Disclaimer: This post isn't for bragging. I've had people ask me whether or not Twitter is worth it.
I joined Twitter less than 60 days ago. As of this writing, I have 358 followers, am following 460 other awesome people, and have written almost 1300 tweets. My tweets have also earned over 600k impressions. (I'm especially proud that my top two tweets hold roughly 20% of those impressions and they both have to do with web accessibility. 😊)
Joining Twitter is also the biggest action I took in April that lead me to my new job I'm about to start.
Why should I even bother?
There are a lot of inspiring people doing big things on Twitter. For me, it has been so empowering to see successful women in tech. Here are a couple of lists if you're looking for more people to follow.
Twitter is also a great place to learn about what technology or frameworks are being used by people outside of your bubble. It's easy for us to get tunnel vision about the stacks we use, so seeing what others are learning and what they have to say about it is very enlightening. These are some great hashtags to pay attention to if you 're not sure where to start.
Finally, Twitter is great for job networking and/or meeting people in your area. As I said up top, Twitter is the reason I got my foot in the door at the company I'm about to start working for. About 1 month after creating my profile, I decided to message another woman in tech about any ideas she had on people hiring front end developers focused on accessibility. She introduced me to a developer in my city, and then he introduced me to my future boss. Seriously, social media is like magic. Not only did I end up finding a job from this exchange, but also found some really great friends who are supportive and full of wisdom.
Ok, so how do I get started?
My biggest is advice is this: just put yourself out there. Be unapologetically authentic. If people like you, great. If not, it's just the internet. You're (hopefully) not there just to impress strangers. If you're not hurting anyone, keep moving forward and being yourself.
My second piece of advice: go out of your comfort zone. Interact with "famous" people. Ask questions. Answer questions! We're all learning here. If people make you feel bad about yourself because you're new to the field or trying something new, that's not on you. There are plenty of supportive folx who will have your back and don't mind whatsoever where you're at in your career or skillset.
My final piece of advice: learn out loud. It may seem like no one is listening at first, but that's what handy hashtags are for! People do follow those. If you created a static site with Gatsby, @ them. They'll probably retweet it! This is just one good way to get some exposure and even feedback on what you're working on.
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Image by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Top comments (46)
My career is mostly built on my Twitter use. I was rather addicted to it for quite some time. Two weeks ago, I blocked it and removed the apps and honest to god Im happier. Even my friends have noticed a change in my mood. Its a great tool, please don't get me wrong. My career wouldn't be where it is without it, but make sure you develop socializing and networking skills outside of it.
Balance is definitely important. I've found myself a little addicted to it, feeling like I might miss out on something, but I'm doing pretty good for the most part. I make sure to schedule times for unplugging where I keep my phone put away.
Great article. I joined Twitter earlier this year, but I'm not very active. It's not that I don't want to contribute, more like I feel like I have nothing original to say.
I like the idea of learning in public. There will always be people who are learning, and what I learn today may be helpful for a bunch of people trying to learn the same thing.
I've felt similar about originality when thinking about writing tutorials. When I see a tutorial already exists, I decide not to write it over again. I don't want anyone to think I'm "stealing" their ideas or piggybacking, but the truth is that we need many versions of the same thing. Everyone has a different learning style. That means we need a lot of the same things written in slightly different ways. Perhaps some of the things you want to say aren't "original", but the way you say them is!
You're right on point about that last part. I also wrote a post about learning out loud if you'd like to take a look at it. :)
What it Means to Learn Out Loud
Ashlee (she/her) ・ May 9 '19 ・ 2 min read
Thanks Ahslee, that's great to hear. I should definitely try to put myself out there a little more :)
Sometimes I feel like I'm using social media all wrong. I'm very introverted and not the type that can just walk up to strangers and join a conversation until I get to know them more.
Even on the internet, I feel like I would be intruding on other people's conversations, especially when I don't even see the thread until a day or two later. Most other times I have ever replied in a forum, the thread dies or my reply is overlooked. I may just not be aggressive enough for the internet. O heck, this reply took at least 4 tries to write.
That said, I've been trying to at least write more and share things on Twitter & such. I'll keep on trying.
Here's the best part about the internet, and I briefly touched on this:
Social media takes out the face-to-face component of talking to people. This can be good or bad, that's a different conversation, but I think this is a good thing for people who don't feel 100% comfortable talking in person.
Most of Twitter is very public. People know they're having public conversations. I don't see replies to a thread you're not initially in as "intruding". Often times, you've just found a piece of the conversation relatable and are looking to connect more on that. People are on Twitter just for that! I'd say most people are fine with it.
Being more interactive on Twitter will definitely be good practice for finding ways to start conversations in person. You get to work on your confidence and you only have so many characters to efficiently say what you want to say. You've got this! Just keep practicing. :)
Twitter is also a great place to learn aboutwhat technology or frameworks are being used by people outside of your bubbleThis is the main reason why i keep using twitter, i always want to see different approach of the same topic, thats make me get a wide scope about it.
