I have a folder/tag labeled ” *1 ,” where I put my small number of must-read blogs (you’re in it, of course!). That’s where I go first, and when time is limited it may be the only posts I check out — I share to Twitter, via Hootsuite, from there. So, in effect, I think it resembles the moderated version of Triberr, but without the inherent commitments/expectations.

  3. Hey Kellye! A few things. Even though Triberr is billed as an automation tool, very few of us use it that way. There are maybe five bloggers I don’t vet every blog post, but that’s because I read and tweet them regardless of what they write anyway. I also don’t agree that it’s based on quid pro quo. There have been plenty of blog posts I haven’t tweeted and vice versa for me (my Mormon post is a good example because of the religion in the title). And it’s definitely not less effort. The only thing about it that is less effort is the fact that I don’t have to subscribe to every blog…I can read them from my Triberr account instead and then decide if I’m going to tweet it from there.

    My Reader is out of control. This is an easy way for me to not miss blog posts, but still be selective in what I tweet.

    I will give you one thing: I’m concerned that, because I’m now in three tribes, that it’s going to look like I’m tweeting non-stop. I’m monitoring that VERY carefully.

    But the traffic stats can’t be beat. I went into it thinking very old school about it and was more than pleasantly surprised at the traffic spikes, the reduction in bounce rate, and the increase in pageviews.

    It’s like anything else. It’s just a tool. The benefits are in how you use it.

  4. Glad you stopped by to share your thoughts, Gini! I understand that it doesn’t have to be automatic sharing, but isn’t there an expectation on the part of tribe members that equitable sharing will take place (which is the quid pro quo I spoke of)? Isn’t that built-in group of sharers the thing that’s causing the spikes in your traffic?

    Hope readers see that friends like us (and Shonali) can have a good old fashioned debate about ideas, and join in!

  5. I’ve never felt like there’s an expectation. I definitely don’t tweet everyone’s every, single post (with the exception of five people) and they don’t of mine, either. It’s kind of like the LinkedIn recommendation thing. If I write a recommendation for you, I suppose the NICE thing would be for you to write one for me. But it’s not expected.

  6. Kelly,

    I hate to come on a blog and comment in any way less than in a fully supportive manner, ad while I found your article most thoughtful – and well-founded in facts – I wonder if you would consider the opinions of one heavy Triberr user.

    For starters, I am a Triberr user, and not compensated (like Gini). I wont provide links to soil your blog, but from the triberr top page, you might glance at the featured “Power Tribes” and find one of mine in the top position.  I think I know about what works, what does not, what is phenomenally good and also what is in dire need of improvement in the ever-evolving Triberr mechanisms and terms of use.

    For purpose of brevity, please allow me to address your points, heading (from your article) by heading:

    “Noise Amplification”
    Searching tribr.it links: this tell you that there are many. I don’t believe that proves foulness.  Further, we elect to amplify the blogs of a few, perhaps 20 or so bloggers that a Triberr “Chief” has hand-picked.  I am one of those.  I have to answer to bloggers on why I allow a new blogger to join one of my tribes.  I read articles, talk to the blogger, and assess if I can include them, and in which Tribe. 

    “In Practice” (and “broadcasting”)
    My Twitter following is probably very different than your Twitter following (for now, Triberr sends to Twitter only.  For now…)  You and I decide that we would like to join forces, and act a a private news feed for each other.  Consider the masses who spew Social Media Today and TechCrunch .rss through their Twitter accounts, and pithy little sayings, motivational Twitter-noise, and in contrast, if we do this, we are reciprocal and quite focused.  For what its worth, I am in one Tribe with two other members and another with just one other member.  Those are possible, too.  They need not be 7 or, like my largest (“Social Media Makers”), over 20 members.  Different strokes for different folks.

    “The Ick Factor”
    With one click of “manual” and then “save settings,” nothing goes through your Twitter account from Triberr without your approval.  Blog posts get backed up and wait for you to log in at your leisure and approve/dissaprove each one, one by one, just one click each.  Not good enough?  They offended you by wasting a few seconds of your time?  Ok, Triberr has “Karma” now: we can even “Karma” down-vote them and then dissaprove them for your sending through your Twitter account.

    You might also get in touch with an Atlanta lady, and recently-joined Triberr member of (my) “The Business of Change” tribe.  Ask @knikkolette:twitter about her recent post, “Gone Triberr,” or even interview her.  Knikkolette’s new, but already an advocate, and a blogger I support.

    To conclude, if you search event in LinkedIn for “blogging,” you will find the event I have organized for the evening on July 9 through morning on July 10.  Sorry, I’m on Japan-time, but hope to meet time zones of North America and worldwide, so it is a drop-in/drop-out thing, connects and conference with everyone online at the time via osakasaul in SKYPE, and I would like to extend a warm welcome for you to debate me.  This event is unauthorized and as per my (top) disclaimer, I am just one happy user.  I believe I have insight into the good and the bad (please – DO get me started!!!) of Triberr, and while you may never use Triberr yourself, and may likely dissuade others from using it, I would love to talk on it with you. 

  7. Hi Saul — all viewpoints are welcome here! Thanks for the time you took to lay out your experiences.

    By the way, I like your use of the word “reciprocal” — this is what I
    meant by quid pro quo, but reciprocal is more descriptive.

    You say “My Twitter following is probably very different than your Twitter following,” which I’m sure is true. Perhaps that’s where my big beef comes from: not everyone joins a tribe with dissimilar members. I have a Tweetdeck column for my Twitter “buds” that I watch closely — this column is now at least 20% tribr links — many cross-posting for each other. This is the source of my “noise” sentiment, and much of my frustration.

    You make me laugh talking about the silly things people tweet (so true!). But the thing is, I don’t follow those people. Many people I love and respect are using Triberr, so it disappoints me if something is making their Twitter streams less meaningful to me.

    Of course, I can always stop paying such close attention to these friends, but that would be tragic.

  8. Great article – going to need to sign up with Triberr to artificially inflate my Klout and Traackr scores. Thanks Kelley!

  9. Sorry I don’t see any noise in me tweeting my tribes tweets, plus if I miss them on Google Reader, I sure won’t miss them on Twitter.

    Plus if you are specifically picky, you can tell Triberr to wait for your approval.

    It’s not the tools that make the noise, it’s the people who are misusing them.

  10. You asked me on Twitter about my opinion about Triberr. I have recently joined a very diverse tribe of people. So far I have sent out two posts that I actually read. I also get my links from many other sources, but this is a group of bloggers that I think will make my content more diverse. We had already been sharing posts via a private FB group, so this just ensures I don’t miss stuff and that there is a little less noise in the group, which is a busy place.

    Now for the reciprocal concern. It is nice to know there is a small group that will read my posts. In looking at the group I am in, almost all have their settings on manual, sobI realize they won’t share everthing I write, and that is okay. So, to be honest, I have already found it better than my reader for quickly keeping up and sharing with this particular group.

    I also know the founders, so I am checking this out with an open mind. The way I use it is not much different than Hootsuite, to be honest.

  11. A classic Pepper comment! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  12. I’m sure you’re right that people use the tool differently — thanks for weighing in.

  13. Thanks for your very powerful post Kellye and for taking a stance on a controversial subject. I particularly agree with your ending statements….isn’t social media supposed to be about transparency and authenticity? It’s one of the reasons we all love our Wednesday SoloPR twitter chat so much. It’s real indy PR pro’s speaking to one another and sharing helpful  information in real time.

  14. Thanks for your comment, Kami — you know how much I admire you, so I was especially interested to hear your take.

    I have to say that while those using this tool don’t feel they are behaving differently, my experience as a follower has changed greatly. There is rarely any context/value add given with tribr links, and the repetitive nature is mind-numbing.

    Perhaps this is the way of the future for Twitter, and I just need to put on my big gal pants and get over it. Or perhaps as Triberr is more widely adopted, other (less Twitter-obsessed!) users will start to squawk and things will change.

    It also makes me very sad to think about how many good conversations are taking place in private FB groups, rather than on Twitter (where they used to be)…but that’s another post! Regardless, thanks for sharing your input, my friend.

  15. Kellye I think you hit on why I don’t like the idea of Triberr (which I have not used).  It seems the benefit is on the ‘tribe’ first, and the community second.  I don’t think that’s a successful long-term strategy for social media.  Triberr might be the bee’s knees for some, but for me, it does have the ick factor.  However, I am pleased to see Gini and Saul say that it’s not completely automated and that you do have some control over sharing.

  16. See, I’d say it’s the other way round, Mack. I know the folks that I connect with on Triberr are only curating quality content from people who don’t just mail in their posts, so their community benefits more.

    I’d much rather have that than the automated tweeting of every single blog post by Big Name Blogger X who could write crap and still be tweeted. Oh, wait, that already happens… 😉

  17. Transparency and authenticity comes down to the individual. Much like any tool or platform. I’d always look at the person first before blaming the tool.

  18. The blogs that I subscribe to by email are the ones I see as top-notch, and very rarely have a weak post. It’s a given I’m going to share them.

    The new bloggers I find via CommentLuv are ones that are kicking the arses of the “name bloggers” whose every post gets automatically tweeted whether it’s good, crap or indifferent. I’d like to highlight these new bloggers more.

    Triberr, Twitterfeed, SocialOomph, etc, all offer different options to make sure I share quality posts that I read and want to highlight. Often I don’t get to reading and replying to posts until late evenings or the weekend, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to share right away.

    It’s more to do with the people leading Triberr tribes, than it is to do with the platform itself. So maybe we should be voting people off “the island” as opposed to Triberr.

    Or, simply unfollow – no-one forces anyone to do anything… 😉

  19. I haven’t used Triberr, but after reading this section you quoted from their “About” section, it wouldn’t appeal to me: “Billed as “The Reach Multiplier,” you join a “tribe” and then “every time you publish a new post, everyone in your tribe will tweet it to their followers. And you do the same for everyone in your tribe.” (source: Triberr’s About Us)”

    That certainly sounds as if the founders intend for the retweeting to be reciprocal, even though some commenters here say that is not how they use it. And while those writing here have purposefully kept their tribes small, you know there will be more users who will use the tool to attempt to rapidly gain new followers as well as new blog readers.

    I’d put it in the category of other tools like Paper.li (and how I wish my friends would turn off automatic publications of their Twitter newspaper) and other broadcasting tools. They are an annoyance for me. Okay, I’ll admit. I’m an old-school Twitter user going on five years now.

    Personally, I never RT anything I haven’t read, and I’m not convinced I need a Tribe to help me do that.

  20. Obviously, I’m all for sharing new voices and up-and-comers, but I prefer to see it done in a more organic way.

    Let me say that your last statement is exactly what has me so passionate about this topic.
    Do I really want to unfollow you (and all my other friends who are using
    this system)? Of course not. You can’t get rid of me that easily. 🙂 This is clearly a point on which reasonable people can disagree.

  21. It’s the PR Blog Party Redux (or 3.0).

  22. Thanks for your comment, Maryellen – and for the #solopr Twitter chat shoutout!

  23. I guess I don’t see that there are two choices — autotweeting good posts or autotweeting bad ones. I think there are other options, including tweeting quality stuff as you read it (or scheduling posts you’ve read to go out over a period of time).

    Even for those who are using moderation, you are still tweeting the posts of a finite pool of tribe members.

  24. Thanks for your thoughts, Connie. I never considered myself a social media purist, but apparently I appear to be one on this issue!

  25. I would ask you to look at my feed today and see what you think.

    And yes, the conversation has moved there to a great extent, but not so much in private as just to Facebook in general. 

    I like connection too, and am a bit old fashioned myself, but I am willing to try this tool, though I am not wedded to it.

