I am still pretty new to Twitter. In terms of time management tips, I still advise limiting how much time you spend on any social media site, avoiding angry back-and-forth arguments, especially since they might be with ‘bots (who are almost as hard to persuade as our fellow human beings), and following what I call curators, insightful people whose information you trust.
However, I recently began using Twitter as a place to connect to other writers, which, by the way, has also been a pleasant part of blogging on WordPress. So I have changed my approach to following, preferring to follow people who follow me, as long as they aren’t scary in some way.
At the same time, something else happened. I discovered Lists.
Lists allow me to sort people on Twitter into groups and view just the posts for that group. For example, I have one list of people I know personally so I can now be sure to see their posts.
I have also created a group of curators. Here’s something else worth knowing about Lists: I don’t have to follow the person to place them on the List. So I have un-followed most of the curators who don’t really need me as one of their thousands or millions of followers. Since curators appropriately get upset about all the terrible events in the world, I can now choose to view this list when I feel ready.
I can also save my follows for people who might benefit from the follow. For some of the people I’m following now, it helps us not feel quite so alone as we work on writing and experiment with an online presence. By limiting my followers to people I know, a few select curators, and fellow writers, my first view on Twitter is now more positive and relatable than it was when I mostly followed the curators.
I even created a list for agents, who I don’t want to follow because it might seem pushy to show up as a follower. (For the record, I only follow Laura Zats of Print Run because she deserves a blue checkmark. There ya go, Laura. I’m sure this will do the trick :).)
Stay tuned. As I spend more time on Twitter, I may find more reasons to regret it or strategies to value it. Do you have any tricks that make it a better space for you?
reader. writer. 
Thanks for the valuable insight. I signed up for twitter and Pinterest and several others to complement my website. I’m learning as I go and from material like this. Thanks 😀
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So glad if it’s helpful. I’m learning, too, so I look forward to seeing what your insights are as you weave together these different media.
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The #WritersCommunity we joined on Twitter has been amazing in the last few days! Connecting with people who want to engage in our work is amazing! That’s all we’ve been wanting 🙂 We work hard to write the content we do and it’s nice when more eyes might be able to see it!
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I agree! Twitter now feels more like a space to hang out (rather than stress out), and when I can carry that connection to WordPress, it’s so cool to read some of the writing behind the writer.
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Hi I have been on twitter for a fair bit of time and though I wouldnt call myself an expert haha! I have picked up a thing or two and you are spot on about the lists… especially as your folower count starts getting on the high side you will see that the newsfeed makes absolutely no sense with tweets coming in by the hundreds, I think thats also why some folk with higher follower counts tend to follow back only a small group of people and they end up seeming unapproachbale and you cant quietly reach them via the direct messages unless they are set up as open to all
Anyway thats where lists are wonderful, I usually follow back most people who follow me unless they are doing really stupid or offensive things.
I have a whole lot of lists and the beauty of it is you dont even have to follow some of the people ha! I have lists for personal folk, some are by country, others by various other circles; from journalists for the news updates to authors and bloggers and really cool people whom I never want to miss out on what they are doing because its awesome, throw in some celebrity crushes for when I am in a groupie mode ha!
I wrote a post with a few other tips which you might find interesting, I dont remember the link but if you type twitter tips on the search bar of my blog you should find it.
~B
PS I even use lists on my WordPress reader ^_^
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Thanks! I will look for your post. Hadn’t even thought about it yet for WordPress, but I am trying to follow more people here, too, so that’s a good call.
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