Social media advice for Norah Jones

Like many artists these days, Norah Jones has a Twitter account. She hasn't posted anything on it, however. From Entertainment Daily:

“I stared at that web page for about two weeks, every few days. I feel like a total dope. Everything that I want to say sounds dorky, and everything that I don’t want to say sounds totally contrived.”

Hmmm ...


People following her: 4,371
People she's following: 1

For the Twitter-impaired, that means 4,371 users are reading her tweets (or would be if she had any), but she's only reading one user's tweets.

Norah Jones, if you're reading this (which you're not, but whatever), here's some free advice:

If you want to use Twitter like a giant megaphone, you're doing it wrong. The idea is to follow the fans who follow you and listen to them at least as much as you talk to them. Engage in some kind of dialogue ... inasmuch as you can have dialogue 140 characters at a time.

More to the point, this will cure your virtual stage fright forever. Once you see what most tweets look like, you will never worry about coming off dorky again.

Wherefore Twitter?

In a recent post, fellow songstress Jannie Funster seeks enlightenment on everyone's favorite Interwebs phenom:

I’m frightened by Twitter.
Don’t really understand it,
neither the why nor how.
Several blogging friends
have tried to explain but I
just don’t get it. Am I the
only one missing the boat?
@janniefunster, that’s me.
Seeking any and all advice
on why and how to tweet.

I was right there with Jannie up until a few months ago. The first time someone described Twitter to me, my reaction was, "Why would anyone want to do that?" I didn't get the appeal of posting 140 characters at a time, or reading 140-character posts. Still, I gave it a try. I set up a Twitter account for cinderkeys. I found people to follow and micro-chatted with them. I tweeted random thoughts. I announced what I was doing. And it still felt like I was missing something.

Until I created a work account. Then I got it.

See, the purpose of doing Twitter at work is spreading goodwill about your organization. You find people who need help with stuff you specialize in, and then you help them. And they love you for it.

It's way fun.

Twittering at work, I'm an expert with useful things to say. Twittering from home in musician mode, I got nuthin'. I don't think there are too many tweeples out there looking for advice about songwriting.

My corporate persona is more interesting than my band persona. So sad.

Twitter demographics

I noticed something interesting a few weeks after I got a Twitter account.

(For the uninitiated, Twitter works like this: You pick a handle [I'm cinderkeys], create a brief, searchable profile, then write posts describing what you're doing in 140 characters or less. It's possible to view the posts of everyone on Twitter, but to make it more manageable and fun, you can choose specific users whose updates you want to follow.)

Based on my own interests, I've been following Tucson music fans, music reviewers, and people with invisible illnesses like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and lupus. Though I have definite political leanings, however, it's never occurred to me to follow people because of their political affiliations.

And? Of all the political tweets I've seen from the 70+ people I'm following, all have been pro-Obama. There's not a McCain supporter in the bunch.

Without meaning to, I've hit a demographic. I guess it makes sense in the case of the invisible illness crowd. If no one wants to insure you, and you're possibly too sick to work and get insurance through an employer, then you're going to root for the guy who has any interest at all in health care.

That doesn't explain the music fans, though.

So ... Why are you voting for who you're voting for?