Yesterday I deactivated my Twitter account. You should have seen the smile on my face when I pushed delete and saw that may page was no longer there. So what, right? I agree, but it is something that I have been pondering for a while now so I thought I’d share why anyway.
When I went through the rebranding of my photography business at the end of 2012 (six short months ago), one of the things I decided was that I was going to be more accessible on social media – I already have a Facebook business page and a website, but there’s a lot of talk in the business/blogosphere about having multiple streams of communication and I thought, why not, I’ll add Twitter to the bunch.
Here’s what I immediately found:
1. I am waaayyyyyy too long-winded for Twitter. 140 short characters is just not enough. You should see me trying to draft a tweet, realize it’s too long and redraft and redraft until I just don’t want to even share a tweet anymore because it doesn’t have the long-winded Emily quality. I will say though, it wasn’t until I went through this process a few times that I finally realized what my English teachers (all of them) meant when they told me I was “too wordy” in my essays growing up. Oh well, I embrace being wordy. :)
2. I am a very visual person and there just plain weren’t enough pictures for me in my stream. I know you can click on people’s pictures they post but they aren’t readily there. I really enjoy pictures.
3. It was confusing. I am technology savvy but I couldn’t always keep track of multiple tweet conversations between people, tagging random people just because you can, using so many hashtags – sometimes for a purpose, sometimes as a form of expression.
4. I didn’t tweet often. I’d try to tweet with purpose, or to actually make a connection with others in the Twitterverse, but I realized I was overthinking it – tweets are supposed to just be something quick and easy. My process was laborious.
Simply put – Twitter just doesn’t suit me. And in my bigger life goals of simplifying, finding what feels true to me, what works, I am simplifying Twitter out of my routine. And it feels good!
I know that I am going to miss out on some opportunities for being connected with client folks who prefer Twitter as their social media stream. I am going to have some missed networking and connecting opportunities, and maybe 6 months of Twitter isn’t enough to give it a fair shake, but that’s ok. Simple is better for me.
So my long-winded (what else would you expect) business tip for you as you’re working on your social media strategy is that social media is a set of awesome and powerful tools you can use to make your business better. But it’s only going to help you make connections and power your business when you use it and use it well. You DON’T have to have (a ton or any) social media because you are a business. You don’t. It depends on you, your personality, your business, your goals. Don’t feel pressured by the literature out there saying you must do it all. My advice to you is to start thoughtfully – only start with tools (Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, Pinterest, Etsy, LinkedIn, whatever you’re exploring as a marketing tool) that you feel ready to manage. And it will feel authentic to you and your clients. Afterall, old and stale pages that are not updated don’t reflect who you are today and isn’t that the point? Sharing who you are?
So, this is me today. A gal not ready for Twitter. You’ll have to catch me on Facebook, email, or on the good old fashioned phone!
