Twitter Primer
I am constantly being asked about Twitter — who to follow, how it works, if it is really worth it - to which I say absolutely! If you don’t believe me, check out this recent opinion piece in the New York Times, “Twitter Made Us Better”.
For those unsure how to proceed, here are some golden rules that I personally use when on Twitter that I find keep me grounded, honest, and engaging:
1.Have a buddy. Have someone you can run tweets by that you are unsure of before you post them. For me, that person is my twin sister (@learyjen). We often text each other to read over our respective tweets before posting them to check for tone, and to make sure they convey the appropriate message or sentiment. In doing so, we can often pick up misspellings, missed words, or grammatical errors (win-win)! Tone is really important on Twitter and you don’t want to inadvertently Tweet something that misrepresents what you were hoping to say. Running it by someone ahead of time can be really helpful, which is why it’s always good to have a buddy!
2. Don’t be a one trick pony. Yes, you should be consistent with your message, especially if you are a content expert in a certain area or you are trying to build your brand, but you should also not be monotone. I personally like to tweet about a small, yet varying handful of topics, which of course rotate and change with events in my life. Right now, I tweet mostly about Nursing/Innovation, Academia/Resuscitation/PhD Life, Politics/Activism, STEM/STEAM/Scicomm, Philly/Eagles, and every now and then Personal/Family antics.
Additionally, I try really hard to be thoughtful about the mediums I use to make my Twitter content engaging. You can only do so much with the Twitter app so I turn to a variety of other applications to create content including: Retype, GIPHY, Tik Tok, Stop Motion, Instagram, and many, many others. It is a lot of work, but I believe it is worth it to help enhance whatever message I am trying to convey, plus it allows me to be much more creative in the process.
3. Follow back y’all. I am a firm believer in reciprocal follows (within reason). If you follow me and you are a legit human, and not a bot, with an appropriate Twitter profile and message, I will follow you back (note: if you are following me currently and I am not following you, and you meet those criteria, DM me so I can rectify that oversight). If I follow someone and they don’t follow me back after a certain amount of time, I generally unfollow. I know that sounds harsh, but hear me out, there is a noise to signal ratio that gets harder and harder to balance with the more people one follows, there has to be some way to counter that, for me at least, that is how I cut down the noise.
4. Rest, recoup, repeat. I don’t know about you, but I find Twitter to be overwhelming mentally and spiritually at times. Information come fast and furious and it is not always good. A lot of difficult topics get posted and discussed on Twitter and it can sometimes be disheartening and paralyzing. It can also be exhausting to keep up with it all 24/7/365, followed with the constant FOMO and comparing yourself to others’ accomplishments. I often find myself needing to step away for a day and take a break. It’s like most things — too much of anything is not healthy, it’s the same with Twitter, especially because of the rapid-fire pace, and sometimes vitriol nature, of the platform. It’s definitely not all bad though (see #5), but everything in moderation!
5. Find your tweeps! I love Twitter. I love how witty, smart, funny, and creative people can be. I love the friends I have made on Twitter, and then IRL because of it. I love the like-minded people I get to converse with on the daily, who I otherwise never would have known, but who now enrich my life. I love learning and being schooled in a vast array of topics I hold near and dear to my heart, and topics I would have most likely never have given a second thought.
The easiest way to find your tweeps is by using hashtags; I follow and post with them, which in turn leads me to the people posting topics I am interested in, who I then in turn follow. The hashtags I mostly follow and post with currently are: #NurseTwitter #NursesWhoTweet #nursinginnovation #amplifynursing #AcademicTwitter #PhDLife #PhDChat #whyilovephilly #scicomm #womeninSTEM. Again though, it changes with current events and interests.
On Twitter I find you get what you give. I try hard to be as authentic in my posts as the Twitter persona I’ve created. You can say and convey a lot in 280 characters, so be smart, be thoughtful, be kind, and have fun!
Here are some people on Twitter that I follow and who I think you might like (this is by no means an exhaustive list, I apologize to the MANY I have left off, but you can check out all of the folks I follow here, they are all amazing!):
#womeninstem: @MonicaMalta7 @herstemstory @_Astro_Nerd_ @jesswade @ReadMoreScience @HeyDrTay @DraCoquiMD @audreblewer @comilla_s @synapse101 @StephEvz43
#nursetwitter: @RhondaJoyVO @aamontalvo1 @UMassWalker @thoughtleaderrn @NurseInnovation @Bongicr @BGlickstein @robincogan @InclusionPhilly @nurseshypochond @jdillardwright @BriannaMorganNP @lisacampbelldnp @jdillardwright @k_westphaln
#scicomm: @Constababble @SarahMackAttack @SkypeScientist @jayeperview @bethlinas @NakedCapsid @luckytran @amandacoletti5 @TheLabArtist @bethlinas
#whyilovephilly: @RSPugliese @learyjen @mikeyil @FarFarrAway @NeilPBardhan @bikemamadelphia @AGirlInPhilly @BrianSimsPA @IngaSaffron @RonniePhilly @venisew