  26. I frankly wouldn’t use it if I can’t control it. There a few features I think I would still like to see, but I am letting the founders know. 😉

  27. Kellye, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer not only your opinion but the “why” behind it. I also read and commented on Shonali’s post and like you found her view balanced and fair. I do not use Triberr so cannot speak from experience. In all honesty, it is unlikely a tool I will add to my own toolbox but I see the value for some. As with all tools, every solution can be good or bad depending on how it is applied. It’s nice to hear more than one opinion on this particular tool, it helps the rest of us to weigh the pros and cons and decide whether or not it is a good fit.

  28. I’m not going to overcomplicate the thought process here, because when discussing a service we tend to treat it like a 19 hour brain surgery, so let me speak to the lay person about Triberr. I am part of a tribe. Said tribe is full of tight knit people whom I have developed a solid personal and professional relationship with. All of them with the exception of Gini Dietrich, who is a total yawn, write some very compelling blog posts that are worth sharing to my diverse group of followers. The problem is that life gets in the way and I can’t always be in the right place at the right time to even know somebody published a post and then I end up feeling like a terrible friend as a result, because that person may have RTed a post of mine three days prior. On the flipside, when I create a post, I HATE with a capital HATE asking “Hey, ummmmm, yeahhhhh, would you mind sharing this post about shaving your man parts? Great thanks.” Personally that reeks of desperation and though I have learned to awkwardly navigate those waters it’s never done without great apprehension. Triberr allows me to see what my marshmallow peeps are writing, put my slant on it if need be and get it out all while I’m tied up in a meeting or cooking dinner for my family.  

    I don’t have to feel like a bad friend or the friend begging you to set me up with your sister. That’s the beauty of the Tribe. We all go into it, for lack of a better word, as a team and we’re in it to support each other. In it’s own special way Triberr allows me to maintain my human side with people who I enjoy spending time with off the grid.

  29. You are nothing if not succinct. 🙂

  30. Thanks, Karen — this is exactly why I wrote the post. This discussion is reminding me of some of the debates in the early days of social media, and I think we’re all the better for it!

  31. Wow Kellye, I could have written this. I’ve declined Triberr invites for these reasons and more, explaining so in few places. Forgive the long comment:
    You would not want me to be a part of any club of which I’d be a member. Butchering that quote but it applies: I’d be a terrible tribe member, which is why I decline.  @ginidietrich:disqus mentioned expectations, but I’d expect my fellow tribe members would expect me to share their stuff if they are sharing mine and I don’t think I would. I have little time as it is and while I am open to reading and sharing new bloggers, I’m also working on improving my own time management which means reading/commenting less. It’d be unfair to anyone who shares all my stuff and I don’t RT in kind. And the ‘obligation’ I’d feel to read and share their stuff even if I think it not relevant to my followers, that’d be on me, sorry, gotta pass.
    Scheduling. Not only am I getting that same RTs over and over, but some users are blasting me with tweets and links in rapid-fire succession which like you Kellye, I try not to do; I schedule my tweets spaced apart. The need to cross multiple time-zones.. some may have a legitimate one but I sleep and therefore my Twitter does; see also shower, eat, work, go to movies, etc. TEHO.Manual mode. I know many good people who use manual mode and I trust that.. but for the most part, I can detect little use in my stream from others, no offense. I don’t read everything by everyone, much less share it… and I read a lot of damn fine bloggers. Plenty of times I comment but don’t tweet, read but neither comment nor tweet. IDK.. like you said Kellye, it’s not just about me and my traffic, but my followers too. I don’t want mine hit w/ tons of RTs of my stuff, thinking I’m spamming them, nor do I want to push too far in sharing ‘new’ bloggers. I may be open to that, but my followers may be looking me to stick to my other stuff, why they started following me in the first place. 
    Understand I’m not against those who use and benefit from it, I REALLY get the time crunch and yes it bugs me that when I read person X, I’m taking time from person Y and will miss stuff, but I just can’t read them all. Manual mode – as I won’t blind RT (see above) – won’t save me any time, won’t make it any easier or more efficient, so it’s not an option. For me.

    In my humble, grumpy, old-fart ‘less is more’ purist opinion… this isn’t curation. To @dannybrown:disqus  point it’s not the tool but the person, true ‘nough. Yet if the person is sharing out of obligation to a tribe and their own views and bounce rates, I don’t consider that curation (which I’ll admit, ain’t a requirement). I used to think the Paper.li thingys kinda cool, but that lasted all of 5-10 minutes; they’ve become noise, spam, nothing more (pretty much think the same of Foursquare, again no offense). Sharing new content is good; meeting new good bloggers is nice, I like when that happens; sharing a good new blogging voice with your audience is very good. I just don’t think a tool can know my mind well enough to do that for me and my followers, so I’ll just keep doing it my way. FWIW.

  32. It’s no different from manually choosing who you share posts from on a daily basis. Those that set up a Tribe are inviting those that they’d share manually. The quality is still curated by the sharer.

  33. But then it comes back around to the person, not the tool. It’s easy to blame Triberr (or anything else) but it’s only as good (or bad) as the person setting up the shares to begin with.

  34. Thing is, Davina, there’s no expectation whatsoever. Perhaps that needs to be marketed by the founders better, but it’s no different from me tweeting a post of yours and not expecting you to immediately find one of mine to tweet in thanks.

  35. Hello Kellye,

    First time at your blog. I arrived here from a RT by @Ambercleveland:disqus (which was from HootSuite) because I have been interested in what ‘big time bloggers and PR/Social Media folks’ think about Tribrr. As a little fish, it sounds so exciting to be in a group that will RT me. Then again, if automation is what you want that can be done with other tools. But then, you’re not guaranteed to get that ‘quid pro quo’ you mention. Oh, the dilemma!

