{"id":12238,"date":"2010-04-01T21:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T15:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=12238"},"modified":"2020-04-16T15:28:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T09:58:41","slug":"kiss-tweeting-better-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/04\/kiss-tweeting-better-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Tweeting Equals Better Writing: It All Starts With K.I.S.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Better Tweeting = Better Writing.\u00a0Alright. You probably don\u2019t see it, but Twitter can actually help you become a better writer<\/a>. Of course you may likely scoff a bit at this\u2014 (jeepers however did I arrive at such a conclusion?!) and even claim that Twitter encourages people to become bad<\/em> writers\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/p>\n

OK, so first of all, these aren\u2019t exactly what you\u2019d call good quality Tweets. Not exactly engaging and compelling content<\/a>, not by a long shot. And I say that with the utmost of sincerity and just a hint of sarcasm.<\/p>\n

In no way should anyone continually<\/em> Tweet like this, especially if you want to attract a loyal following. Granted, I am guilty of using the Twitter \u2018shortening\u2019 feature which can often turn plain English into readable numbers, BUT\u2026 I don\u2019t use it all the time, repeatedly. Nor do my Tweets resemble the above Tweets in any way, shape or form.<\/p>\n

Thank goodness eh? That\u2019s just a little scary. And totally not in a good way.<\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong\u2026 an occasional rant here and there is fine, in fact expected. And sometimes we just can\u2019t quite fit all the characters we want into a Tweet rant. So we must shorten it somehow. Unfortunately the end result is usually some weird, decidedly pale version of the English language that is barely intelligible. Yuck.<\/p>\n

So do the Twitterverse a favor and please make it intelligible. Pul-leez! (See? Totally intelligible right?) Or consider using TwitLonger<\/a>. That helps too. Oh and secondly, if these are the typical Tweets you see in your feed, I say \u201cRun! RUN!\u201d in the opposite direction. Either that or I highly recommend you start looking for other, more interesting Tweeps to follow.<\/p>\n

But I digress. Honestly, if you\u2019re serious about becoming a writer, being active in Twitter really will<\/em> help you.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how –<\/em><\/h3>\n

Twitter can help you become more conscious of the basic rules of writing. Remember the 4 C\u2019s?<\/p>\n

Any writer worth their salt should know how to write (1) concisely<\/strong>, (2) coherently<\/strong>, (3) concretely<\/strong> and (4) clearly<\/strong>\u2014and this is exactly the type of writing that Twitter forces you to do. Well\u2026 forces most<\/em> of us to do at any rate.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s explore that a little deeper shall we?<\/p>\n

1. Twitter forces you to write <\/strong>concisely<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This one is pretty darn obvious. You\u2019re given 140 characters or less within which you must convey a message. You have 140 characters to say something that makes sense and hopefully makes you sound and appear smart to your followers. (No, you don\u2019t actually have to be<\/em> smart… no, really you don\u2019t!)<\/p>\n

Just kidding. You should be at least a little smart if you\u2019re trying to sound and appear smart. I read that somewhere. Seriously, you only have 140 characters to make a good impression. So make it a good impression.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 140 character limit works because you really don\u2019t need too many words to send a message out when you\u2019re shooting for concise. Just remember to keep the K.I.S.S. method in the forefront of that little noggin of yours and you\u2019ll do spectacularly well.<\/p>\n

K.I.S.S.= \u201cKeep It Simple, Stupid\u201d in case you were scratching your head and wondering.<\/p>\n

2 & 3. The fear of being un-followed forces you to become <\/strong>coherent<\/strong> and <\/strong>concrete<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While Twitter doesn\u2019t exactly penalize badly written Tweets, your followers certainly will. They will do this by *shocker*\u2026 un-following you! There\u2019s a reason why people follow other people on Twitter. Ask yourself, why do you follow hundreds of people, perhaps even thousands, on Twitter?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s usually-<\/p>\n