The Quick Guide For Managing Twitter Without Having To Quit Your Day Job

Ev Chapman
January 10, 2022

1000 people. 30k essays. 7 million words.

When I first heard that we had 1000 people in the January cohort of ship30for30 I thought I might have to quit my day job after all 🤣

How was I going to keep up with so many people?

If you're overwhelmed already, here's my step by step guide to engaging on Twitter while keeping your sanity:

Start with the official Ship30 list. Decide on a time limit or essay limit to engage with daily. Something sustainable that isn't going to burn you out (start with 5 and work your way up). Interact meaningfully & leave comments or feedback.

Bookmark Interesting Essays. When something resonates I bookmark it. I do most of my reading on my iPhone so bookmarking is a great way to then be able to come back to these essays later. More on that next 👇

Create Your Own Private Ship30 List. Once you've got some essays bookmarked, go back through them & add these people to a private ship30 list. This means you don't lose people to the algorithm.

Manage Your Engagement Outside Twitter. The Twitter app is full of distraction and not great for intentional engagement. With apps like Fenix & Tweetdeck, you can view your lists side by side in columns so you're less likely to go down rabbit holes. Here's how to set up your columns.

  1. Official Ship30 List
  2. Private Ship30 List
  3. Mentions
  4. Bookmarks
  5. General Feed

Each day work your way from left to right. Engaging with 5 essays from the official list, catching up with your people, replying to mentions, adding people to your list from bookmarks and then if you have time, jumping into your feed.

But most importantly, forget trying to engage with everyone. Find your people and you'll be surprised how many that will be!

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