What I Finally Get About Twitter

Update on the Great Social Networking Experiment

I get it, okay? I finally understand that Twitter, like any other social networking tool, works as well as you make it work. It takes a little time to get your rhythm, but it does work.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Twitter:

Twitter in small doses. My first mistake was thinking I had to have Twitter open all the time. Twitter’s a good ten-minute exercise, enough to see who’s awake, who’s around, and who’s up to what. If Twitter is going off in the background all day, you’ll never get anything done.

Retweet others often. The fastest way to make friends, beyond direct interaction even, is to retweet. Just hit “retweet” and resend that person’s message to your contacts. A great way to help someone build a network or locate an expert for an interview (used a lot for that, in fact).

Relax and get to know people. I wanted to be like the others, but it wasn’t until I relaxed that I really hit my Twitter stride. I stopped mimicking others’ styles and started tweeting and retweeting and responding as I would an email or a blog post. Already I’ve made some new friends.

Follow carefully. I’ve un-followed only one person so far, but there are one or two I may drop if the relevance and content of their tweets stays the same. It’s not that they’re being nasty or weird – it’s that what they post isn’t my particular cup of tea. For instance, I don’t mind political posts at all, but I do mind caustic ones (and one after another after another…) that demean one person or groups of people. Be nice or be gone – my Twitter mantra.

Stray outside your comfort zone. I love following other writers and editors, but I like following people in real estate, marketing, finance, tai chi, reiki, etc. If the person’s Twitter profile is interesting, I’ll follow.

Follow job posting tweets. Several exist. I follow:

@journalismjobs
@media_pros
@cwjobs
@mediabistrojobs
@freelance_jobs

I also follow some local job posting tweets for fun.

Post a personal blog posting. Once a day, I tweet my latest blog post. It’s brought maybe one or two new visitors, but I refuse to retweet it and make a pest of myself. Once is enough. Better is to build the network so that folks will want to click on the tweet link.

Tweet carefully. I had an unfortunate conversation with a dude wanting info on a topic, only the info I gave him didn’t fit his audience, he said. He assumed I knew his audience. I’m not psychic, so I disappointed him. Never mind what I thought of his communication abilities. Even after realizing his audience, I’m still convinced what I told him was relevant. I question his expertise now, but is that a true representation or the limitations of Twitter’s 140 characters? Best to ask questions if you’re not sure. Avoids unpleasantness on both sides.

If you are on Twitter, what are some of the things you’ve learned?