Image from Flickr by chrisinplymouth

I love writers, and I love Twitter. But I’m getting tired of writers on Twitter. Why?

Because writers tend to brand themselves so successfully they become nothing more than their brands.

And that’s sad, right? None of us is one dimensional. When a person is passionate about a topic to the point of obsession, it can be sweetly endearing. But there’s a difference between someone reaching out to others for a shared sense of belonging and someone selling their brand, and the difference is always obvious on Twitter.

Honestly, I’m not all that interesting. If Facebook broke down the subject of my posts into percentages, I’m sure 90% would be about my children. So I hate to judge others for being boring. 😉

But when writers only tweet about their writing, or the subject of their writing, or links to other authors’ writing in the hopes that those authors will then tweet links to their writing, it’s beyond boring, it’s self-defeating. These tweets are just thinly veiled commercials, and people tune them out.

A blog should be focused—readers are coming to you for a particular reason. But Twitter is a conversation, and it’s much more fun when the conversation is varied. Pick three things besides your writing that you love, do a search for those subjects and connect with others who share your interests. I reached out to people passionate about writing and reading, but also to those tweeting about parenting, baseball, and my favorite bands. The music fans are the most fun. 🙂 What drags down my Twitter feed are the writers.

Please stop selling yourself short. Stop selling yourself period. I get it—you’re a writer. Hey, me too! That’s probably why we connected in the first place. Now do us both a favor and talk about something else.

I promise not to unfollow you if you sometimes post about your cat, or the sunset, or how great it felt just now when a song you love came on the radio at exactly the moment you needed to hear it. Be inspiring, be interesting, be funny, be vulnerable, be nerdy, be cool, be yourself.

Don’t be a brand.