Tweeting with Martha
Many of you know that I retired from Twitter several months ago. It had taken over my life, and I was fed up with constantly viewing my life as a series of pithy, funny sayings, in 140 characters or less.
Last night Beloved and I climbed into bed and flicked channels until we settled on Piers Morgan, who was devoting his entire show to Twitter. The founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone were on, together with a number of other tweeters, including Martha Stewart, and after listening to what Martha had to say, I have been inspired enough to revisit Twitter.
She doesn't generally respond to comments, which may sound harsh, but in fact I think very wise. Not because she doesn't want to, but because there simply aren't enough hours in the day. She also limits her tweets to no more than five minutes a day, which was the bit that struck me the most.
I am horribly compulsive, and although I strive to see the many different shades of grey, I tend to see the world in black and white. If I do something, I do it addictively, allowing myself to be overwhelmed by it, until I don't. And then it's all over. Twitter overwhelmed me, and I spent hours checking messages, seeing if people had responded to my comments, but I'm going to try doing it Martha-style, because there are things I'm doing that I'd love to share with you, and Twitter seems like the easiest and most accessible platform to use.
Oh how things have changed. The days of authors relying on huge marketing campaigns are long gone. Now we do most of it ourselves, keeping in touch with our readers by blogging, tweeting and facebooking.
So I'm back, but I have no idea if I'll be able to limit Twitter to five minutes a day, but I hope you enjoy if I can!
