Be yourself on Twitter

...yeah so this is kind of a continuation from the previous post just to break them up since it was so long. But I still have more thoughts to share.

Some people lock their Twitter accounts, privatizing their tweets. Some people only will tweet professional tweets and not share their personality at all or let us into their life at all. I don't think either is the best way to use Twitter.

This tool--especially for journalists-- is best used completely open to the public. Your tweets (news updates you journalists!) are not nearly reaching their full potential locked behind that cyber padlock of yours. Yes, people simply have to click to request to you to follow you, however, I argue that padlock is a turnoff and people are not as likely to click to request to follow you as to simply.. follow you. You are therefore limiting your audience significantly I believe and that is not the best use of Twitter. You might also argue the problem of lack of Twitter security and therefore the incessant number of spam accounts out there. This is true and it's a big issue they need to address, but for the time being it's very easy to just check your followers list now and then (which you probably do already) and just delete any followers who appear to be spam accounts ( you can usually tell if the name is just a series of numbers and letters and there's no picture). Problem solved.

Also, I think it's useful to share yourself with the Twitter world. A friend of mine who is a reporter is on Twitter but only uses it for work purposes. She says she does this because her station can monitor her tweets and she doesn't want to say anything too personal. Come on now. Agreed, you do not want to tweet private information or inappropriate thoughts or comments. This is going out to the whole world. That's just obvious. But, I believe sharing some personality and personal tweets is useful as a news person as it helps the community feel more in touch and connected with that big television star that probably isn't really human and makes too much money and is nothing like me. Or.... wait. Maybe she is? The more comfortable people are with you, the more they connect with you, the more they will most likely trust you. Twitter can definitely play a role in this.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill tweets professional and personal comments for one, including a rebuttal to criticism for doing just that. She explained in a blog post how tweeting keeps her connected to the people and provides a window into the life of the person they voted into office. Interesting thoughts on her part and the original New York Times columnist's criticism: http://clairecmc.tumblr.com/post/100898280/why-i-tweet.

Interesting stuff. And again, the more people using Twitter, the better it will be.