The Assignment I Didn't Want to Do

I started the Twitter assignment like any reasonable adult would. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. There may even have been some pouting. Poor @tonydero had to listen to a ton of whining about this horrible, awful, evil assignment.

I decided to make a new account so I wouldn't break my real Twitter. All the way through set up to the point of adding a cover photo, and Twitter decides I’m a #robot. Locked me out and insisted that I provide a phone number to get back in. Twitter does not need my frakking phone number. Grrrr... Cue more wailing and gnashing of teeth. I melted down. October has not been an awesome month and my resilience for minor setbacks was down to nil. But the meltdown ended, as meltdowns do, and I decided to just do this thing on my real Twitter. #pout.

Process

First step - send @KurtDepnerENGL a screenshot showing my starting follower count.

Cropped version of what I sent @KurtDepnerENGL

Second step - pin a tweet so that anyone who’s already following me will know what the heck is going on.

Mildly cranky Pinned Tweet

Third step - mentally review the materials provided and decide how to go about this craziness. There are lots of legitimate and ethical ways to get followers.

Since I used my real Twitter account I only wanted to do things that fit well with who I am. I made three basic changes to my Twitter behavior.

1. Tweet or Retweet a few times every single day.
2. Use #hashtags more often.
3. Follow back new followers ASAP.

The first and second changes were no big deal. Although I tend to be more of a #lurker than a tweeter most days, participating actively is a simple change. Using #hashtags is not something I ever thought about much, but again - an easy change. Neither of these behaviors go against who I am at all. The third behavior is a bit more of a stretch, as I prefer to limit how many people I follow. However, this was a matter of doing something outside my comfort zone rather than going against my character. Stepping outside your comfort zone is good.

I kept my strategy simple with the thought that I’d most likely have to try different changes after the first couple of days. It turned out that these three steps produced a steadily increasing follower count over the course of the assignment.

Tweeting or Retweeting Daily

This part was easy. Tweeting or retweeting on a daily basis was as simple as changing my passive #lurking on Twitter into a more active endeavor. As a side effect, I think it may have actually reduced the total time I spent on Twitter. Tweeting or retweeting a few things gave me a sense of closure that made it easier to move on to other tasks. When I’m just reading Twitter it is far too easy to scroll down just a bit more, then a bit more, then a bit more. #JustOneMoreTurn

#hashtags

Although I had rarely thought about them in the past, this assignment taught me that #hashtags are awesome. They help you connect with your tribe. Use #hashtags so that people who share your interests see your tweets. I’ll likely continue to use #hashtags more often in the future.

Some #hashtags I used:

Jaxon photobombed, but he's part Catahoula so it's OK 

#engl211

#bookworm & #bookwyrm)
#BannedBooksWeek

#bannedbooks
#librarylife

#saturdaylibrarian

#libraryclerk 
#wolwednesday
#homework
#amwriting
#NationalCatDay
#haiku

There were times that I could have come up with #hashtags and failed to do so. It is not an automatic habit for me. Here’s one example:

What #hashtags would you have used?

Following Back

In my experience on Twitter, there are tons of people that are only interested in following you if you follow them back. I didn’t want to deal with the usual dance of people following then unfollowing me because I didn’t follow back quickly enough during this module. I made a point of following any account that didn’t raise red flags for me within 24 hours.

I did follow some accounts that I typically wouldn’t have. I’m now following more accounts than I want to be following. Over the next several days, I will likely unfollow several accounts that are too #promotiony for my taste. This means my follower count will certainly drop some. I’m totally happy with that. Among those accounts that I typically wouldn’t have followed are some that seem to be awesome. So I’ve been missing out with my practice of waiting to follow back. I will likely be more diligent about deciding whether or not I want to follow people back in the future.

Top Tweets

3 of my top 5 tweets @-ed someone. Twitter is all about connecting.

Final Thoughts

Part of the assignment is to share our follower count at the end. Here's mine:

I was beyond reluctant about this assignment in the beginning and had so much fun with it by the end. Using #hashtags helped me connect with the kind of people that I’m on Twitter to connect with. Although I’m not big on collecting followers, I found it valuable to step outside my comfort zone and learned that I can connect with more people on Twitter and still be me.

All in all, this assignment that I didn’t want to do is now my favorite of the semester.