- Cyber Patterns by Jason Levin
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- Advice for Antisocial Social Media Managers
Sup nerds, you're reading Cyber Patterns.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all 2,842+ readers.
The Holidays are often overwhelming for introverts like me. So today, we'll be talking about advice for antisocial social media managers.
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Advice for Antisocial Social Media Managers
Social media is my job.
I run Twitters, ghostwrite tweets, and even make memes for startups. Despite the fact I work in social media, I'm a pretty antisocial person.
I'm most comfortable working alone with my dog by my side. Or hanging out with my girlfriend or my friends 1-on-1. Since I moved to NYC though, I've been going to parties more often.
I don't drink alcohol, so I drink water or an Arnold Palmer. But I show up for a couple hours, chat, and I'm ready to bounce. After the 3 hour mark, my energy is drained and I need to be alone and write or read. (I'm writing this essay from a long Lyft ride to a NJ hotel before a flight in the morning.)
My desire to leave parties has nothing to do with the guests.
I could be with my best friends in the world and I'd still be ready for me-time after a few hours. Hell, I'm hosting a startups event in NYC in January and when the 3-hour limit on our space is up, you bet your ass I'm gonna get my ass home and into bed with a book.
So how does an antisocial introvert like me manage to spend so much time on social media?
Twitter is like an absolute banger of a party, but it's all in my head.
The thing I've come to realize is that social media isn't inherently social despite the word "social" being in it. Obviously, it's not IRL socializing. But even online, most people use social media more like entertainment or escapism rather than socializing. I'm one of the minority that actually is social and makes new friends there.
I find it incredibly natural to scroll through Twitter, find someone who has a cool job or posted something funny, send them a message, and hop on the phone the next day. It's now second nature for me to meet up with internet friends IRL and for us to end up becoming close friends or working together on projects.
When you get deep in the creator bubble, it's easy to forget most people are using Twitter to complain about politics or talk about celebrities or whatever. The percentage of people who make friends and money on Twitter compared to the overall user-base must be extremely small.
Honestly, I think the key to enjoying Twitter or any social media is to shamelessly admit that you love it, are probably addicted to it, that you're never going to stop using it, and because of this, you might as well make some money on it. By admitting all of this to yourself, you allow yourself to spend time and energy on Twitter that you would never have spent time on prior.
When I did this, I suddenly lost all shame I felt for spending 2-3 hours on Twitter everyday. I jumped into Twitter full throttle, started spending hours writing threads, and built up my profile to 10k. While spending 3-5 hours on Twitter daily sounds frivolous to the un-enlightened, it makes sense when you think of it as an investment in your career.
Twitter is my office and I love my job.
That being said, Twitter can be exhausting. It's like an all-day party, which sounds fun, but as anyone who went to a state school like me knows, if someone is partying all day everyday, they're probably an absolute bum. Partying on Twitter all day can be specifically tiring for antisocial social media managers like myself. So here's a few pieces of advice:
A Few Tips
Batch your work and schedule your tweets.
Even if Twitter is your office, you shouldn't be on Twitter all day everyday.
It's just like any other type of work.
I batch my work by scheduling out tweets for the week on Sundays. Then I hang out on Twitter for 3-5 hours everyday adding new tweets and hitting the DMs/mentions.
The rest of the day, I spend writing, hitting the gym, normal people things.
"Name a higher ROI activity than logging off" — Jack Butcher
It's true. Whenever I scroll through Twitter trying to think of tweets, I come up with nothing. All my ideas for banger tweets come while off Twitter.
Use airplane mode even when you're not on airplanes.
Fuck that, use airplane mode especially when you're not on airplanes.
Sidenote: Does airplane mode really interfere with planes? Because I've 100% turned off airplane mode before the plane landed.
Anyways, the point is I like to use airplane mode whenever I need to not be bothered.
When I go on airplane mode, I tell my girlfriend I'm "going goblin mode" and she knows I won't be answering calls or messages for an hour or two.
Make friends on social media.
I did an r/AMA this week and someone asked me if my work was satisfying.
I said it was extremely satisfying. I hang with my friends on the internet while sitting in my pajamas. It's an introvert's dream.
Being a social media manager is terrible if you don't actually interact with anyone.
I ran a Facebook account for a small business for a while. I was just posting stuff into the oblivion with no interactions. It was depressing.
The point of social media is to actually be social.
Creators Corner
3 resources that helped me be a better creator this week:
🐦 TweetHunter is my Twitter scheduling tool of choice. I upgraded to TweetHunter in November and it's an absolute game-changer. Great for scheduling tweets/threads, sharing drafts with colleagues, and discovering tweet ideas.
📘 Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers kept me company this week. Rogers tells the story of how he drove around 130+ countries in a bright yellow Mercedes investing in different businesses along the way. I got an insane travel bug from this and booked a trip to Miami.
🧞♂️ Full Stack Creator by Stephen Wise was a solid airport read. Analogous to a full stack engineer knowing front-end and back-end coding, a full-stack creator should be a master of content creation and product creation. Audience first, products second.