    There are people who I will tweet out their posts almost always because they write great stuff. However, I do feel it does sometimes seem disingenuous. And what if it’s something super exciting and I ‘auto’ RT w/o so much as a ‘YAY!’? Or on the flip side, what if the post is about a difficult topic and I don’t even reach out in my RT to encourage others to offer support?

    One of the things I personally don’t like about Tribrr is that people who blog about similar ideas/topics/concepts are often grouped. For example, when deal bloggers are in the same Tribrr it’s truly the 7×7 of the exact same deal. Tweet after tweet after tweet. I like the idea of being in a Tribrr with like-minded people but who have an expertise in something completely different than me.

    Sorry for my dissertation-length comment, but your post and the other comments really made me think. Is this really about sharing great information or building some type of influence score? Hmmm!

    With gratitude,
    Sara

  36. Hi Marc – you certainly have a way with words! I think perhaps you’ve illuminated a particular difference between Triberr-types and non: a predilection to share/help promote the posts of one’s friends. I can see where it would feel nice to have a “team of support.”

    But as a follower, when someone tweets the same people’s posts over and over, that gets boring (IMO). I almost pointed to an example, but I’d rather not call anyone out. Let me just say, as I did in my post, that I don’t need to see the same headline tweeted at me 14 times by various people I follow (90% of the time with no added commentary).

  37. That is an interesting analogy!

  38. Hi Kellye, I’ve looked over your last dozen posts or so, and I have to say that bloggers like you need to be heard.

    The number of comments is very low in your previous posts and I assume this is due to two factors.

    Not enough people are seeing your writing. Which is amazing btw. And I have a very critical eye when it comes to PR stuff because there is so much garbage out there.

    Triberr would send your new posts far and wide and with it, you could expose lot more people to your writing. And this is why Triberr was conceived. To help people like you get their voices heard.

    The second thing I notice is that this post has far more comments than any of your other posts. This tells me that people reading have a strong emotional response to Triberr. Which is awesome.

    We cant be all things to all people, but Triberr is for small/medium bloggers who want to reach a wider audience. And it has worked wonders for people so far.

    We’ve only been in existence for 4 months, and Dan and I are working hard to make sure Triberr answers one simple question. How does it help bloggers?

    And so far, that questions was answered resoundingly with every feature we rolled out.

    Tho to be fair, the features we are developing are features our community asks for.

    Hope that clears some things up. Thank you for your perspective, and I hope that you will join us on Triberr some day 🙂

  39. First, what is this sleep you speak of? 🙂 This is excellent input from someone who had the opportunity to join a tribe (or two), and declined. Thanks for sharing!

  40. Actually, it is only with this comment (this one that I’m writing) that we have surpassed my most commented upon post: https://soloprpro.com/whores-pimps-and-the-people-who-love-them/ . That was almost exactly one year ago, so I guess I write one semi-controversial post a year!

    And interestingly, there is a similar theme in both: how far are we bloggers willing to go to promote ourselves? Everyone has to decide that line for themselves.

  41. First of all, all big fish were once little. 🙂 You raise some great points – I hadn’t thought about the possible disconnect when a headline calls for a “yay” or other comment. I also think that the idea of a tribe with very little follower overlap among members is an interesting idea. I guess the challenge there would be making sure the content is still relevant to one’s community.

    Thanks for your input!

  42. I hear you say that Danny, and know you really mean that; guess I’m a little more cynical about others’ expectations. Here’s another thought on reciprocation, if it’s not expected and the goal is to share value with your own followers: can’t you do it anyway? Aren’t there other tools that would let you automate that, so if someone wanted to they could automatically tweet say, every one of Spin Sucks posts? (Just guessing, don’t fully know.)

    Mostly though it’s about me; it would be unfair of me to reap the benefits of being in a Tribe, getting all these extra tweets and views, readers, comments… but not hold up ‘my’ end and give value back. Understand I get it, I am all for tools that would make my online life easier, faster, more efficient. I’ve shared posts on all perspectives on Triberr b/c I do see the plusses of the service; it’s just… something about it, thinking my followers would get spammed my posts all the time, so many things I’d want to ‘opt out’ of that in the end, better for me not to join. FWIW.

  43. Twitterfeed allows you to input RSS feeds into your stream, so you can add whichever blogs you like. We do this with the @BonsaiCA:twitter account.

  44. Well, I did write this post! @dannybrown:disqus  was kind enough to let me post an alternative viewpoint (Why I’m Hesitant about Triberr) on his blog, and I said much the same as you did here. My concerns are the same: adding to the noise by auto-sharing posts that might not be of high quality or relevant to one’s audience. You know the best thing that came from my writing that blog post? Getting connected with @dinodogan:disqus who is a role model for launching and improving a product. He actually reached out to me today in Twitter and pointed me to your post, suggesting I comment, even though he knows I’m of similar mind.

    Of course, it is all about how you use the tool. I have concerns about Triberr’s auto-mode, too. And I also agree with you that even for people (like me) who use the manual mode, there’s probably an expectation that you will share each other’s content most of the time. I am currently in only one tribe, with two other people in it. I’m set to manual mode because I won’t tweet what I haven’t read and I only tweet selectively–even from my favorite bloggers. But, because I use a Google Reader-like tool to read my tribemates blogs regularly anyway, I find I don’t even use Triberr.

    For those who use it in manual mode and are selective, you  might ask, “Why use Triberr?” There is one benefit that I do see. By joining a tribe and using Triberr daily, the bloggers in the tribe are agreeing to read each other’s posts regularly. While I have my list of bloggers that I read daily, I’m not sure how many of them read my posts regularly. Joining a tribe is a kind of promise that you will do so. 

    I, personally, wouldn’t expect everyone to share all of my posts–and I hope they wouldn’t expect me to, either. But I do like the idea of knowing that a group of tribemates will at least read my blog and consider sharing my posts. That’s why I am looking at joining a few other tribes, in manual mode. 

