Teresa Berkowitz

Don’t you hate it when you have a vibrant #WritingCommunity on social media and some bored narcissistic billionaire decides he wants to buy it? Then he tweets pictures of Nazis and far-right propaganda, reinstates people threatening Jewish people, reinstates troll accounts with names similar to FelineBowelMovement, bans liberal accounts for mocking him, lays off tons of employees then realizes SOMEONE has to do the work, and tries to rehire them, and then tells people in the USA that they should vote for REPUBLICANS and amplifies his own tweets?

Wait you say, this is a whole year of destruction. What is this platform and when did this happen?

All this and more happened in one week on Twitter. Friends, this level of destruction is rocket-to-mars level of destruction. Rather than linking to each offending #toddlerCEO tweet, I’ll just link to his account.

What should a writer do? Well here’s where I am landing (unless things get worse and they may).

I’m staying on Twitter because it is still an incredible platform for writers and politics. I am BLOCKING far-right accounts and trolls heavily. I am blocking ads that I don’t want to see. The algorithms will change but blocking should give you some control over your feeds. I am also following MORE accounts that I value. Your follows and blocks will be factored into the algorithms. I am using LISTS to make sure I can prioritize content that is useful to me.

But I am not counting on Twitter to make it through this transition in leadership. I am engaging on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WordPress Reader more. I am also evaluating other social media platforms and have a new Mastedon account and a Tribel account.

Because I have a finite amount of time for social media, I am cross-posting a lot. I’m testing the waters and will let my clients and other writers know what’s working. In the meantime, I recommend that you keep reaching out to people wherever you can. Your voice, your writing and your reach are important.

Would love to hear if Twitter was part of your visibility strategy if you are making any changes.

Substack: https://teresaberkowitz.substack.com/

Mastedon: @teresaberkowitz@mas.to

Tribel: @teresaberkowitz

Image credit: Mike Setchell on Unsplash