I logged into twitter about ten years ago, and I have never logged out. (Ok I have logged out but I have never really left)
Do you hear that, playing in the background, faint music…… voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say…
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here
You can log-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!
It’s such a messy, unruly place nobody quite understands it, not even its creators, it’s provocative yet addictive, it can be triggering and toxic, it can also be highly informative with real time insights and opinions on whats going in the world in general or any field in particular.
To check out my favourite Twitter Accounts of 2019 click on the button below:
I have been on this platform for so long I follow a ton of accounts, if I was your atypical social media influencer when I crossed 10K is when I would have unfollowed the whole internet and added tag DM FOR Promo on my bio.
When you have a Timeline with a Twitter feed from a lot of people, you cant possibly interact with a very tweet, you blink and the timeline refreshes with 100s of tweets. Twitter is a crowded room with everyone talking to themselves and @ each other.
For my sanity I navigate Twitter via curated Twitter Lists.
Depending on my mood and reason for browsing my twitter here are some of the lists I have
Reliable Sources
Twitter is easily a hub of opinion and social commentary disguised as fact, so I identified a few tweeps who seem to tweet sensible grounded information and news. The list mostly has journalists who cover Zimbabwean media so scrolling through the feed can quickly give me insights on developing situations in the country. I tried to curate a list that had objective individuals and not the sensational seekers who just want to be quick with the story without verification or due diligence.
Home Brewed
This list has tweets of local artists and musicians from this teapot shaped country and a quick scan of that and I can see updates from my fave celebs.
Zimnoxion
This a list with my “Zimbabwean connections” for when I want to check in on whats going on in the Twimbos community.
Writing Community
Well that one is pretty much self explanatory.
I also have lists for Bloggers, African Bloggers, brands I want to keep an eye, people who watch the same TV soapies as me, people whose tweets make me laugh, people I met during some fellowship or workshop, I have a pile a lists. Not all lists are equal.
*Fun fact: you don’t even have to be following someone to add them to a list. So you can create a secret list of all the people you are stalking… I mean doing background research on.
I am not saying follow my lists, I am saying go make your own^_^
If you have not curated your own lists you are just giving yourself an unnecessary headache and eventually you will think you need to not follow or unfollow, mute or block some people because your Timeline will become way too chaotic to keep up with, you cant read every tweet on the internet.
Hashtags
Hashtags are also your friends, use these to find content and tweets that you relate with, (for an author I recommend #amwriting or #writingcommunity to find tweeps who write) One my personal faves is #vss which stands for very short stories, most of my tweets are of this format and eventually grow into a story or serve as inspiration. My Twitter Timeline is mostly a draft folder of ideas. Wednesdays evenings I host a poetry event Hashtagged #AbWPE if you are of poetic persuasion do check it out.
Twitter Search
I usually search for my old tweets and have come to find that the search function is one of Twitter’s most powerful features. Twitter is like the Goggle of Social Media. There’s a lot of settings you can customise to narrow down a particular search field to find out whats being said by people near you about lets say a coup or protest or price hike or covid.
Trending Topics
Twitter trends can also show you what people are tweeting about, you can set these based on people you follow or you can set a location
Tweetdeck
If you are a Twitter power user, I recommend you check Tweetdeck.com it’s the official Twitter dashboard for multiple accounts and multiple streams of feed. With Tweetdeck you can easily scan through hashtags, lists or accounts and various other options and have everything under one tab of the internet which is useful if you are marketing or running a business or listening for your brand or simply trying to connect with fellow bloggers from across the internet.
Schedule tweets
And finally I don’t know if you noticed Twitter finally has a Schedule Tweet option (this option used to only be found in Tweetdeck and other 3rd party social media management) So you know what? You can schedule those blog promotion tweets to show up at a decent hour instead of while everyone is sleeping.
What I really want is an edit button.
Follow me on Twitter @Beatonm5
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?