Using Social Media – Effectively
Example: Twitter
Introduction
T his is not a beginner’s guide. Once you have been using Twitter
for at least three (3) months, the following efficiency tips will come into their greatest relevance, utility & maximum personal benefit.
Of the seven basic issues of life (Energy, Food, Identity, Money, Sex, Space & Time) only Time is lost for good, once wasted. This makes time the most precious resource. Using Twitter
inefficiently is a waste of time and means you can end-up with an unnecessarily-negative view of social media.
Effective Content
A healthy respect for reality helps build your reputation, your credibility & the likelihood that people will Follow
you.
Given the 140-character limit on Tweets
, it is essential to say what you have to say in as few words as possible – it also forces you to think and write clearly. This is an excellent discipline for clear communication on the Internet and is Twitter’s USP.
Do not waste other people’s time – or your own – by offering insubstantive Tweets
, with insubstantive headlines. Tweets
should contain substantive content – either an opinion based on facts &/or the facts, themselves – not mere speculation, as this wastes the time of others (which you, yourself, would not want wasted by others).
Tweets
should contain answers to the questions of Kipling’s Six Wise Men: Who? What? When? Where? How? &/or Why? – the most important being Why? Tweets
should avoid asking questions because it then looks like you do not know these answers and are, thus, less credible than someone who does – or, at least, claims to. Tweets
should simply make clear, information-laden statements that make the reader want to click the link. (This makes requesting Follows
redundant: Your content should be your tacit request for Tweeters
to follow you.)
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not add @Usernames
to your Tweets
(unless they are already there in a Retweet
) and you should add no more than two #Hashtags
. To do so is laziness as it leaves you with less space to comment and others, therefore, with less idea as to what the @Username
links refer to and, more importantly, whether they should use their time clicking them.
The View conversation
button allows you to see what interesting people are saying, not simply to waste time finding out what just anyone is saying.
Retweets
are best avoided. If you have the time, you should go to any Website link in the Tweet
and post
to Twitter
from there, if possible. This makes it look as though you are not just Retweeting
other people’s work and the Website you link to may, itself, be of additional interest (that you would not discover if you did not visit it). If your time is short, then feel free to resort to Retweeting
from Twitter
. (Do not waste time doing both – one or the other.)
Do not waste time Muting
people – Block
them outright and move on.
Do not waste time Favoriting
people with Likes
– Reply
or Retweet
and/or move on.
Images
Do not Turn images off
– they should be used to communicate ideas as effectively as possible.
Photographs should be used whenever they help convey the ideas you are expressing. It is a fallacy to say a picture is worth a thousand words as it is a fallacy to pretend facts can speak for themselves. If the former were true, then talking pictures would never have been invented; if the latter were true, facts would not require interpretation via scientific theories – one would then live in a contextless vacuum of knowledge without a concretizing understanding of those facts.
Humor
It is better to avoid such activities as irony, parody, sarcasm & satire – unless you really are a Jane Austen, a George Orwell &/or a Jonathan Swift. Such statements can easily be misinterpreted by being taken literally; causing unnecessary offense.
It is best to just speak in simple language what you really think or know or feel.
Expressive Clarity
Clarity of thought helps clarity of expression helps clarity of comprehension. Twitter
is not just a private members’ club solely for the cognoscenti.
Communication is maximized when it is transparent, not when it is opaque; otherwise, it is as unedifying as listening to someone talking to themselves &/or thinking-out-loud. And if you are not on Twitter
to communicate something of value to others, then why are you on Twitter
?
Make sure your spelling and grammar are correct, since it gives the impression that you actually have something worthwhile to say and are concerned-enough to say it. Otherwise, poor grammar and spelling suggests you do not know what you are talking about if you do not write as an educated and informed person would.
Avoid slang so that non-native speakers can understand you; thereby, hopefully, increasing your audience. Twitter
is global, so ensure you address those who do not know what you are talking about.
Similarly, do not use abbreviations – they can alienate newcomers to social media for no benefit to anyone.
Time-Wasting
Do not Post
just for the sake of Posting
or on a schedule. The latter simply produces the former; while wasting other Tweeter
’s time with waffle and filler material.
Do not waste your time reading other people’s Bios
- they usually say who the person is, not what the person is about – and nobody is interesting enough to be followed just because of whom they are. (Bios
are more decorative than they are informative.)
