This Wednesday I was watching my tweetdeck and saw a large amount of ranting posts from a certain, to be unnamed, tweeter. From what I can gather, she was trying to gather donations to write a web series, but only 6 people donated, and she got … upset, let’s just say. In the space of about half an hour, she tweeted 18 times about her series, how it was now dead, thanks for nothing to everyone for not donating, “I can’t get any support so why am I (expletive) bothering?”, etc.
One of her posts that struck me was “don’t give me the excuse that it takes time for people to find me, I’ve been on here 3 (expletive) years.”
It’s true. It takes time for people to find you on the internet, and it’s only getting worse. There’s so much out there, it’s hard to be found.
“Since Twitter has become so impersonal now I get ignored,” she wrote. Well, in my opinion, Twitter isn’t supposed to be personal. It’s like talking to some random acquaintances you barely know (some of whom you have to think first how you know them and what their name is). You know what I mean? There’s a few friends or tweeters that I know well, a lot I know sort of what to expect from their posts, and some I follow because sometimes they post something I’m interested in or are in similar lines of work. I’m sure the same is true with a lot of people who follow me. Twitter isn’t about following your closest friends who are going to tell you you’re great and support you in everything you do.
If you don’t want to be ignored, you need to provide something that will catch people’s attention. Don’t ask me what that might be – I have no fool-proof solution for that problem. I do my research regarding social media, look at what other people are doing, and some of the things I try out on my blog/Twitter/Facebook/etc. I started that research in college, when taking a Public Relations course. I still look up things in my book for that course, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. There are tons of other print and online resources to learn from.
If you continue to study what’s out there and try new things until you find something that works, I think you’ll succeed … eventually. It might take a while to go through a few things, considering you need to try some things for a while before you can see if they’re working or not. And by “a while” I mean months, possibly. I know we live in a world where we want results NOW! That’s not always how it works. It might take years before you actually gain a large audience … and remember, large is relative. Not everyone can gain fame or fortune in their lifetimes, and only a very lucky few in a generation can gain it in a couple of years.
What’s important, though, is that you keep trying. Persistence, I’ve been told, is the reason that most people who succeed do so. As someone who went to college for journalism, I know persistence is an important trait to have.
Another thing: I think it’s important to be professional in your tweets, especially when you’re trying to market something. As @JameetheWriter mentioned in an article she wrote, The Business of Writing, you need to think of yourself, in some aspects, as a small business owner. One of this unnamed tweeter’s posts went like this:
“Just shoes no one here pays attention to what I tweet, Ive been tweeting (name of series) for a (expletive) year, and had page for long time. (Expletive) you.”
Does that seem professional? I know we talk like that sometimes when we’re upset – Lord knows I need my mouth washed out with soap sometimes when I go into a ranting tirade – but do you need to do that on any social media platform? Is that really the way to get people to follow you, or pay attention to what you have to say?
I'm a lover of writing and books. I graduated from South Dakota State with a master's degree in communications in 2011, the same year I was first published. I'm a wife and mom, and I work in content and digital marketing in South Dakota.
Me and my writing life 
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