To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

I am a bit hit and miss on social media. I do Twitter and Facebook, and I'm on Linked In. But I don't do Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat or any of the others. I first joined Twitter to keep an eye on what was happening in the 2009 Iran election. I was anchoring live news shows from Qatar and needed the information, but there were very few reporters on the ground. Social media was one of the best ways of of keeping across the action. 

But I was using Twitter passively, not actively, which is why I ended up with the Twitter name 'hackhound' (an amalgamation of news hack and news hound). I didn't think then that I'd be using it as much as I do now. Six years later, I have nearly three thousand followers, which isn't earth shattering, but does mean I can't change my Twitter name without losing them all. So 'hackhound' it stays.

And is it useful? According to some analysts, it's invaluable. Especially if, like me, you're trying a change of career. An online presence is practically mandatory for aspiring authors. Obviously it wasn't always thus; imagine going up to William Shakespeare and telling him his work was okay but what you really need, Bill, is a blog. Or asking my favourite childhood author, Enid Blyton, to tweet about her latest Famous Five adventure. These days there'd probably be an online vote about the characters; "Click here if you think Anne is too wet." (Apologies, that reference will mean nothing to anybody under 45.)

And yet there are plenty of naysayers who believe social media is ruining our lives - making us (ironically) less sociable, reducing our attention spans, inducing feelings of anxiety and depression related to our online activity, affecting our brains and disrupting sleep patterns. It may even be contributing to fewer books being read - which is a disaster for those of us hoping to sell a few at some point!

And yet as a journalist, I can't let go of the fact that social media allows us to exchange information instantaneously.One incident during the aforementioned Iran election demonstrates that perfectly - the shooting of female protester Neda Agha Soltan, whose death was captured on a smart-phone and transmitted all over the internet. Tough luck, Tehran. You can't keep anything quiet these days.

So my mission, should I choose to accept it, is to adjust my thinking. I can't just use Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the latest news or do a quiz on how much of the eighties I remember - I have to actively use these platforms as marketing tools.

After all, it's a social world out there.

Content on SocMedSean.com (Sean R. Nicholson) / CC BY-ND 3.0