    I think it’s up to the users to decide what their values are re: sharing, and then maintain their integrity. I’m with you (and Davina and others) in being unwilling to auto-share what I haven’t read, and being willing to only share quality content that is relevant to my audience. 

    I personally believe that using that method will yield better business benefits in the end. Of course, we want more traffic to our blogs. But, just as a lot of followers doesn’t necessarily yield conversions or sales, a lot of traffic doesn’t mean you’re getting the right people to your blog or getting the sales/conversions/ad clicks from them. If you are sharing what’s relevant and valuable to your audience and building an audience by doing that, then you are more likely to get the right people visiting your site and get business value from it. Triberr offers the ability to share in that way, but I’m not sure that the majority of bloggers are using Triberr that way. For those who are just blasting posts auto-magically, I think time will show it’s not working.
       

  45. Thnx for dropping your 2 cents into the fountain, Neicole 🙂

    So, here is how we’ve approached Triberr.

    In order for anyone to be heard in the blogoshpere, they need reach. Those that ARE heard over the noise have the reach. Triberr makes that reach available to everyone.

    Second, if you are to get an audience, the headline must grab them in some way (sensationalistic, relevant, clever, etc). To that end, we’re building out something called the Headline Testing Area.

    It’s where you can put in 2 of your headlines (prior to publishing your post)  and your tribesmates can vote on the one they like. It’s basically Hot or Not for headlines 🙂

    Once your voice has spread far and wide, and you have a headline that grabs relevant people and pulls them into your content, it’s going to be up to you, the blogger, to deliver.

    And we have plans on how to help bloggers with the last mile as well, but I wont monopolize the comment-thread. I just want to thank you for sharing your POV.

  46. Well lookie there, you did write this post! http://dannybrown.me/2011/05/31/why-im-hesitant-about-triberr/  My apologies for not researching first so I could link to it — I wrote this as a (somewhat uncharacteristic) rant, but will add an update/link above.

    Interesting that our views (and even word choices) are so similar. This tells me that we aren’t alone in our sentiments. As I noted in an earlier comment, people love some of the more prominent users so much, I think many recipients just aren’t expressing their frustrations.

    It’s a testament to those involved with, and fans of, Triberr that they encourage alternate views. I can tell that they plan to continue to update the service, and perhaps someday I won’t find it objectionable. But until then….

  47. Interesting, but as is often the case with Dan, he over-generalizes (will go comment on that post). I would fall into his “highly followed accounts” that “tweet lots of links,” but I also engage in a lot of conversation (as do many Triberr users, for that matter).

  48. Hey Kellye,I’m going to have to agree with Dino about how amazing your writing is. It’s unlikely that I would have come across your blog had you not written about Triberr, but here I am with hundreds of others reading and commenting on your post. If Triberr had not been created, you wouldn’t have written this and we wouldn’t have been here. So like it or not, Triberr has is already brining traffic to your blog 🙂

    For real, many of your concerns have been voiced by others. We addressed them at first with a manual mode, then karma points and as of yesterday we’ve released Quality Scores (http://triberr.com/blog/sneak-preview-quality-scores-come-to-triberr/)

    I don’t think the real story here is, “Triberr is flooding twitter with tribr.it links”, rather I think the real story is, “Content curation is changing. People are automating more through this thing called Triberr. It looks like noise at the moment, but they keep on coming out with ways to improve that. Is it possible that Triberr becomes the new RSS reader?”

    Last comment, then I’m done.
    Yesterday on Twitter a guy said he didn’t like the principle behind Triberr. I asked him, “Why?” He said, “Because humans are the best judges of quality, and automation can never replace it”. I said, “Yep, that was exactly what Yahoo! though 12 years ago when they had the worlds largest human edited directory on the web. Yet, today everyone uses Google, even though the results are automated”. 

    Social media will always involve humans, but much of what social media is today is simply content creation, and content creation is a job that can be improved with automation. Triberr isn’t quite there yet, but we’re getting there, and early adopters are already seeing the benefits. 

    Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, and I’m glad that I came across your article.

  49. Hi Kellye,

    I had to come out of “vacation mode” for a few minutes to read the post, all the comments, and add my two cents. What really struck me was @dinodogan:disqus’s comment about the number of blog comments you usually get and that “not enough people are seeing your writing.” What, based on comments? (On that front, then Seth Godin’s blog is an abject fail.) And who are these “people” that are missing out? 

    This is my fundamental problem with Triberr (I’d have to go back and check, but I know I left a similar comment on @twitter-29827578:disqus’s post. It’s this equivalence that’s being made between numbers and value. That having lots of comments or big giant audience is inherently more “influential.” 

    So my Klout is lower than your Klout–but with whom? Lots of people have small communities, but if they’re made up of the people they want their voice in front of then then I’d say their blog is darn effective. 

    I also think @43d9c2bd223401dc64832600f1a24c4a:disqus hit the nail on the head when he said that “it seems the benefit is on the ‘tribe’ first and the community second.” Without the implicit reciprocity, why not just create your own ‘tribe folder” in Google Reader? This should work just as well since everyone using Triberr keeps saying they’re not automating posts — which means the old fashioned valuing your community and your community will value you stuff should continue to work just fine without a new automation tool.

    My own opinion is that if a post is worthy of tweeting, it’s worth my two minutes to read it and my 2 seconds to hit the tweet button.

    PS: Sorry I missed #solopr yesterday. Must have been another lively conversation.

  50. I just shook my head when I read Dan Zarrella’s latest research. I agree with you; it’s a huge generalization to suggest that conversation is overrated and we should be tweeting out links all day. If more followers were my goal, I’d get there a lot faster following back everyone who follows me than taking the time to actually curate and share relevant links with my network. 

  51. Hey Daria,
    It seems that the thrust of your argument, as well as Kellye’s, is that you’re perfectly happy with your RSS readers brining you content and you manually reviewing and sharing it. I think that’s great. If that setup works best for you, then no need to change anything. 

