This time last month, I was struggling to hit 400 followers on Twitter and barely holding on to a Klout score of 49. DaddyGeek had 20 subscribers through Feedburner and three people following through Google Friend Connect. My average daily visits were somewhere in the range of 50-60.

As of this writing, I have 722 followers on Twitter and my Klout score is 61. On Feedburner, DaddyGeek has 57 subscribers and 16 people are signed up through Friend Connect. My average daily visits are now somewhere in the range of 110-130.

The importance of any of these numbers is debatable, but there’s no denying that, as a whole, they represent a huge increase in audience for both myself and my blog, especially for DaddyGeek – the audience more than doubled!

And here’s the thing – I put in almost no effort. Where I did put forth any significant effort, I could have easily done more or done better. Considering how big the return was with almost no work, I plan on making a serious effort this month.

Yes, the knowledge that more people are watching has made me pay more attention to post and tweet quality, and I’ve been more consistent with my blogging schedule, even if it’s only once a week. I’ve spent a bit more time with networking and engaging followers on Twitter. None of these things hurt, but they were more reactions to a bigger audience than a cause.

My stats tell me that the increase is due to two tools that I started using last month – Buffer and Triberr.

Since I work the night shift and spend most of my daylight hours hanging out with my boys, I’m usually not online in any real sense at the same time as most people. In the fast-paced world of Twitter, this means most of my tweets were just shouting into the wind and never being read by most of my followers.

With Buffer, I can schedule out my tweets and have them sent out during the “Prime Time” that most people are online. Retweets, replies, clicks, and follows have gone through the roof. The one thing I’ve done wrong is filling my queue with links. This month, I need to work on sending out more personal messages interspersed with interesting links.

Buffer offers free users 10 spots in their queue. If you use the link in this post to sign up, we each get an extra spot.

Triberr offers a system to organize users into “tribes” of bloggers and tweeters (We really need to come up with a good word for Twitter users) with (hopefully) similar interests. Blog updates are fed into the Triberr website and tribe members all share each other’s blog posts, extending the reach and exposure of each individual user.

When it’s done right, this is a win-win situation. Bloggers get their content out to a larger audience and Twitter users have more interesting content to curate.

When it’s done wrong, it can be a universal loss. Twitter users can spam their audience with completely inappropriate content and bloggers have their content overexposed to uninterested audiences and run the risk of being labeled as spammers. Potentially, everyone can lose their audience and reputation.

No offense to my tribe members – I’ve obviously gained some benefit – but I’ve been doing this (somewhat) wrong. I’m not the best fit for some of my tribes.

My content is not for everyone. I’m opinionated and don’t hold back on those opinions. I occasionally use profanity. I’m sarcastic and irreverent. There’s not much audience overlap for me and, for example, Coupon-clipping Christian Soccer Moms. If we’re smart, we exercise our option to not share each other’s links, but there’s not much point in being in a tribe together if we’re not going to share content.

As the month has gone on, I’ve found myself sharing less and less content (for various reasons) and noticed that my click-through-rate is horrible with some of my tribe mates’ audiences. Again, that’s not their fault – we just don’t have an audience overlap.

But I have seen a definite boost in my stats, so I’m getting some value. I could just do better.

Which is why I’m starting my own tribe, and I need your help. Hopefully you’ve read at least a few of my posts and have a feel for the tone around here. If you think I’m a good fit for your audience and you might be a good fit for mine – and you’d like to give Triberr a try -comment here or contact me on Twitter and I’ll send you an invite.

If you’re already on Triberr and are interested in being in a tribe together, please let me know, but it’s going to be a short wait while I recruit new members and unlock inbreeding. Once that’s done, you’re in.

There’s no obligation in joining. If you decide my tribe’s not for you, feel free to leave for another tribe or leave Triberr altogether without any hard feelings. In fact, I’ll help promote you to other tribes if you like. If you want to try Triberr but we wouldn’t be a good fit for each other’s audiences, still let me know and I’ll try to connect you with someone that’s a better match for you.

Again, use my link to sign up for a free account with Buffer and we’ll each get an extra spot in our queue.

If you want to try Triberr, just leave a comment or contact me on Twitter and we’ll work that out.

Related articles

• Triberr – How to extend your Twitter reach (paulspoerry.com)
• 46 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Triberr (blogworld.com)
• Buffer: Automated Twitter tool that increases clicks by 200% (paulspoerry.com)