My mom asked me a while ago to show her how to use social media better. After I rolled my eyes and said something snobby and confusing like, “Well…what do you want from social media?” I realized that it’s a great question for her to be asking.
I sometimes forget that despite the massively over-publicized explosion of Facebook and Twitter users, there are a lot of people who are still unsure of how to get any value out of social media for themselves.
In my Mom’s case, she knows how to find her way around on Facebook, and she has a blog, but Twitter is still a scary, somewhat hairy animal. The more I thought about her question, the more it made me realize that I know a ton of people like her, who are still either afraid or completely unfamiliar with Twitter.
And it’s a shame because if they could all just get over a few initial hurdles, they’d have a much richer social media experience and easier access to information that they would probably find very interesting.
In hopes of getting my mom (and others like her) over these entry barriers and to shed some of the stigmas associated with Twitter for newcomers, here is my first Mommatorial: 5 Twitter Fears, Conquered.
I have nothing to tweet about
So don’t tweet! Big deal! One of the most overlooked functions of Twitter is listening, reading, learning…consuming. Just because you only have three followers and tweet once a month about how you really should be tweeting more often, doesn’t mean you can’t get value out of Twitter. If you don’t have anything to say, then just listen. Don’t worry about growing your audience or creating content. If it really doesn’t matter to you, then your time is better spent checking out all the cool stuff other people are tweeting about. Just read and be happy.
Scary Twitter #Jargon
A major turn-off for many people new to Twitter (aside from the inevitable snarks: “What? Too busy tweeting?” or “You can tweet that!” or “So you’re a Twit…or is it Tweeterer?”) is the appearance of the # and @ and RT symbols inherent with the Twitter conversation. While this does take an open mind and patience getting used to at first…you’ll get it pretty quickly…and it’s nothing to be afraid of. There are countless easy-to-digest tutorials on this subject that can explain infinitely better than I can here. So watch a couple videos and play around with it for a bit. You’ll have it down in a few days, easy.
There are so many people on Twitter. Who should I follow?
Well, I would have to answer your question with a question: What are you interested in? You are interested in stuff, right? Good. No matter what the topic, be it underwater basket weaving, celebrity stalking or just the news…somebody somewhere is posting information about it on Twitter. The people I follow (social media professionals, photographers, utilities, bands, sports reporters, news agencies, local restaurants and bars) are going to be way different than the people my mom is going to follow (Dachsund owners, Crossfit trainers, paleo foodies and Bill O’Reilly). Start off by whittling down your interests and searching for people who are talking about related topics on Twitter.
So mom, sign in to your Twitter account (no, I don’t remember what your username or password are). At the top of the page there is a box that says “Search” in it. Type your topic of interest in that box and press “enter.” Read the stuff that you see and if you like it, follow the person who wrote it. Tada!
If I stop following somebody, will they be sad?
A follower is not necessarily a friend. Don’t associate too much weight with following someone (it’s not like the blood-written binding contract of a Facebook friendship): if you don’t like what they tweet, just stop following them it’s that easy. Which leads me into my next point…
Twitter is annoying. Who cares what people are having for lunch?
Well apparently not you, eh? So if you’re annoyed by somebody because they tweet about how crappy their ham-and-cheese sandwich is, every day, then just stop following them. Part of Twitter’s beauty is the natural selection process. As a reader, you have the power to control the sources of the information that you consume. Use it. Follow tweeters of substance. Go get that value!
A Mommatorial is a post intended to help my mom (and others like her) understand something, usually social-media or tech related. I stumbled across this fun Mom-focused tweetorial earlier today, and it reminded me of this “Mommatorial” series idea I’d been putting off, until now. Google has a website with a similar focus: teachparentstech.org. Twitter has some really cool videos that show what they’re all about. If you just can’t get enough text in your life, here’s lots more info About Twitter.