Ugh...twitter.
I love twitter. Let's get that out of the way first. Twitter is so much more than just a tool to share your thoughts. In my opinion, if you use it correctly, Twitter can be used to network with individuals in your field. Networking can lead to virtual friendships and even jobs too. However, Twitter isn't THAT easy.
There's a certain amount of etiquette involved in using twitter. After all, not every user opens their Twitter app with the purpose of sharing stories, networking, or building productive relationships. I like to do all of those things but I also like to follow my interests outside of my career path. I follow many of my personal friends' accounts, many professional athletes, and sports reporters since I'm an NBA enthusiast. This means that my tweets range from being related to Student Affairs, sports, and sometimes even conversational. At the same time, there's a couple different ways of going about this which can either help or hurt your networking opportunities and Twitter reputation, in my opinion.
I try to keep my personal tweets to a minimum. I also monitor just how much tweeting about sports I do. Recently I've been talking more about Student Affairs related subjects and finding some really informative accounts to follow. These accounts share stories relevant to institutions of higher education and often hosts fun chats that help you connect with people you wouldn't meet otherwise. I saw a swell of people beginning to follow my account after I was retweeted by a popular Student Affairs account. It was great because I began reading these users' bios and really diggin' what they were about! I became interested in what they may post in the future so, of course, I gave them a "follow-back" and read through their tweets only if they popped up on my timeline; I didn't really go searching through their tweets at all.
This is where etiquette comes in. I'm not the type of person to follow a ton of accounts only to expect a "follow-back". I don't really understand why people are so interested in getting their follower numbers up. Just because someone follows you doesn't mean they actually review your tweets diligently. I'm honestly very confused on this whole issue about followers. Still, I came across a good amount of people that had followed me promptly un-followed me after I followed them...and I have a couple assumptions.
1. People really care about getting a ton of followers but have no interest in following them back for some reason...I have no explanation to be honest. I guess I'm not active on twitter enough to see the purpose of people reading my tweets, with no interest in conversing with them on their tweets either, but hey, that's just me!
2. Maybe people can't handle my tweets! I'm not sure what's the sillier assumption but hey, I'm not going to hate anyone for not being interested in what I tweet about. However, what I do take issue with are people expecting me to tweet ONLY about Student Affairs. I'm not a robot! That's why this blog will feature an NBA-related post from time to time. I'm diversified. Student Affairs is my career passion but I have many hobbies and interests outside of my career. I think it's important for users to respect other people's tweets.
Now, I completely understand finding yourself in the situation of following someone you find interesting only to find them tweeting about something else you may find offensive. By all means, do what you have to do at that point. However, I treat my Twitter account like a resume so I'm always on top of the content featured next to my name and in Student Affairs I expect many of my contemporaries to act the same way. .
The long and short of it is. Guard your twitter reputation. Don't be a follower that only seeks a follow-back. Converse, network, make connections!
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