Two weeks ago I didn't "get" twitter. I thought it was for preachy social media experts, or smarmy salespeople hawking their product, or exhibitionists who got a kick out of trawling the depths of the internet for followers they would never talk to or meet. It sounded like the dinner party from hell - where Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber reigned supreme.
That, my friends, is the twitter dark side. But there is light!
The beauty of twitter is that it's public and searchable. You don't need to have a lot of friends who use twitter to enjoy the medium. You just need to find your niche. To seek out people who share your interests.
I'm pretty new to twitter. I've had my account for a while, but it sat barely-used until I was stuck in my house nursing my sore gums post-wisdom teeth extraction. I looked funny and couldn't talk comfortably. I was driven to social media out of desperation for some form of human contact.
Here's the thing - I still don't follow a lot of people, and I don't have a lot of followers. This isn't about how to become the most popular boy or girl on twitter, though I suspect it has something to do with attracting lots of pornbots. (AKA "my base.") This is about enjoying the twitter experience from day 1. When you're twitterlost and twitterconfused.
1. Follow public lists on topics you love
Lists are the newbie shortcut to getting plugged-in. The kind souls who have used twitter for years have compiled lists by topic, that you can subscribe to. It's basically an "in" to an expertly curated twitter account.
Finding interesting twitter peeps to follow takes time. After a few days of poking around, I found a grand total of 88 fascinating individuals. Not all of them tweet very often. Updates were few and far between. My twitterverse was boring.
But then I found lists! I now follow five lists, that include 1,686 people. There's always something happening, and it's a great way to meet kindred spirits.
Recommended: @sree 's SocMedia Editors , @acoyne 's Canada Journos , @antderosa 's Reuters Journalists
2. Follow real people, not companies
Love news? Following newspapers is soo impersonal, and if they aren't listed, they will clutter up your shiny new twitterfeed. Instead, do a quick search and see if your favorite journalists are logged on. They'll let you know about their latest piece before it goes to print, alert you to breaking news, and if you have a question or comment, you can ask them directly.
Recommended: Jesse Kline @accessd, Paul Wells @InklessPW, Andrew Coyne @acoyne, Steve Murray @NPsteve
3. If you have other social media accounts, avoid redundancy
My initial strategy to find twitter peeps was to follow whichever facebook friends or pages updated their statuses via twitter. Bad idea. It ensured that twitter didn't offer anything new.
Also, I found the twitterers who routed their tweets directly to facebook were the self-promoting broadcast types. E.g. They'd only update with links to their blogs. Those people aren't much fun. By all means, follow your friends, but don't stop there!
That reminds me...
4. Don't fully integrate your accounts
Twitter and Facebook lend themselves to different types of communication. Their style is different. Use selected tweets if you want to add some of your twitter content to facebook. Don't flood both mediums.
5. Use a profile picture, and make it a friendly one
A friendly one of YOUR FACE. Make it personal, baby. You look so nice today. Also, once you figure out what you're interested in, put the specifics in your twitter bio. It'll help like-minded people connect with you.
If you don't know exactly what you're looking for, that's cool too. At first, my bio was simply "What would Jessica Fletcher do?" Which said it all.
6. Be extra careful when you click on a link
Haha okay so I sort of lied. I had a twitter account many moons ago, but I shut it down. Why? The site was glitchy beyond belief (it's gotten better). But also, I had a hilariously unfortunate spambot highjack my account and send all my followers a message that stated I was 25 and horny. And dude, I was only 22 at the time. How embarrassing.
Don't let it happen to you.
So there you go! Enjoy the twitterverse. It has much to offer. If you try my tips and it still doesn't float your boat, remember - I didn't enjoy twitter until I had my wisdom teeth removed. Maybe they are what is holding you back. I know a good surgeon.
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