    But I think it’s also good to be open to the possibility of improvements. One day something is coming to come along that does a better job than your RSS reader. Is that Triberr? Not today it isn’t, but it might be tomorrow. 

    Keep an eye on how the tool evolves. There is a passionate community forming around the site, and it’s not because they want to spam their followers. People like it, because the potential of a network is greater than the potential of an individual – both in reach and in curation. 

    You don’t have to change your opinion. Just keep an open mind at what the site may look like in a few months. And don’t forget to check out my post on quality scores (http://triberr.com/blog/sneak-preview-quality-scores-come-to-triberr/

  52. Hi Dan,

    I think we’ve had this conversation before. 🙂  I just don’t think that aggregation is the solution to curation — so we’ve got a ways to go (and I mean all of us, not Triberr in particular) in figuring out how to do this stuff better. 

    Don’t worry, I am not one to say “never” about anything, but I wish people focused more on quality and less on quantity. Glad you’re trying to tackle that one (I’ll take a look), though I generally steer clear of “scoring.” Well, except anyone who wants to recognize my Klout “expertise” on “#6” (go figure that one out!?).

  53. Marc, I have a big, fat middle finger for you.

  54. Saul, I’m not being compensated by Triberr or anyone in any of my tribes. If I were, I would disclose it. Please check your facts.

  55. Hi Gini- I took Saul’s comment to mean that, like you, he is not compensated either. But thanks for clarifying that point for others who may have read his note the same way you did. Those of us who know you well know that you’re a passionate advocate for tools you love (no payment required!).

  56. Oh phew! I had a few people DM me to ask if I am being compensated so I know I’m not the only one who took it that way. My apology, Saul, for the misunderstanding.

  57. Humor is always appreciated here at Solo PR Pro — well played. 🙂

    I won’t belabor the point, except to say that to me, there is no such thing as automated curation. Humans curate, and just saying “I’m going to share stuff from this circle of cool people” does not pass muster.

    And I must say, I find your vision for the future/Google comparison quite chilling. That is why I wrote this post. “Content creation is a job that can be improved with automation” — I vehemently disagree. Not in the social media that I love.

  58. Humor is always appreciated here at Solo PR Pro — well played. 🙂

    I won’t belabor the point, except to say that to me, there is no such thing as automated curation. Humans curate, and just saying “I’m going to share stuff from this circle of cool people” does not pass muster.

    And I must say, I find your vision for the future/Google comparison quite chilling. That is why I wrote this post. “Content creation is a job that can be improved with automation” — I vehemently disagree. Not in the social media that I love.

  59. Kellye- I was with you and Neicole several months ago: http://www.socialmediawannabe.com/2011/03/trouble-with-triberr-andor-twitter.html
    It largely comes down to the expectations that one has writing and sharing their stuff and then getting it in return.
    One thing that slightly bothers me the more I think about it- you can’t shortcut natural community growth. Either you are putting out good stuff that people want and they will flock some what naturally or they will not. A tool can be used to assist that- heck, isn’t that was Twitter is by itself?

    Everyone who likes Triberr comes back to the trust element and suggests that they only use it because it is a small number of folks and they trust the content that is going to be put out = human curation. Whether it is active or passive, they believe that something they are going to broadcast is worth doing. You don’t need a tool for that other than an RSS feeder and some time- which comes back to the other main point about making their life easier. Everyone wants and deserves that. I rely on people I follow to point out stuff I should read and subscribe to, but didn’t need a particular tool for it- most have seemed artificial and this one relies, as you suggest, a quid pro quo implication. 
    I don’t share for that personally.

  60.  Sorry I was late to reply, Kell – took yesterday off. Like Gini, though, I don’t think there is an inherent expectation… at least, I don’t feel like that. But I absolutely respect the opinion of people who choose not to use it (like you!). Happy 4th!

  61. Thanks, @spinsucks:twitter  I did mean that neither Gini or I are compensated, but rather, Triberr users who really like Triberr.

  62. I totally get arguments from both sides of the fence here….If you are looking to grow your audience (true reach) triberr is a great tool. Be careful selecting the tribe you join and maybe wise to choose to select your retweets instead of auto tweet. It is a tool people… to grow reach….. if you want to grow your followers organically and not interested in growing true reach quickly, dont use triberr. 

    Is there any difference between retweeting a blog that flows down the stream? Maybe there is…. especially if the triberr member who promotes your blog has a lot of followers…. once again, it is just a tool… time will tell if it has staying power….

  63. I’m really glad you posted this as I have had the same concerns. Reading the comments I can see how it is up to the individual to determine what goes through and that puts me more at ease about it. I totally understand how many of my professional friends really need a product that makes it easy to share great content. Social Media has expanded so much if we didn’t have some automated tools it would be hard to keep up with the pace of technology.

    I’m actually taking a different route now and reducing the links I tweet. I’m actually moving towards 0 links on twitter to focus on engagement. I find word of mouth is better than anything I have tried in the past. It is so cool seeing people I don’t know tweet my posts because they heard about it from a friend. It gives me an opportunity to connect with them. I always want to focus on creating quality posts with good value for my audience.

  64. Excellent points. What is more troubling is how the “big” people of social media are steering the entire industry and medium in this direction as the small and medium fish imitatively band together to be like them, combining their supposed follower strengths in order to in lump sum be a “reach multiplier” force. It completely distorts the value of social media itself, in the long run, instead turning it into a SMM pro marketing machine.

    My biggest problems with Triberr – as I considered the invitation to join from people I respect – is how it pollutes my own stream. My thoughts on this are here: http://bit.ly/j9jZq0 where co-founder Dino was so kind to reply. Recommending a blog or other reading material is one of the more content rich nodes in Twitter. To robotically and asocially do so is a virtual equivalent to auto-DMing new followers. If you are about engagement you just don’t do it.

  65. You’re right that it’s just a tool. My point is that the use of this tool has implications for the recipients/followers — not just the user — which should be taken into account when considering whether to use it. Thanks for your comment.