Great advice, I used to do this a lot a couple of years ago and it helped me build a fairly good following. I haven't done it so much recently but really should do as there's a wealth of knowledge on Twitter.
Thank you for this! I've had my Twitter for a few months now too but I don't have nearly the amount of success that you have. I've never been much of a social media person but I've been putting a big push recently to try to use it not just more but more effectively. I'm gonna try these tips out in the near future
I saw the title and the first thing I thought was "I'm gonna tweet at Developer advocates the same way people tweet at rappers" 😂😂
Uh oh, what* do people tweet at rappers??? 😬
Rapper: releases new album
Twitter: a bunch of fire emojis and gifs of people being hyped.
Also Twitter: "sorry bro i'm a fan but the last good album you did was five years ago". mandatory arguing between two categories
Rapper: has beef with another rapper
Twitter: another rapper's fanbase tweeting how he just got "murdered" by the latest diss track. two fanbases arguing who really "took an L"
Rapper: exists
Twitter: Come to wherever the person tweeting lives
Awesome article! I started twitter ages ago but keep gaining and losing interest in it. One day I'll post 3/4 times and then suddenly I won't post for a week! I also don't really interact with others much which I presume is half the problem why I haven't got many followers!
I definitely think interaction is key! 🗝️ To add a tiny bit of context, I joined Twitter with the intention to meet people and stay updated on what's going on in the tech world. These were goals I clearly set for myself before I did anything. Twitter can become a massive time suck or overwhelming to navigate, so maybe take some time to think about:
My main problem is the langage. As I'm not english native it's really hard to get on some conversations or threads or discussions. Even if I've beginner level, I have to translate some of what I'm reading and i'm sometimes so frustrated
No pain, no gain. Keep doing it and you'll improve rapidly.
Advice: understand every word. If you use linux, install
dict. For windows, maybe try Lingoes?LOVE THIS!!! Don't forget one of the most important hashtags to follow, #DEVCommunity 😃
Of course!! One of my favorite hashtags. 😍
I live in Venezuela and I'm in the process of moving out due to a lot of reasons beyond the scope of this article. However, Twitter has served me quite a lot to find new clients and even job opportunities in the country I'm going to!
Excellent article
I really like your idea of using Twitter for networking, so without turning this into a rant, and this is not a rant, here are my two cents.
There are a very tiny percentage of people who, for reasons I'll explain below, cannot make a twitter account. As you probably know, twitter requires a phone number for account verification. There are many stories on the internet these days about people getting locked out of their accounts because they created a twitter account with an email but a phone number is required for them.
You see, Twitter has a listbox of countries to write your phone number in, but some countries are not on that list. Sudan is one of them unfortunately. This effectively makes it impossible for people like me who have a phone number belonging to Sudan to verify their accounts.
So in the absence of a twitter account, this is the strategy I use for networking that kind of gets the same effect as having one:
I use Facebook for all real world interactions because people there are more likely to be real, and it has the benefit of being able to bump shoulders (virtually) with people not in the tech industry (I never understood why developers consider a tech twitter account as a must have, if you could explain that would be great). This is the account I expect to get real life opportunities from other friends.
Then I have Mastodon as a twitter-like solution. Of course you won't find big names there but it's an awesome diverse community for the occasional tech-related thought. As lower Alexa-ranked website you don't network here because there aren't people to network with. It's just for sharing thoughts.
Speaking of sharing thoughts: People have been wondering what Twitter should do with its business model to make it profitable. I propose breaking the twitter app into a tech twitter app, a lifestyle twitter app, an everyday twitter app, etc. you get the idea. Each topic gets it's own app. This will make discussions more relevant and increases the chances that the users you follow there are also developer-minded. This also releases a large amount of energy in the form of data which would enable Twitter to process it like Facebook does which it could then sell, which would generate revenue. Though I'm not sure they would turn to me for advice 😉
EDIT: By the way, it's always useful to have LinkedIn handy as a resume.
Just thought I would share that with you 🙂 Of course I lurk on twitter anonymously because it's always useful to get someone's website as a kind of business card.
I have a really strong Twitter network in my native language, but I recently started an English one and I'm failing to interact with people there. I'm going to follow your advice and hopefully things will turn around!
WOW!
I joined twitter over 10 years ago an I don't have 200 followers :D
Clearly, I am doing everything wrong :D
Thank you for the tips.
I will apply them right now.
Hmmm, I think I've just been more active! I have about 1/3 the number of tweets as you and almost 4x the number of likes. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad reflection of me and the time I spend on Twitter. 😂
Couldn't agree more Ashlee! I've been networking on Twitter since before 2010 under various handles and hashtags for business purposes only of course. Lucky enough to have discovered many an opportunity in tech through collaborative efforts with likeminded people who I have almost always never actually met in real life before. My goal is to engage successfully with a verified user on Twitter. Have any of your tweets trended before? Oh and thanks again for sharing this, great post.
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