Three Tips to Getting Started on Twitter

Recently, in a Facebook thread regarding the how/why/WTF of  getting started on Twitter, one of the participants noted that it appeared to her, that people who knew why they were on Twitter in the first place, seemed to get the most mileage out of their Twitter accounts. She herself wasn’t sure about what Twitter could do for her… so she was hesitant.

What a shame that she was so hesitant, because,  at the end of the day, Twitter really is just another social media platform, i.e. another way to interact with the world and maybe even have some fun. Sure, there are countless ways to  optimize your Twitter usage but with social media, as with life, the more you actually do and try, the more you’ll know. Life isn’t about doing perfectly, or even right, but just DOING.

In fact, one of my most stubborn clients who spent a long time, fighting me, fighting me tooth and nail, about the value of Twitter, eventually started tweeting—primarily, I’m sure, to shut me the hell up—and lo and behold, found herself LOVING Twitter. Not that I’m gloating, oh my no, because that would be wrong but really cough HA! I told you so cough cough. Sorry, just had something stuck in my throat, excuse me. #IToldYouSo

My point being that sure, Twitter, like most things, is probably most useful if you can pinpoint exactly why you’re on it, and what your goals are…but how much of your life can you perfectly articulate? How much of our lives is faking it till we sorta kinda I guess make it,or something, and then hopefully, learning from our mistakes and accentuating the positive? Thus, let’s keep things in perspective. For every person using Twitter to accelerate their career, there are millions of people on it, talking about their pets…getting laid…being passive-aggressive about “friends”…misquoting Hunter S. Thompson…drunk-tweeting…whining…sharing their misguided “political” “opinions,” making dinner plans and whatever. I myself have wasted a great deal of time on Twitter. And yet, non, je ne regrette rien, because Twitter has also led me to some unique professional opportunities, introduced me to fun people around the world, introduced me to some hot men, made me snort out loud and all those other crucial moments of the days of my life. I think I even made some money off the damn thing. If, however, back in 2010, I had thought, “Welp, I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing here, I better wait till I know exactly what I want….” Trust me: someone else would be running this business, and I’d be making coffee for some junior executive,  wondering when exactly I’m going to grow a pair of balls.

Therefore, if you’re at all interested in getting started on Twitter: bueno. Do not wait! This also applies to your life: if there’s something you want to do, do what you can with what you have RIGHT NOW. Yes, you’ll make mistakes. And so what? You’ll also have a lot of fun.  With that in mind, here’s three tips to get you started:

1. Get started by, wait for it, getting started. Create a basic handle, @yourname, put up a smiling, professional-ish photo of yourself and start following your most interesting friends. Follow the smartest people you know. Follow your news sources, your favorite celebrities, the TV shows you watch, your favorite writers, singers, entertainers. Then, see who they’re following. Yes, some people you admire will surprise you by how many parody Kardashian accounts they follow, but some people will lead you to other intelligent, interesting people and accounts that otherwise you’d never know about. Once you’re on, give yourself some time to get used to it. If you get on Twitter and expect to love it, or have thousands of followers in twenty-four hours…oh stop it. You’re just being poopy. Go take a hot bath and relax. Instead, allow Twitter some time to grow on you. Download it to your phone, and your iPad and commit to even 15 minutes a day of exploring the platform…and what? Oh no no, I didn’t say anything. You must have anticipated me saying, “HA! I told you so, “ because as we all know, gloating is for teenagers, and I pride myself on my even-tempered maturity.

2. Keep your cool. As soon as you’re on Twitter, people will start following you, and communicating with you, some publicly, some via direct message: relax. You do not owe them, or anyone, a reply. Nor do you automatically have to follow them. If you’re blessed with a vagina and on social media, yes, you will have to set boundaries, because yes, the lord must love assholes, he made so many of them. You can block people, you can unfollow people, you can also ignore people, so take some time to make Twitter a fun, useful and productive space for yourself. Take some time to decide that you’re in charge of your account, and that you don’t owe anyone a damn thing. If you’re on Twitter for professional purposes, you’ll eventually have to decide how you want people to perceive you. (Before you start hyperventilating, simma down and realize that until you’re actually using Twitter it’s fairly impossible to make that decision. Are you going to get on Twitter and start using profanity, or tweeting out naked photos or telling people to read The Fountainhead ? Do you do any of that in real life? So RELAX. Have some faith in yourself. ) If you’re “just” on it to see what the big deal is, you won’t enjoy it much if you think you owe someone something, or if you’re worried about offending people, or anything. (This also goes for your life. ) You’re a human being, you’re trying something new, and you’re smart, so take a deep breath and allow yourself to have some fun. Twitter tends to accentuate bad behavior, so before you respond to people pushing your buttons, understand that you can block or ignore people. You are not responsible for other people. Being responsible for yourself is ENOUGH.

3. What’s your personality? I strongly believe that each of your social media platforms should have a different personality. I have linked my business Facebook page to my Twitter account, but I also go out of my way to put unique content on Twitter. My Twitter feed tends to be more rant-driven international, as I connect with friends and/or clients around the world. And yes “connect,” can be a conversation about my cats or John Waters’ hilarious essays or 1970s horror films. Ideally, when you’re connecting with others, you’re demonstrating your personality in a manner best suited to the particular social media platform. You’re demonstrating your expertise, your education and, for better or for worse, your personality. This is why, to me, numbers don’t matter, content matters. I’m not interested in people who have a million followers, with a feed that is a walking/talking product-placement commercial. Ugh, don’t you fast-forward through commercials on TV or YouTube? So why would you want to follow one? I’m looking for interesting personalities (i.e. for people who have something interesting to say), not manufactured brands, or the slickest production value. To that end, sometimes you’re not going to have anything to say. Some people will counsel you to tweet every single day at the same bat-time, same bat-channel. Meh.  I have days when I’m constantly on Twitter…and other days when I’ll take a break and you know, do this crazy thing called “live my life.” In my (not-so-humble) opinion, the best thing you can do, on any social media platform, is figure out how best to make it work for you, because if you don’t like it, if you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, or simply in a manner that is counter-intuitive to your personality, well you’re probably not going to enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy something, over time, you’re going to avoid doing it. Last time I checked, daily life is stressful enough, so why punish yourself? Give yourself a chance to have some fun on Twitter, but if it’s not for you, give yourself permission to spend that time/energy doing something that makes you happy.

Those were three common-sense tips to get you started. I’ll have more in the days to come!