  66. Quality is only truly curated by the sharer if that sharer reads every single post they share from their tribe. There’s no way around that fact. It doesn’t matter if a tribe member posts quality material 95% of the time. If you don’t read every post, you still run the risk of posting 5% crap. And  if people share crap because they can’t be bothered to know what they’re putting their name behind they deserve to be unfollowed, period. Maybe some folks do read everything first. But that would largely defeat the purpose of them using Triberr in the first place.

  67. See, I’d say it’s both, Jenn – the curator and the reader.

    On your own blog, you’re curating your content, and it’s fed out by RSS. A subscriber takes the risk of you writing a crap post along with the good ones. But they signed up, and will either accept or unsubscribe.

    Now take that to automated sharing. You endorse a blogger by sharing all their posts. If they write one that doesn’t gel, or you have a “Wow, shit!” moment, you stop that feed. As for your followers, they sign up to get your “RSS” when they start following. Same as you do, when you follow someone else. They trust you and your curating, thoughts, etc – call it what you wish.

    But if something comes up they’re not happy with, they can always unfollow – no-one’s tied into any contract here.

    So I don’t really see any difference between a blogger and their automated post-to-RSS approach and a reader and their post-to-automated-feed option. And the unfollow / unsubscribe option is always there. 😉

  68. I’m not sure how anyone can seriously say there’s no difference. That doesn’t even make sense. 

    Case 1: You write the content or offer it on your own blog. You know what you’re giving your subscribers, and you can put your name behind it confidently. That’s what your own blog feed or Twitter feed essentially is.

    Case 2: You don’t necessarily read everything. You pass it along because of who wrote it instead. You’d have to be a fool to put your name behind anything blindly. And that’s largely what happens with things like Triberr, a service that built its reputation on being a virtual circle jerk. 

    When people use the “they can always unsubscribe” response to defend this kind of thing, that speaks for itself. It says you care more about your own traffic than respecting your followers enough to know what you’re giving them. They do NOT subscribe to your Twitter feed to have random material thrown at them because you like so-and-so or somebody is willing to promote your content if you’re in their little group. They sign up to hear what you have to say, to connect with you, to get trusted recommendations — things that come from your personal injection and not from automated sharing of material you haven’t always read yourself. 

    If it’s so wonderful, there’s no good reason you can’t have a separate feed of recommended reading instead of inserting things from your tribe into your more personal networking. That’s the only way followers get real choice. Otherwise they’re stuck with it if they want the more personal contributions. And that’s not a fair choice to leave them with — “if you want to connect with me, you’d better be willing to put up with my link spam.” At least with a separate account for the feed every tweet’s connection is easily disclosed, people don’t have to cease networking to eliminate your noise, and you don’t disrespect your existing connections by abusing those relationships to promote others. It’s not as though compromises like this don’t exist. I’m just surprised more people in PR (where relationships supposedly matter) aren’t taking advantage of them.

  69. I guess I’m a fool then, Jenn, as the bloggers I really trust and share haven’t let me down yet. There may be a first and I’ll deal with that then, but until then I’ll continue being a fool.

    And I see more link spam from people that RT blindly as opposed to someone taking time to endorse a blogger and their content. Its my reputation so I’ll endorse carefully – bit of a difference from spamming.

  70. Danny in this case it IS the tool that people have problems with, because it is automating what many people view as a SOCIAL function.  Some people are going to look at Triberr and say ‘Hey, that’s convenient!’, and others are going to look at it and say ‘Hey, that’s not what social media should be about!’

    That’s just the way it is.  I don’t like the idea behind Triberr.  I have dear friends that love it.  Life moves on.

  71. You’re splitting hairs, Mack. Who sets up an account? Who chooses who goes into that account? Who chooses whether it’s automated feed or manual? Who chooses the level of censorship for more profane posts?

    The USER, aka PEOPLE. 

    Look at #blogchat. Many people have stopped participating because of the folks who do nothing but promote their own agenda. Now, is that the platform that’s ruined the experience, or the people?

  72. I agree with your thoughts, Connie.  And here’s another issue, let’s say you belong to a tribe of 25.  You RT all posts written by these 25 people.  I know I don’t have time to daily read 25 blogs, and I bet you don’t either.  What happens when you are at an event and Jim comes up to you and says ‘Man I loved Gini’s post yesterday on Plus that you RTed.  Thanks for sharing!’  And you have no clue what Jim is talking about, because you RTed that post as part of Triberr, and didn’t read it.  

    And yes, I am sure Danny would again argue that this is a limitation of the tool, not the person, but it’s a big reason why the tool doesn’t appeal to a lot of people.  But if Jim is RTing all my posts, guess what?  I will feel obligated to RT his if we are in the same Tribe.  

    As others have said, it has the ‘Ick’ factor for me.  If others love it and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, then knock yourselves out.  Triberr will no doubt go along merrily without my approval, and I can do the same 😉 

  73. Danny I’m being completely clear.  The tool allows you to automate certain processes that some people don’t want to automate. 

    That’s a big reason why some people choose to not use the tool.  Not sure why you are being so stubborn about this, but I think if you are going to back a tool like Triberr, you need to realize that there are some people that will never agree with you on the value of the tool.  You can either spend all day arguing with them, or agree to disagree, and move on. 

    Again, if the tool works for you, then that’s awesome.  I don’t like Triberr, but I will say that my day isn’t going to be impacted that severely if you or anyone else does.

  74. But surely the same can be said of anyone like you on the opposite side of the coin, Mack, as far as stubbornness goes? You and others don’t like it; others do. Like you say, no-one is impacted by it, because you have the choice whether to read these tweets or not.

    I think we’re saying the same thing, just on opposite sides of the fence. 

    Why I like it is simple – it allows me to share content while I’m busy working, or spending time with my family. Others like to appear busy by being online all the time; I prefer to actually *be* busy but still offer content to those that wish it.