Read anyone’s first three (3) Tweets
to realistically ascertain whether they are worth following. People who are vague or who endlessly-speculate in the absence of facts are never worth following. They lack the courage to say what they mean and mean what they say (the ultimate criterion when making such a decision).
Better Leading than Following; Better Sharing than Leading
Following
#Hashtag Trends
is a waste of time, unless those you follow represent causes you are passionate-enough about. Only you can realistically-decide what your priorities are here; bearing in mind that trends are like fads, fashions & moments – they soon pass because truth is not democratic.
If a post
is written in a language you do not understand, select View photo
– if available – to get an approximate idea as to whether this Tweeter
is worth Following
; otherwise, Block
them or learn the language, since they are merely taking-up space on your Twitter
account for no valid purpose.
If someone Follows
you, automatically Follow
them. It is far more likely that they are as interesting as you are (if, indeed, you are interesting) if they Follow
you, than if they do not; otherwise, why would they Follow
you? You will soon find-out from their Tweets
whether they are interesting enough for you to continue to follow. Any Via
s in Tweets
can also be useful sources of interesting information about the world.
Better to have more Followers
than Followees
, but this is rarely possible, since you are probably less interesting than others who might wish to Follow
you.
Direct messages
Direct messages
seem pointless to me – unless you are trying to sell something, meet-up in real life or form a shared interest group. Social media does not seem designed for this.
Blocking
other Tweeters
If you find other Tweeters
wasting your time with insubstantive Tweets
, with insubstantive headlines, that do not make you want to select their Tweets
, they should be Blocked
. Such people are simply trying to get you to click their click-bait Tweets
with come-ons like: I looked over into my neighbor’s garden and saw something awesome!
. Yet, they never, ever see any such thing.
Advertising should also be automatically Blocked
since they never offer any reason to select their Tweets
, other than the implied: You will be sorry if you don’t
.
The best Tweets
follow standard journalistic practice (not marketing, publicity nor advertising standards) of giving a headline that summarizes the content. This gives you a fair chance of not clicking a link that will lead to a subject that is either of no interest to you or just downright dull, in itself. (Like interesting people in the real world, Tweeters
have no need to pretend to be more interesting than they actually are, they already are interesting – and they know it.)
I Block
Tweeters
for the same reasons I avoid many people in real life.
Objectivity
Objective reasons include posts
that are:
- Ad hominem – not ad rem;
- ideological, propagandist & rhetorical – not realistic;
- vested & self-interested – not concerned with objective reporting;
- lack perspective – not able to see things in-the-round;
- desire to manipulate the gullible – not a desire to stand on one’s own two feet;
- obsessed with baseless adulation, demagoguery & hagiography – not fact-based criticism;
- speculative – not empirical;
- lacking in anything of substance to say – not pointed comments;
- claiming expertise – not demonstrating expertise;
- cynical & nihilistic;
- humorous – not many a true word spoken in jest; eg, unlike The Onion);
- schizophrenic propagandists – not clear-eyed truth-seekers;
- paranoiac trivializers – not focused on what is most important with any issue;
- using click-bait pronouns – not substantive reasons to click;
- no text revealing what is linked-to nor why I should click it;
- narrowcasting – not broadcasting; eg, they are merely
talking-out-loud
without offering any context; - using
Twitter
to sell goods & services that are only of value to the seller – not of value to buyer.
Subjectivity
Subjective reasons include posts
that are:
- presenting unarousing pornography – just unsexy White girls;
- not presenting subject-matter in which I have any interest; eg, such activities as soccer, ballroom dancing & cake-baking.
Following the above suggestions will help you avoid plowing-through most of the pointless and time-wasting posts with which Twitter
– and most of the Internet – is littered. This is why Blocking
must be done aggressively and without wasting your time telling people why you Block
them.
Anonymity
Anonymity is the single most important issue on the World-Wide Web, since the Web is, by default, an example of broadcasting – not narrowcasting.
If you wish to be open about whom you are and what you think about anything, it is better to Protect
your Tweets
from people you do not know personally – or use a social-media platform like Facebook, where anonymity is not allowed. (If you do not do this, then you are probably a masochist who likes being publicly-abused.)
