I am Jane Donuts. I am also (really) someone else.

When I joined Twitter, I made a conscious decision to not use or be associated with my real name. I wanted to say whatever I wanted without fear that it would in some way jeopardize my job, which was doing public relations for technology and entertainment companies, some of which entailed social media strategy. 

So I used a handle that I've had online for years. But if you googled it, you could find out all kinds of things about me that were associated with my real name. Blogs I've had, comments I've made on other blogs, old message board postings, etc. Stuff going back to my early twenties, which is now kind of a long time ago, and a lot of which was just dumb and naive.

So then I changed my handle to Jane Donuts. Jane Donuts was a relatively fresh alter ego I'd developed for a creative writing/blogging project that eventually became my current blog, and I liked the name - it made me laugh - so it stuck. And now four years later, I follow and have about four hundred followers. It's not a huge number, but it's not insignificant either when you consider these are mostly people and companies that share my interests - namely music, books, writing, technology and media. 

 

And now I find myself with a little dilemma. I'm in the midst of a career change and am applying to jobs that are heavier on the writing and social media, many of which require the applicant to show they have some skills in those worlds.

So what do I do? Do I just throw Jane Donuts the twitter feed and Jane Donuts the blog out there? If I do that, I should probably go back and look at anything I've said that could be considered offensive, and delete it. But then that would be compromising what I set out to do when I started these things, which was just to use them as an outlet for things I was thinking about or feeling.  

I'm leaning toward just saying screw it, and citing them in my job search. I'm not exactly running for president. But if you have any thoughts on this matter, let me know.

 

 

 

Posted via email from Jane Donuts is Starting Over

Twitter Do's and Twitter Don'ts

I've been on Twitter for about four years, and although I'm no kingpin (queenpin?), I'm well familiar with these parts. This list is totally subjective, but then, this is my blog and I'll write what I want to.

DO: 

• Be funny - the world needs more funny. Jokes, inappropriate remarks, pithy observations. People will agree or they won't. 
• Tweet interesting links - more than anything, we're on here to be amused. So be amusing, or provocative, or something. I want to discover new things.
• Recommend other people on Twitter one by one. Give me a reason to follow someone I might like. Or...
• Just retweet the good stuff. If someone retweets something that makes me laugh out loud, I'll usually follow the original tweeter.
• Follow people. I am instantly turned off when I see someone with a lot of followers who only follow 100 people or less. It basically tells me they're missing the point of the whole service, which is basically to be entertained, informed and introduced to people with common interests. It's fun. 

DON'T:

• Say something just to say something. Say something good.
• If you have an annoying song stuck in your head, please don't tweet about it. Just don't. No one needs to go through the rest of their day with an irritating earworm. This shit will lose you followers. 
• Tweet lists for Follow Friday. It's a nice gesture, but it's kind of annoying. And it's not effective! I was once given a follow Friday recommendation by someone with more than 100,000 followers, and I don't think I got one new follower from it. People just skip right over those posts. Or at least, I do.
• Tweet too much. I can't tell you how much this is because it's totally subjective, but I can tell you that nothing will make me unfollow someone faster than if they're cluttering up my stream. I guess if they're tweeting interesting stuff it's OK, but even then it's hard to stomach. This guy is one of the worst offenders I've come across. And he's written a couple of books I've found useful, too. 
• Self-aggrandize. There's a fine line between talking about your projects/blog/passions/etc and being too self-promoting. Figure out where that line is and please don't cross it. (This is also known as tweeting too hard. Don't do it.) 
• Include too many hashtags and @replies in one tweet. My eyes glaze over when I see so much highlighted text. It also seems insincere, and makes me think you learned it in some kind of social media bootcamp. Which makes me want to puke. 

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. Tell me what else I'm missing in the comments. 

Posted via email from Jane Donuts is Starting Over