  75. Um, Ms. Dietrich… Weren’t you the one who started the hullabaloo about fake retweets?!?!?! (I still love that cute donkey, BTW) 😉 I believe you said… “Do yourself a favor. At least click on the link and quickly scan the material before you RT it.”But with Triberr, it’s okay to not vet every blog post? How is it different? I have not used it, so I am genuinely curious. And of course, I am teasing you. I guess my question is this… Is there really such a level of inherent and absolute trust in our social space? I don’t think there is anyone who I agree with 100% that I would just share their posts without reading them and I am sure people feel that way about my content too. 

  76. I actually vet every blog post. It takes a little time, but I know that anything that comes out of my Twitter account I’ve, at the very least, scanned and know it’s going to be valuable to some in my network. Triberr allows people to automate the system and I love it because it saves me the step of having to schedule it in SocialOomph (which I’ve used for nearly four years now). There are four or five bloggers whose posts I don’t vet, but I do read them every day, regardless of them being in my tribe. If you were in one of my tribes, you would be one of those bloggers. I know everything you write is valuable so I’m comfortable letting the tweet go out before I’ve had a chance to read and comment.

  77. One thing this post has taught me about you, Danny Brown: you like to get the last word. But that’s not quite the same as the last laugh, is it? 🙂

  78. Gini, that makes sense. I know that Kellye doesn’t like the automation factor (I use Hootsuite to schedule my tweets and wall posts), but I can see the benefit. I made a fuss over ghostblogging years back and even with that I am now beginning to understand why companies do it. 

    I think what we are all challenged with is time…and the lack of it. 

    Hmmm, maybe I should check out Triberr and get in your tribe! (Shhh, don’t tell Kellye.) 😉

  79. I have way more conversations on Facebook than Twitter, it’s just easier. If Twitter added threaded comments, it would be fantastic…but I don’t see that day ever happening. 

  80. Beth- I had no idea you were so easily swayed! I’m sure the Triberr invites are on their way to your inbox as we speak… Sad.

  81. Ha! I doubt that… As for Triberr, I quickly bounced over there. My initial reaction is that I want to create two tribes “Marketers who get Marketing” and the other “PR Pros who get PR.”  Why? Because they seem to be missing… 😉 (If anyone doesn’t get the sarcasm…let me know.)

    In all seriousness, I don’t have time for yet another tool. 

  82. We love sarcasm at Solo PR Pro. 🙂 To anyone who doesn’t know us: Beth and I are besties — and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that she’s not easily swayed!

  83. This is why you are one of my favorite people, see you in 8 weeks!

  84. During my brief time as part of a tribe, it was never expressed that we wouldn’t retreet each other’s posts.  Therefore, we all entered it with the understanding that we’d all amplify each other, and it was only after I kept noticing that fewer and fewer of my posts were being retweeted did I realize that I was the only one who wasn’t being selective about what did and didn’t get tweeted.

    Though this may have since changed, I also learned that you could only have a single post magnified per day.  If you did three good posts, it would pick one of them to broadcast.  And you didn’t get to choose which it was.

    It came down to three choices:
    1. Manually vet every incoming tweet of someone else’s stuff when I’d have rather spent that time focused on my own content;
    2. Automatically retweeting content from others who weren’t willing to do the same for me;
    or 3. Leave the tribe.

    Number 3 worked for me.

  85. Honestly, I am so glad someone finally said this. I am so sick of Triberr and the amount of tweets that go out from there. Yes, I have been able to find a few blogs through triberr that I enjoy. And I think I get good traffic out of it, but from the stand point of Twitter usability alone? It’s awful. I hate seeing a stream of tweets with links. It’s annoying and 90 percent of the ones I see I don’t care enough about to click on. Same goes with the posts on triberr. I AM more likely, just as you said, to click the link of a post written by someone I am following. When I see the “via” of triberr, I ignore it most of the time. I don’t have the small community on triberr of people I read the blogs of. Most people I am grouped with on triberr are not blogs I follow. If I had people in my group that I read the blogs of I would love triberr! But that isn’t the case.

  86.  Thanks for your input, Nicole — you’ve obviously used Triberr, so it’s especially interesting to hear your perspective.

  87. If you are in the right tribes on Triberr and are utilizing it
    correctly (as well as your other tribemates using it correctly), it can
    be an excellent tool for bloggers.

    The beauty of Triberr is that YOU could sign up right now, start your
    own tribe and invite ONLY people that you thought were worthy of being a
    part of your tribe. You could demand that they act in a certain way if
    they wish to remain in your tribe and then hold them to it.

    Some people get on Triberr for spamming purposes (we JUST finished a
    two part series on this – do a google search for “Unspam Triberr” and
    you’ll find it at the top). Ultimately, like any other social media
    platform, it is up to the users to utilize it with integrity. For our
    part, this is something we have vowed to do with our tribes. We value
    interaction over automation and Triberr is by far the best platform to
    gain interaction for new bloggers.

  88. FYI Jesse, if I recognize a Triberr link in a tweet I never click on it. Why? Because I still remain unconvinced that the person sharing that link has actually read the post before “endorsing” it.

    I’m a big fan of other platforms for curation and endorsements, like Paper.li and GaggleAMP. I think both of them are more honest.

  89. Hi Kelly,

    Solid points here 😉

    I have only seen a large increase in blog traffic, income and all that good stuff since joining. Everybody’s experience is different.

    Psyche 101 though, is rearing its cute little head LOL…..anytime you are against something, you are not clearly for, what you are for. This is not a bad thing. Just a clarity issue. It’s less about Triberr and more about your lack of clarity in the organic traffic area, or in some other area of your campaign.

    Focus on that, and you’ll solve your problem/issue. Because once you’re clearly *for*, you’ll never be *against* and you’ll also accelerate your success like nobody’s business.

    That aside, awesome post because it stimulates a neat debate.

    Keep up the inspired work Kelly!

    Ryan