Be a Tweeter, Not a Twit · 21 April 2012
Twitter looks like a silly form of communication from the outside looking in. And it looks that way for the casual tweeter like me, too. But anybody who wants to promote himself or his business, needs to look closely at using Twitter as a tool. Or risk being a digital twit like me.
(Originally, I wanted to write about Twitter to poke a little fun at posting on it. After all, it seems that “twitting” makes more sense than “tweeting” when it comes to updating a person’s status on Twitter. Just because of the name of the service. The problem with this is that a tweeter becomes a twit. It would not be very good for any business to call its users twits. So “tweeting” fits Twitter’s logo as does calling people “tweeters” and describing their posts as “tweets.” Still, calling users and their posts “twits” makes for an interesting thought. At least for me.)
Personally, I use Twitter as one way to promote my web presence. When I post a Musing of MediocreMan, I post a link to Facebook which automatically posts to Twitter. I thought I was very clever doing this, but I did not think I was getting much exposure with my few Twitter followers. Then, I found a couple retweets of my posts. I was excited to see the @MichaelTMiyoshi on somebody else’s tweet. It was even more amazing that the somebody was someone I did not know! I am always ecstatic to find out I have Twitter followers and Facebook fans who are not related to me.
I must admit that I do not tweet much, nor do I use Twitter very well when it comes to self-promotion. I am not like certain celebrities or even ordinary people who get in trouble with tweets. After all, it usually takes me more than 140 characters to say anything, much less get in trouble. Besides, if I am going to get in trouble for my words, I may as well say something with more substance than I can generate in so few characters. And I refuse to use textese. So I muse, then tweet, then wait to see what happens. And if I am lucky, I get to muse some more about what reactions I get.
But back to the original topic at hand. I really do wish that I was a better self-promoter. Especially when it comes to using social media like Twitter and Facebook. I wish that I could get more readers to be my Twitter followers and Facebook fans. More importantly, I wish I was more organized and could consistently give signposts to my readers about what is coming up next. Unfortunately, even I do not usually know until the day I post.
Perhaps someday I will be better at using the digital-age self-promotion tools available to me like Twitter and Facebook. Maybe I will become a better tweeter and post those “roadside” signs during the week. Then again, I will probably just keep doing what I am doing without much thought about my next musing. That way, I can continue to post and tweet without much thought of self-promotion. Even if that means I will still be a digital twit.
© 2012 Michael T. Miyoshi
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