Matt “Dean Dad” Reed got asked for tips on using Twitter, and posted his responses, plus a request for additional advice. I offered a flippant response on Twitter (naturally), plus a couple of more serious follow-ups:
It’s probably worth unpacking and expanding this a little more, though, and since I have the space here, I’ll do that.
Tip Zero: Choose Your Medium to Match Your Talents
Reed specifically asked about Twitter, but it makes sense to broaden this to social media more generally: Twitter, but also blogs/Substack/etc., YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, etc. All the different platforms have different strengths and weaknesses, and each works best for a particular type of person. If you’re going to dip your toes into the social media waters, start with what will come most naturally to you.
Blogs are a natural for me, as I’m good at writing but my default length is about 1500 words. Twitter is okay, but an uneasy fit for me because of the length constraints (and also my personal schedule). Instagram and YouTube I can sort of do, the latter with considerable effort, and TikTok is a dead loss as it requires both skill with visual media and brevity.
If you’re good with a short quip, but don’t like to write at length, Twitter’s your best bet. If you have a great visual sensibility, look more at Instagram or YouTube, and so on. You can use all of them in parallel, but start with whatever best suits your particular talents.
Tip One: Social Media Won’t Make You Rich And/Or Famous
Well, OK, I guess it might, but if you’re going into this with that as the primary goal, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s not a reliable method to achieve fame and fortune, so dial back your expectations. If you’re going to put time and effort into this, it needs to be something you find rewarding in its own right, whether anybody reads and likes what you’re doing or not.
That doesn’t mean you don’t want anyone to read or watch your stuff, of course— if you don’t care about being seen or heard, I don’t know why you’d even be reading this. If you’re doing social media for purposes beyond “having a convenient way to see the baby pictures my relatives and friends share,” the ultimate goal is to find and build an audience. But that’s not something you can force to happen quickly; the natural evolution is a slow process, and that means you need to do it in a way that can endure for a long time.
If you go in with reasonable expectations, and use social media in a way that feels personally rewarding, that’s something that can be sustainable, and more likely to lead to good results. Not overnight millions, mind, but a solid audience of people who look forward to the stuff you produce, and maybe some connections that can help you out down the road with an invitation to give a talk, or make a pitch, or collaborate on a project. If you go in trying to become the Next Viral Sensation, you’re almost certainly going to fail, and have a decent chance of ending up a sad, embittered asshole.
Tip Two: Lean Into What Makes You Unique
If you’re going on Twitter and just posting lukewarm takes on the issues of the moment, you’re wasting everybody’s time. They’ve got millions upon millions of users who can post “Racism is bad, mmmm’kay?”, and do.
Think about what you bring to the metaphorical table that’s unique, and lean into that. This can be just about anything— an unusual job, a compelling personal story, a talent for doodling or doggerel rhyme, whatever. There’s something you can do that very few others can, and that’s what can set you apart and make you worth reading or watching or listening to. Find that thing, and run with it.
That doesn’t have to be the only thing you do— monomania gets boring after a while— but again, if the goal is to find and build on an audience beyond blood relatives and people who know you already, you need to do something that’s unique to you, that your audience won’t get elsewhere. And if we’re being honest, you need that with friends and family, too. Everybody has that cousin/friend/acquaintance who just reshares the same political memes as a zillion other people, and we’re all tired of them. Don’t be that person.
Tip Three: It’s Okay To Sit Some Things Out
One of the worst habits of people on social media is saying something about a topic just because everybody else is talking about that topic. This is the proximate cause of a lot of social-media blowups— people popping off about some event without knowing the full story or thinking their position through— but more than that is what can make social media a bit of a grind.
If you don’t have a strong feeling about the issue of the moment, or a take on it that’s unique to you, it’s perfectly fine to just sit that one out. If you watched the latest tentpole movie and thought it was… fine, you don’t need to work yourself up to declaring it the Best! Thing! Ever! or an Affront to Cinema. Just skip it. If lots of people are outraged about something that doesn’t seem that outrageous to you, it’s fine to just let that pass you by. And so on.
If you don’t have anything that you feel absolutely compelled to say, it’s perfectly fine to not say anything. In fact, it’s probably better to say nothing at all than to try to agree with some strong take that you’re not 100% on board with.
Tip Four: It’s Okay to Stop
If you go through all of the above— identify an appropriate platform, calibrate your expectations, and find your unique niche— and still don’t find participating in social media to be a rewarding experience, stop. Really, just stop. You don’t need to delete your account or flounce off dramatically— you might want to give it another go somewhere down the line— but it’s perfectly fine to just walk away for a day, a month, or the rest of your life.
Social media is not mandatory, any more than anything else with “social” in the name (once you get past high school social studies, anyway…). If you’re not enjoying it, you’re not required to keep doing it.
(I mean, I guess there are a handful of jobs where it’s an actual condition of employment to engage on social media in some way, but if you have one of those, you probably shouldn’t be looking to me for tips in the first place…)
There are, of course, any number of people who complain loudly on Twitter about Twitter being a “hellsite,” making them crazy, etc. Most of this is theater— the people doing it are, in fact, getting something out of being on the service, which is why they’re still there to complain about it. The people who genuinely find it a miserable slog mostly leave and don’t come back— they’re the ones with accounts whose last post is a 2019 snapshot of a grilled cheese sandwich, or whatever. If at any point you feel the experience of being on Twitter or any other service is more bad than good, feel free to follow their example. You’ll be happier for it.
That seems like about enough advice for now. If you find this take, or the general attitude it seems to embody, congenial, here are some buttons:
If you want to add tips of your own or argue with any of mine, the comments will be open. And here’s a random artsy photo I took of a concrete fish, just because: