I Have No Idea What I’m Doing

????

??There’s this guy on Twitter who has 110 followers. He’s following 57 people and he’s shared 1,035 tweets. Those are not outstanding numbers compared to some. But, they are not terrible. He must know how to do something right. I mean, the guy shared enough content to convince 110 people that they should follow him. 

I’m not one of them. I can’t be. I’m him. 

But, as for doing something right, I’m not as confident as I look. I don’t get it. 

Knowing my readers, I’m guessing there are many of you who are right now talking to your screen,

Rodney! It’s not that tough! 

So, I’ve been told. I’m sort of technical. You know, in the “I studied Computer Science, I built my own file server, I write a technical blog” sort of way. But, twitter is one that I just can’t seem to grasp. 

You might have a couple of questions based on the profile I shared above.

1. How did I get 110 followers?
2. What was in those 1035 tweets?

I tweet my blog every day. Well, I don’t tweet it, my blogging software tweets it for me. And facebook sends my wall posts to twitter. So those tweets are mostly links to other content. Occasionally, I go tweet a specific item, but because I don’t “get it,” I don’t get it. It’s like opening my front door and yelling a greeting to the neighborhood. I’m not sure how long I’m supposed to stay there at the door waiting for someone to holler back. Or, do I go back inside and wait for them to knock on my door?

How did I get those followers? I can only assume that it’s those of you who “get it” and want to get it. And by “it” I mean this blog. 

But, what about those 57 people I’m following? I must have gone out and done that on purpose, right? 

You’d think that. And yet, as I look through the list of people I’m following, some are very dear friends and relatives. Others are people I don’t recognize. In fact, several are in languages I don’t recognize. These are the people I’m supposed to be reading. And yet, I ignore them all equally. If you DM me, I will get the message. Not because I use Twitter, but because I send DM tweets to email. 

Alright, what’s this have to do with business? 

Two important messages. First, if you want to be in the tech business, you have to have a twitter account. People expect it. Obviously they don’t expect you to use it. Sure, many people do, but it’s not a requirement. But, if you want to be accepted as a techical expert in any field, you pretty much have to have a presence on Twitter.

Second, because I know there are many people who do get Twitter, I learned just enough about it to be able to push my content to the medium. I’m a writer. I want as many people as possible to read my content. Twitter is one of the places go to read content.

Blogger sites are used to create content, not consume it.

That’s not universally true, of course. There are many people who check in at www.staging.rodneymbliss.com everyday to read the content. But as a general rule, people consume content in social media settings.And THAT is why I have a twitter account. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk about a social media site that I do understand. For today, please retweet this is you found it helpful. 

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild. 
Follow him on Twitter (@rodneymbliss) 
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LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss) or email him at rbliss at msn dot com