New Media 13.1 / Let’s Talk Twitter

Posted on March 30, 2015 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I wanted to spend a day talking about social media. This is probably the most underdeveloped component of this class–every semester I have ambitions to work social media into the course, but that ambition loses out to more pressing concerns. Our focus this semester has been on image editing, video capture and editing, and audio editing. We’ll end the course working with a content management system. There just hasn’t been time to also work on social media.

What These Jobs Look Like

But there is clearly a market demand for folks with a background in social media management and content generation:

You can begin to build your resume for these kinds of jobs even if you don’t have an internship or a job in social media by following best practices with your personal use of social media.

How to Tweet

First, let’s look at a tweet:

I’ll offer a few introductory suggestions:

Note that I am not saying that you cannot mix the personal and the professional–but if you are using your social media presence as part of your professional identity (which you should be), and even if you aren’t, jobs will be paying attention to how you act online.

Remember that job ads are asking for the ideal candidate–but you don’t have to be able to check every box in the ad to qualify for the job. Learn to frame your experiences (and learn now what experiences you will need to be able to frame).

I really like Julie Pagano’s “On Twitter” and her follow-up “Twitter Guidelines.”

How to Cultivate Your Ethos

Beyond the how-to and jobs, I want to talk a bit about the etiquette ethics of social media communication. First, a few things that should be common sense.

  • Think about your username–both your handle and your address. If you are going to market yourself as a social media specialist, then I highly advise you develop your personal brand. But this means you need to be vigilant with how you present yourself online (Adam Banks example)
  • Your Facebook account is not private. It will be viewed by all and any potential employers. Don’t post anything to social media that you wouldn’t be willing to discuss with a future employer
  • Similarly, you will want to think strategically about both your profile picture and your header photo (quick demonstration for how to change both).
  • Increasingly, the same is true of your twitter account, especially if you will market yourself as a social media specialist or web content specialist. Be extremely careful how you represent yourself in these spaces (and, of course, in Linkedin).
  • If you want a social media account to be private, then make sure you create an account with a pseudonym, and make sure you use a pseudonym email to make the account.

Much of the work of rhetoric involves cultivating an ethos that appeals to your audience. Social media provides you a powerful opportunity to do this kind of work–to credentialize yourself. One of my good friends used to call this the art of faking it until you make it.

Follow the jobs you want to be when you grow up. Be strategic in who you follow. Be strategic about rewarding a follow with a follow (“standard” Twitter etiquette). Much of someone’s Twitter experience comes down to the quality of people they choose to follow (and unfollow). With a bit of early investment, Twitter can be a quick feed of things you want to read.

Let’s look at a few twitter accounts with an eye toward representation:

When Twitter Goes Right, When Twitter Goes Wrong

When approaching social media, it is very important to have a sense of the context of conversations, and to remember that sarcasm can backfire. It is also important to remember that you don’t always have control of conversations. Let’s look at a few examples of how twitter can go right and wrong.

Hijacking Hash Tags

Be careful when arranging conversations that you cannot control. Have a plan.

How to Handle Things When/If They Go Wrong

There’s a difference between personality and snark

While you want to ignore trolls, you also want to face your public. Deactivating a twitter account is not a viable solution.

Hashtags Are More Than Conversations, They Are Also Communities

Hashtags for Writers to Follow / Contribute to

4 Quality Handles Every American Should Follow

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