Scott Kearnan (@TheWriteStuffSK) brings a lot to the table when it comes to his Twitter account. The lifestyle/A&E writer extends his talents to many publications, including Zagat, HotelChatter, and Boston.com, where he explores food, drink, great events and even greater places. Toss in the occasional hilarious musing on life and pop culture and you’re golden. Plus, he’s huge in Japan. You want to follow him. Find more Food & Drink Twitter accounts at our list of Who to Follow in Boston!
1. DO you. Everybody else can do themselves. Real people have complex personalities, but Twitter lends to certain groupthink: When topics trend, you can start to predict how the members of each respective demo will respond. (Really? Surely there’s a single person under age 35 who thought that Beyonce performance we all just saw was not actually “flawless,” but just “pretty good!”) A person shouldn’t be able to predict your every opinion on every topic in real life – they shouldn’t be able to online either.
That’s not saying you should be a knee-jerk contrarian (these people are predictable, too). Just, you know, mix it up. Keep them guessing. Don’t join the This Is How Millennial Twitter People Feel About This parade every time it launches. Start your own.
2. DON’T take yourself too seriously. You’re tweeting, not slowing the melting of the polar ice caps. Do not confuse your follower number for clout, your interest for authority, and other real, nuanced human beings for 2D avatars. Twitter is a very useful tool, but people will appreciate a tone that suggests you have enough of an offline life to not make it the core of your existence. (And don’t use Twitter to whine about normal customer service woes. Did the “worst restaurant EVER” really singlehandedly murder your family by serving your sandwich on wheat instead of white, or could you maybe just, you know, chalk that tragedy up to life occasionally being life?)
3. DON’T feed the trolls. Any stranger who thinks that he or she has developed an informed estimation of your intellect, politics, belief system, or taste in music from an isolated 140-character tweet is not rational enough (or more importantly, interested enough) to be suddenly converted to a normal human being through an otherwise appropriate retort. The best response is no response.
4. DO respond to fans. You’re “too busy”? Who are you, Beyonce? You’re on the Internet for attention. (Don’t pretend you’re not, liar.) When you get it (from someone who isn’t horrible), acknowledge them! You’ll engender a more devoted “follower,” probably pick up a few more in the process, and you can always close a quick conversation by fave-ing a tweet in lieu of another response.