Farewell Twitter
It’s taken me a longtime to come to this decision but it’s time to say goodbye. I am closing myTwitter account.
It’s not because ofthe growing volume of antisemitic tweets, or the racism, misogyny, lies, andfake news that fill its threads. It’s not because of Elon Musk, or his decisionto rename the platform as X. It’s not because of Musk’s connection withpresident-elect Trump.
Well, those are someof the reasons. But also, it’s because I no longer have use for Twitter, or thetime suck it’s become in my online life.
I joined Twitter inJanuary 2013 as a way to connect with other authors. I had just published Valleyof Thracians, and I was eager to promote the book. Initially I had greatsuccess on the platform, quickly building up a following. I made efforts toconnect with each and every follower on a personal level. My tweets were beingread. Followers were clicking through to my blog and amazingly, I was sellingmy book.
I wrote about thoseearly Twitter days in How I Got 10,000 Twitter Followers in Less than 10 Months.
I believed I hadbecome an expert on the social media platform. In June 2016, I published anarticle entitled Ten Most Important Things You Need to Know About Working with Twitter on the Huffington Post. In the article I explained my TwitterPhilosophy. “Engage, do not sell” was my advice to fellow authors. My advicewas so extensive that I published a follow-up article entitled Five More Things You Need to Know About Twitter.
At that time, I had35,000 followers. I was using Hootsuite to schedule and publish multiple tweetsthroughout the day. I tweeted about my books, included links to my blogarticles, and shared my book reviews. I tweeted about Bulgaria, about Israel,and about the craft of writing. My tweets were being read.
In August 2016, Iwrote on Medium:
Using Twitter hasbeen, for me, a way to promote my writing. When I post a blog article, I tweetabout it to attract eyeballs, to get as many readers as possible. To make aname for myself.
Maybe that was asuccessful mission then, but I no longer see any benefits from using Twitter.
The platform hassuffered in the Musk era, with scores of my followers no longer active, or whohave already closed their accounts. A tweet of mine which would previously gethundreds of impressions can no longer get more than 50. No one is actuallyreading what I tweet. There are no clicks, visits to my blog, or sales of mybooks.
It’s become a waste ofmy time and a burden to maintain the account. I had reached a peak at 44,000followers; that number is now down to 36,800. Nearly all of those followers have inactive accounts. None of them will missme, just as I won’t miss any of the 24,900 people I currently follow.
I don't plan toreplace Twitter with Bluesky or any social media alternative. No more tweetsfor me. Twitter served its purpose and then lost its luster. It’s been a longroad which has now come to its end.
Goodbye Twitter.
Related articles:
How I Got 10,000 Twitter Followers in Less than 10 Months
Ten Most Important Things You Need to Know About Working With Twitter
Five More Things YouNeed to Know About Twitter
My 100,000th Tweet. What’s It Worth?
