How Not To Make Friends On Twitter

Image: Telegraph.co.uk

I’ve started using a service to monitor who follows and unfollows me on Twitter. Through registering with TwitQuit, I’ve been able to highlight some interesting activity that I wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of.

As you might expect, I get a lot of authors connecting to me through Twitter. In the past, I would start to follow them in return, but I’ve noticed that most of them only do so to promote their books, not to actually connect and interact with me.

The trend is for them to hit the follow button so I receive an email to say they are following me and thus I follow them back. However, within seconds they unfollow me leaving me with an unbalanced tally. Normally, I wouldn’t notice the unfollow so they get increased followers ratio and I’m none the wiser, but now with TwitQuit, I can see just who does it and so can avoid adding them to my connections or remove them entirely.

I know a lot of people use Twitter for specific reasons: some business, some scam, some just to connect with their close friends, but I use it as a mixture of staying informed with the Scottish literary scene (as well as the underground music scene), and I also use it to connect with actual people with similar interests and career motives. I’ve found it to be a positive way of networking.

I’ve met many brilliant people through the use of Twitter, and had many opportunities open up to me that would not otherwise have come my way. I’m pretty sure that the tactics of following/unfollowing people in order to promote and market is a shabby way to use Twitter, though, and I despise those that employ it.

The Calcutta Cup
Rather unusually, the Calcutta Cup was played on the first day of the Six Nations Championship this year. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s when Scotland and England play as part of the Six Nations. Yesterday it was played out at Murrayfield in wintery conditions and against the backdrop of an ever intense debate on Scottish and English identity.

Before the game, Scotland were rather oddly the favourites, and with the forecast of snow, it did seem that the Gods were leaning towards a Scotland win.

Bt as is usually the case, when Scotland are expected to win, they don’t. Despite having the best of the game they threw it away right on cue, with some of the most awful mistakes ever seen in professional rugby union. The snow didn’t appear and neither did our players, eventually getting beat 6-13. England could not have had it better.

Scotland fans (of most sports but particularly football and rugby) seem destined to never learn that we are shite. We can only perform in spurts when the conditions make the flow of luck turn our way. The golden era of these two sport have long gone, because our kids would rather stand on street corners now than be kicking or passing a ball in an empty green field. As with most things, we’ve only ourselves to blame.

Work Update
I didn’t get much work done on the BACCARA manuscript this weekend, as my Saturday morning was taken up with a few beers pre-rugby with an old friend. The afternoon was spent working on my stand-up poetry routine, which now that it’s down on paper to see as a whole idea, seems suddenly quite intimidating.

After listening to many debates on the topic of Scottish independence, I penned my own poem yesterday to add to the discussion. Most writers I know have a strong view on this one way or another; some have written their views down and some have recorded them. Later today, I’ll be recording one too (weather permitting).

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