I've met some of the smartest and most interesting people I know through twitter. I talk about why I invested time in it and what has worked for me.

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How to use Twitter to make you smarter and find
interesting people
Why Twitter
Is Dope

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Disclaimer
Everything said here is *my* experience with
Twitter, there are a lots of different
communities and approaches to using it

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W H Y T W I T T E R I S D O P E
Some
personal
facts

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I…uh…spend a lot of time on it
WTF????

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So much so
that I even
have haters

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It’s become the primary way
for me to filter news, papers,
etc. I’m interested in

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I meet about 50%-60% of new
people through Twitter
I usually get coffee/meals/drinks
with ~1 person per week via
Twitter

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When
someone asks
you how you
met someone
and you say
through Twitter

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W H Y T W I T T E R I S D O P E
Why You
Should Use
Twitter

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It’s a new way to make friends +
networks
The Regular Way People Make Friends
1 Proximity 2
Discovering mutual
interests (conversations)
3 Repeated interactions
The Twitter Way To Make Friends
1 Proximity2
Discovering mutual
interests (conversations) 3Repeated interactions

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Making friends is geography agnostic

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Making friends is geography agnostic

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Making friends is geography agnostic

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It’s also “status” agnostic – you have
direct access to people and mentors you
might be able to access normally
lol

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It lets other people know what topics
you’re interested in at a given time

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Twitter is the only social network
where you don’t bring your
existing friends/connections with
you to start
Because of that…

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Twitter gives priority to people’s
ideas
Facebook, Instagram, Snap, etc.
gives priority to people’s personal
life updates

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W H Y T W I T T E R I S D O P E
Dos and
Don’ts

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DO: Get into other people’s
conversations and reply with your
opinions + thoughts
(THIS IS PRIORITY #1)

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How it looks
when you’re
tweeting to your
followers at the
beginning

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Other people will start seeing what you
write when you reply, you don’t need lots
of followers

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DO: Use lists to toggle between
different topics

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Build lists to toggle between topics of
your choice or subscribe to other
people’s lists

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DO: Unfollow people if they aren’t
tweeting about stuff you like

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The unfollow button is your best friend

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Don’t just keep stacking followers, prune
as your interests change

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Twitter is one of the only places where it’s totally normal to
remove a connection - which is why your feed stays relevant
How often do you remove friends from FB even if you’re not
friends with them anymore?

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DO: Follow the people your favorite
accounts follow

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Most underrated
area is the
“followers you
know” area
If it has a lot of
people you like,
it’s a good sign

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When you find a person you like, see
who they follow
Click here to see who they follow

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DO: Follow people who prioritize
engaging with their followers

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Click on “tweets
& replies”. Good
rule of thumb is
at least 2:1
tweets to replies
in the last 10
tweets (ballpark).
More is better!

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DON’T: Auto-tweet links

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If it’s all buff.ly,
bit.ly, etc. links
avoid!
Auto-tweeting
links is akin to
spam and signals
you don’t want to
converse

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The best part of the platform is the
conversations, find people who take
part in that

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DON’T: Use hashtags

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It just screams “I’m here to market stuff
and get as many eyeballs as possible”

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DON’T: Follow non-people (brands,
publications, firms, etc.)

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You probably don’t care about ALL of
these articles + they aren’t engaging
accounts

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The people you
follow will be
your filter.
Interesting stuff
will end up in
your feed +
have
commentary
from them too.

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DO: Follow people with less followers
They aren’t full of themselves + they’re
more opinionated, engaging, and down
to hang

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DO: Reach out to people via DM

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It can be the start
of a beautiful
friendship +
people are more
down to meet
than you think
This is a steakhouse

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DON’T: Try to get retweets for the
sake of engagement

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C’mon…
You lose respect
instantly doing this,
esp from people you
might want to meet

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Golden rule: Quality of followers >
Quantity of followers

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DON’T: Participate in “outrage”
twitter or get dragged in a twitter fight

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People
participating in
rage twitter are
not aiming to
learn or change
their views, it’s
not worth your
time

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Just ignore
trolls or people
trying to bait
you into an
argument
???????

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DON’T: Feel the need to jump into
whatever the current hot topic of
discussion is
You don’t HAVE to have a take

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DO: Use mute words

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Mute words let you avoid topics like
politics if you don’t want to see them

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DON’T: Be afraid to be wrong

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People will call you
out for being wrong
– and you’ll learn!
Imagine how long it
would take to find
out you were
wrong if you kept it
to yourself

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DON’T: Tweet about stuff too niche
to your life/situation to be relatable

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Sweet

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DON’T: Put “@account” at the very
very beginning of your tweet

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Using
“@” at
the very
beginnin
g
registers
as a
reply to
that

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DON’T: Tweet things like “great
read” without adding some of your
own commentary or why

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DON’T: Be a suckup or constant
congratulator
People have enough “yes” men/women
in their lives, be someone that makes
them think

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DO: Find your own style/what works
for you

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I like using threads
and making
memes, but
everyone has their
own style. Just
make one that
helps you find
interesting people.

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DON’T: Give up! It’s a slow build

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And trust me, you’ll
probably get rekt
along the way…it’s
inevitable but you’ll
learn from it

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But
eventually…you’ll
find friends, advice,
news, and more
that’ll make the
investment worth
while

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THANK YOU!!!
Except for this guy