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Updated January 28, 2020If you have favorite authors, podcasters, thinkers, or creators, look them up on Twitter. Often, Twitter is a great space for these people to write short insightful bits in between their long-form work. Following people you admire on Twitter can lead you to other interesting people and ideas. They will often retweet, share, or like the work of other community members, providing you intel about prominent or thoughtful people in your field. This can unveil entire communities you didnβt know existed, and concepts youβve never pondered.
Following people whose work or career paths you respect can be a form of mentorship. Often theyβll share insights into their process, mistakes theyβve made along the way, how theyβve gone from early career to industry leader. Follow these individuals and pay close attention.
Following industry leadersβwhether or not they are your favoritesβis also a good way to stay informed about whatβs happening in your field by following some of the figures who are often at the center of industry news. Here are a few examples of people considered community leaders:
If youβre a product designer. Charli Marie (@charliprangley), Marketing Design Lead at Convert Kit, has a YouTube Channel about design and belongs to βDesign Twitterβ
If youβre a community builder. David Spinks (@DavidSpinks), Founder of CMX is part of βCommunity Management Twitterβ
If youβre interested in cryptocurrency. Jill Carson (@jillruthcarlson), the co-host of the What Grinds My Gears podcast, co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, and a Principal at Slow Ventures, is part of βCrypto Twitterβ
By continually honing your own professional skills and taking part in sharing your ideas with the wider community, youβll reach a point where youβre viewed as a leader both in your wider professional community and its subsection on Twitter. There may come a point where you become someone whose work and expertise is appreciated, and your heroes become your peers.
Now Iβm at a more mature stage of my career, and I have a pretty strong community of people around me, including some of the brilliant, well-known people I admired from afar when I was younger. Itβs pretty surreal, in a lot of ways.Jackie Luo (@jackiehluo), software engineer, Square*
βcautionβ While following industry leaders can give you great perspective and insights into the industry, being a βleaderβ sometimes means βhaving a lot of followers.β Itβs important to remember that a high follower count can lead to an individual developing a persona and posting what they believe people want to hear. Absorb what you find valuable but take everything with a level of skepticism. Here are a few things that should create doubt:
Complex language. The best people to follow have a way of simplifying complex concepts in the style of the Feynman Technique. If youβre following people whose tweets use overly complex language, donβt automatically assume youβre ignorant. Instead, entertain the idea they may not know the subject matter well enough to communicate clearly.
Black and white thinking. People who speak in extremes are generally oversimplifying something complex. You would be wise to assume that what theyβre discussing actually has many shades of gray. Twitterβs algorithm amplifies extreme rhetoric and these tweets will often have high engagement. Donβt be persuaded by lots of retweets and likes. Exploring nuance on Twitter is less likely to gain the tweeter as much attention as a bunch of hot takes. However, people who speak in a measured manner are often the ones youβll learn the most from.
Fawning praise. Everyone praising and sharing the same article, tweet, or product doesnβt necessarily mean itβs good and you should do the same. Be suspicious if you read superlatives like, βThis is the best thing Iβve ever read on X,β or, βIβve never seen X this well articulated.β Often this is simply people signaling they belong to a particular community and keep up with the latest developments. In the same vein, itβs important to be cognizant of relationships: close friends of an author will provide high praise of their friendβs book and a venture capitalist will hype up (or defend) a company in their portfolio. Take care to read and investigate things before you share them. Often sharing something, while also highlighting the tensions you see, is more impactful than jumping on a praise bandwagon.
The first step is following people you find interesting and starting to engage by commenting and replying to tweetsβthat way you start to find your voice. Pay attention to what kind of tweets you (and others) enjoy reading, and what kind of formats work well.Arianna Simpson (@AriannaSimpson), founder and Managing Partner, Autonomous Partners*
When you first start using Twitter, youβll often follow people youβre familiar with. Spend enough time on the platform and youβll find more and more people youβve never heard of that are worthwhile to follow. Finding interesting people can be done a number of ways:
Look up who the people you follow follow. If thereβs a Twitter user whose insights you find valuable, navigate to their profile and click on βX following,β with X being the number of people they follow. If you take the time to investigate this list, youβll find who they find interesting and can increase the amount of astute people you follow too.