Never post
personal information – unless you really have to – and never use anonymity to engage in abusive behavior, unless initiated by others. Personal data can be used against you by Tweeters
who believe ad hominem comments are superior to ad rem ones – again, wasting time to no purpose.
Profile
Create a Full name
and a User name
for yourself that clearly expresses what you are about in your Tweeting
practice. This, of course, requires that you are fully aware of what this might be in yourself.
As a necessary corollary of the human need for self-awareness, invent a Bio
and keep it as short as possible to allow for as many interesting #Hashtags
as possible within the 160-character limit for such things. Arrange these alphabetically for ease of use.
I know what I like and I like what I know?
Do not use @usernames
in your Bio
– unless you know these people, personally. They are:
- Too specific;
- waste space; &,
- are too limiting in their scope.
#Hashtags
offer the greatest number of interesting people to be found, while @Username
links simply offer what you already know. It is better to follow ideas than individuals, since this helps avoid cults-of-personality – and you learn more about the world.
Select a Full name
, Username
, Photo
(logo) & Banner
(background) which adequately reflect what you are about, so that people know before they click on your @Username
hyperlink. They will respect you for not wasting their time in this way, even if they do not share your values. It also makes you easy to find and easy to remember.
Do not reveal your actual Location
, for the same reasons you should always be as anonymous as possible on the Web. This feigned statelessness allows you to invent a place that furthers illustrates and emphasizes the kind of Tweeter
you are; eg, FREEDONIA or LUBRICATORIA.
Your URL
should not link to a Website that reveals your true identity.
You should also obtain an extra Email
address that does not contain your real name.
You should never offer your Phone
number to strangers – ever.
| Concept | Instance |
|---|---|
 Frank Talker (1962—2027), English dramatist. |
|
| URL (Uniform Resource Locator) | 1 |
| 140-character limit | 1 |
| @Username | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| #Hashtag | 1, 2 |
| abbreviations | 1 |
| abuse | 1 |
| ad hominem | 1, 2 |
| ad rem | 1, 2 |
| advertising | 1, 2 |
| adulation | 1 |
| anonymity | 1 |
| Austen, Jane | 1 |
Banner | 1 |
Bios | 1, 2 |
Blocking | 1, 2, 3 |
| broadcasting | 1, 2 |
| clarity | 1, 2 |
| click-bait | 1, 2 |
| communication | 1 |
| context | 1, 2, 3 |
| credibility | 1 |
| criticism | 1 |
| cynical | 1 |
| data, personal | 1 |
| demagoguery | 1 |
Direct Messages | 1 |
| efficiency | 1 |
Email | 1 |
| empiricism | 1 |
| expertise | 1 |
Facebook | 1 |
Favoriting | 1 |
Following | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
Full name | 1, 2 |
| grammar | 1 |
| hagiography | 1 |
| humor | 1, 2 |
| ideology | 1 |
| insubstantive | 1, 2 |
| irony | 1 |
Liking | 1 |
Location | 1 |
| manipulation | 1 |
Muting | 1 |
| narrowcasting | 1, 2 |
| nihilistic | 1 |
| objectivity | 1, 2, 3 |
| opacity | 1 |
| Orwell, George | 1 |
| paranoia | 1 |
| parody | 1 |
| perspective | 1, 2 |
Phone | 1 |
Photo | 1 |
| photographs | 1 |
| pornography | 1 |
| posting | 1, 2, 3 |
Profile | 1 |
| propaganda | 1, 2 |
| protect | 1 |
| realism | 1, 2, 3 |
| reality | 1 |
| reporting, objectively | 1, 2 |
Replying | 1 |
| reputation | 1 |
Retweet | 1 |
| rhetoric | 1 |
| sarcasm | 1 |
| satire | 1 |
| schizophrenia | 1 |
| self-awareness | 1, 2 |
| self-interest | 1 |
| selling | 1 |
| slang | 1 |
| speculative | 1 |
| spelling | 1 |
| subjectivity | 1 |
| Swift, Jonathan | 1 |
| talking-out-loud | 1 |
| time | 1, 2, 3 |
| transparency | 1 |
| USP, Twitter | 1 |
| vested interest | 1 |
View Conversation | 1 |
View photo | 1 |
| wisdom | 1 |
| Web | 1, 2, 3 |
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