Stay active on Twitter long enough and you’ll find yourself at an online identity crisis. As your reputation grows in a particular community or subject matter you’ll suddenly discover that you are torn between perceived community expectations and just being yourself.
This is your permission slip to just be yourself.
Less is More…
So I follow you because you are an amazing underwater basket weaver and you tweet great links about basket weaving. Then to my horror I see you tweet about your kids or a fishing trip and in my disgust I unfollow you.
Your followers drop. You begin questioning and over analyzing your tweets. Each click stat becomes an individual referendum on your value.
I’m not advocating that Twitter is about numbers. It isn’t. It’s about quality vs quantity and that my friend is the point.
Will you lose followers if you tweet about your vacation or NASCAR races?
Yes.
Were those people really worth catering to in the first place? Not really.
The quality folks in your community won’t bat an eye at the personal tweets and you’ll find that they will actually become more engaging.
Everyone is in the relationship business
Relationships in real life aren’t built between businesses and entities they are between people.
Twitter is no different.
No one wants to be friends with a brand we all prefer people.
Parting Advice
While I tweet about everything from college sports to my faith there is one subject I moderate. Politics.
It is no secret that I lean sharply one direction but I take great care not to be inflammatory or divisive. A good friend recently said, “You’re the nicest conservative we know, and trust us in our house that’s really saying something.” I wear that compliment as a badge because I don’t always succeed but it is always my goal.
There are plenty of people that ignore this advice without harm but I just wanted to issue a word of caution before you dive into hot button subjects.
TakeAways
Be kind, Be helpful, but feel free to be yourself because at the end of the day that’s all you can be.
