If you've ever got to that point with social media where you feel like its hold over your life might be getting a little bit out of control then fear not as it would seem that you're not the only one. Recently released statistics indicate that 25% of 25-34 year olds and 15% of 35-44 year olds are not even able to disconnect from their feeds whilst in the most private of places - on the toilet - and are continuing to scroll and update even whilst otherwise engaged. Of course this is hardly a new phenomenon, as ever since the arrival of the mobile phone, particularly the smart phone, there has simply been no reason why we shouldn't carry our electronic communications around with us everywhere we go, whether that's to the bedroom or the bathroom. However, this does beg the question of whether this is really particularly good for us. Does there come a point when use of Twitter goes too far - can you tweet too much?
In a personal context the response very much depends on the Twitter followers that you have and the interactions - frequency, quality and type - that you have with them. In a business context, the answer is most probably yes, it is possible to tweet too much and in doing so overdo your presence in other people's feeds. Of course there are no actual limits to how often you can tweet - officially speaking - but it's worth remembering that most people try to adhere to a sort of social media etiquette. This requires some awareness of the effect that your social media presence is likely to have on those who have made the decision to follow you - with a view to trying to ensure that they don't stop following you!
The best way to try and gauge whether you're tweeting too much is to go back over the last couple of days and take a look at what you have posted. Are you topping ten tweets a day regularly? If so then you might be bordering on the limit of some people's tolerance. This will also be dependent on the quality of your tweets - are they informative, purposeful or entertaining, or are you simply tweeting for the sake of tweeting. If you are just tweeting in order to get yourself into the feeds of others then you are risking an unfollow as 'empty tweets' can get annoying. Just think about your own reaction to those who fill up your Twitter feed with badly informed opinions, pointless statements and rubbish quotes.
In fact, a good general rule of thumb when you're tweeting is to try and look at your updates as if they were someone else's. How would you react to the tweet you're considering posting? Do your followers really need to hear from you again? Are you contributing something relevant to their day? When it comes to toilet tweeting, given our ongoing addiction to social media it's probably not a phenomenon that's going to go away and it's not necessarily a negative - just as long as you're using the opportunity to say something of substance...