And , may I say , happily so .
I fully understand that Ms. Burnham ’s advice ( and the advice of her source , Dan Zarrella — a “ social media and viral selling scientist ” ) is aimed at those who employ Twitter as a way to market themselves and their professing . For me , however , Twitter is a rumpus room — a home I go to entertain myself and to be entertained by those I follow . As such , I routinely violate each of the clause ’s hypnotism — my bio relate for the most part to my hair , I incessantly tweet about myself and the world around me , I reply as often as I like , I take pains to not trademark myself as an sureness , and if I ’m cranky , I spread the wealthiness .
And I do because I honestly do n’t deal if you follow me or not . I love masses garner a sure form of up-to-dateness for experience followers in the five and six figures , but the sidereal day I measure my worth based on this kind of data is the mean solar day I delete my Twitter account and have a good longsighted talk of the town with the mirror . Despite the episodic links to something I ’ve write or engineering that interests me , Twitter is n’t a reflection of my professional life . Macworldis my nursing home for that .
With measure of followers jettison , I focus or else on quality — attracting and retain those who ascertain some tiny measure of joy in my every - so - often 140 characters of flotsam . And I do that by following these very loose convention :
1. Tweet your passion
Like all of us , I have opinions on such weighty matters as politics and religion as well as on lightweight - by - comparison case such as literature , music , and fun . While I ’m far too polite to spout those opinions in most societal situations ( and too professional to do so in my employment ) , I ’m more than well-chosen to mount a Twitter soapbox and have at it . This is my little nook of Hyde Park and if you do n’t deal to listen , click Unfollow ( without tell me why you ’re doing it , give thanks you ) and move on to the next ranter down the line .
In short : Take a sales booth and dare to offend if it matter that much to you ( and yes , that includes ceaseless pictures of your computed tomography enclothe in holiday garb ) . Those who have an interestingness in what you have to say will stick around — and perhaps engage you in a compelling substitution . Those who do n’t , no harm , no foul .
2. Be playful
Much as those attempting to build businesses on the back of Twitter view the service as a serious enterprise , let ’s bear in mind that it ’s asocialnetworking service . And in societal options one tries to amuse and entertain . This does n’t mean that your Twitter stream need be full of Knock - Knock jokes , but a well - timed risible anecdote is a more - than - appropriate way to give your follower a coup d’oeil into the kind of person you are ( as well as weed out those who obtain such buffoonery not worth their attention ) .
3. Go Inside Baseball
Look , if you ca n’t telegraph reference work to the most esoteric subjects on Twitter — which of necessity limits your verbosity — where can you ?
4. Block the unworthy
As we ’ve emblazoned “ It ’s about the quality , unintelligent ” on our avatar ’s finger plate , we require to be certain that each of our followers is an honest one . With that in mind , when you get notice that you ’ve inherit a new follower ( you ’ve enabled notifications , right ? ) , take the time to check out their feed and profile . If you discover that they ’re the sort of soul who follows the advice offered by viral marketing scientists , it ’s quite likely that they ’re not worthy of your tweets . Sacrifice your follower count by block off them .
5. Don’t follow do’s and don’ts
The day has n’t arrived when there ’s a “ right ” way to employ Twitter . It ’s a pliable metier and one that can be molded in any way you like . Ignore the expert and sculpt your stream to suit you and the followers you ’d care to attract .
Senior editor Christopher Breen can be unfollowed atBodyofBreen .
