Why should you care about appearing smart on Twitter? Because the people who hire, promote, fire, date, marry, and divorce you will all read your tweets (updates) at some point. It’s always a good idea to put your best foot forward. Why not do the same on Twitter? Why not make an effort to appear as smart as you can?
A “visible IQ” is a short way of describing the sum total of everything I can point to and say “see, this person [you] is really smart.” As a reader scans your latest tweets, they get an impression of you. You might seem smart, funny, thoughtful, or perhaps even boring, hateful, and sloppy. Twitter makes it easy to seem less intelligent than you truly are for 3 reasons:
- No context – You don’t get to explain yourself.
- Real-time pressure – Everybody is updating NOW!
- Sloppy status quo – Nobody else cares. Why should you?
If you’d like to take some practical steps to make sure you’re doing everything you can to seem smart, try these tips to boost your visible IQ on Twitter:
1. Abandon Predictive Text (T9)
Don’t let your cellphone complete any texts being sent out as a tweet. It might seem like a good idea to let a bit of software choose how you complete your words. But only if you’re willing to be seen on Twitter as apathetic and sloppy. When you’ve only got 140 characters to make your point, every letter of every word needs to be in the right spot if you want your point to hit home.
2. Write Just For Twitter
Posting tweets from Facebook and myriad other social platforms initially looks like a good idea. It actually makes you look like you’re lazy and don’t care much for your audience. Instead of blurting blurbs to the nearest platform and letting RSS spread your thoughts, give Twitter some dedicated attention. After all, didn’t you want to add a few words of extra context to your Facebook status? Take advantage of that extra space! Take Twitter’s space restrictions as a challenge to write particularly brilliant 140-character pieces. Genius!
3. Sidestep Stoner Syndrome
Every complex thought reduced to 140 characters will end up sounding like it was pulled from a hookah. That brilliant thought you had earlier today about how the world could learn a lot just by watching ducks swim? You didn’t seem smarter when you tweeted it. You sounded like you were really, really high. All those inspirational quotes about failure being nothing more than success wrapped in bacon? They make you sound high. This isn’t your fault. Not at all! You can blame it on Twitter’s 140-character limits and our common human tendency to say as many profound things each day as possible. If you focus on sharing your perspective on simpler ideas, you’ll seem insightful and perhaps even witty.
4. Mark Quotes Clearly
If you must quote others, clearly mark the quotes as such. Otherwise, you’re in a prime spot to look like you’re trying pass off other’s words as your own. What’s worse, you might tweet an unmarked quote that seems funny or ironic to you at the time but it may come off as stupid or immature to readers. Look smarter by giving credit and using quotation marks “quote.” for tweets you didn’t come up with yourself. Hopefully others will do the same and you’ll get additional attention for the brilliant tweets you’ve been crafting!
5. Share Only The Best Content
You may have been told that you must share everything your friends are sharing if you want to be a good community member. The quantity of sharing is up to your personal beliefs. The quality of the things you share, however, isn’t up for discussion. If you share low-quality content, you look like an idiot. It doesn’t matter if your best friend published an article. If the article is terrible, you’ll not only damage your own reputation but that of your friend by sharing the article. If you want to be seen as an intelligent and savvy Twitter user, focus on sharing quality.
What tip would you add for Twitter users looking to look their very best for possible employers? (or life partners!) It’d be great to know what you think a smart tweet looks like. Link to your favorite in a comment!
You should follow Lifehack on Twitter here.
I totally agree about the Stoner Syndrome in point #3. In such cases, it is better to make a blog post and tweet a link to the blog post in your twitter so that you are not constrained within 140 characters of twitter. People referring to your blog post at a later date can also see your thought process and decide that, you were after all, not delusional.
@Mohan – “that you were after all, not delusional” Exactly! It’s so tempting to pump out those little bits of “wisdom” sometimes though! Good advice, sir. =)
Seth,
Solid tips. I agree that one should tweet with some caution. Tweet value. Leave the silly updates behind.
Don’t be too concerned about looking stupid though. Self-consciousness can be detrimental to success. People are going to judge no matter what; don’t be too concerned at what they think, say, or do in response to you being you.
Great tips! I agree, employers do use Twitter to look up back ground on their prospective employees. Everything we post on Twitter is a direct reflection of us. I have to be careful because I’m the type to easily post a motivational quote. I guess I never really thought about what I’m REALLY communicating by doing that. Thanks for shedding some light!
Now I just need some tips to help with my real IQ on Twitter. :-)
I like all of these, except that sometimes there is no room for “s with 140 characters, so I prefer -The Author’s Name. Do you think that is a problem?
I think that pumping out “wisdom” in 140 characters is a problem unto it’s own. Doing that on a regular basis moves you from trying to look smart to looking smug.
I usually un-follow those that impose their guru-esque wisdom snippets upon others. Not interested in enlightenment, I’m interested in noteworthy.
Twitter is not for waxing poetic. It’s for small updates, and that makes you looks more twitter smart. Use the medium for what it is for.
Good advice. I agree with the just write for Twitter. I’ve noticed some people who use other social platforms to tweet. It appears disconnected to the Twitter audience.
@timgray – true, true, you’ve only got 140 characters anyhow.
@Denise – Exactly! It doesn’t make sense to be updating your Twitter feed from Facebook if replies to your update won’t be seen on Facebook as well.
[...] You will find more interesting tips here. [...]
Hey Seth, great post, especially good information about being precise about what you type and being selective about the information you provide. In fact, when I introduce a business to twitter I ask them to describe their business in 140 characters or less. I think it’s a great exercise in learning how to be more precise with their words!
I’m a strong believer in no. 2 and 3!
“If you focus on sharing your perspective on simpler ideas, you’ll seem insightful and perhaps even witty.”
So true!
oooo – good advice. it is difficult to consistently come up with brilliant tweets in these short opportunities (although you do just fine, seth). moving out of one’s comfort zone is good, though. PS Mariano, love your idea of describing a business in 140 characters.
thanks for the great article, the most important is to find a circle for your niche and share only the best contents.
[...] joined Twitter a few months ago; you can follow me here. Here’s an interesting article on the effective use of Twitter. I just made a note to myself to give Twitter assignments in my classes this Fall (“use [...]
Thanks for the interesting Article
[...] Twitter Hack: 5 Ways To Up Your Visible IQ (by Seth Simonds, 505) [...]
Hookah’s are not for smoking drugs. Yes, you can use them for such, but by the same argument you could turn just about anything you want into a bong. Hookah’s are for smoking sticky, wet, flavored tobacco. The line should read “…pulled from a bong”.
Or you could just do what I do on twitter and facebook, have one for the “real” me so friends, business relations and family can find me, and then one that I actually use that only my good friends and fellow kpop spazzers know about. Then you can post all the boring, “oh look how smart and clever I am” BS on the former, and “YAY SUPER JUNIOR!! BADA BABABABABABA SUJU GANDA~” on the latter.