So the book I’m reading of how to build an author platform informs me that I should use Twitter, yep that very popular social network that works everywhere but in Bolivia, and I don’t mean that you can access the site here, but that people just don’t get it and hence don’t use it.
Many people in my country use Facebook, WhatsApp, and many other social networs, plainly frequently, but Twitter is the exception, it has been left out, the poor one 😦 . So when the author platform book said “start gathering your followers with your friends and work colleages…” I was “hello? is anybody here using Twitter?”. After some blank stares, I must have found only 3 people who used it, but never actually “USED IT” in the sense of the word, just opened the account some time ago, and that was it, they were officially in twitter.
That left me wondering? why? but why? as I got into Twitter, started tweeting, retweeting, using hashtags, and all the things you do on Twitter, I started understanding why this platform wasn’t popular in my country.
- First, people here are not into expressing and opening to the outer world. In twitter, for example, you can post an awesome picture and, with the right followers, and hashtags, you could get “Twitter-famous” from one day to the other.
- Other social networks are more about your circle of friends, the people you know, the pictures where you recognize friends’ gatherings, families, etc. We’re still a closed society here, and there’s a lot of: who you are friends with, who do you know, etc., so everything happens among the people you know, not strangers. People here are not into making random friends from elsewhere… And yep, Twitter is mostly all about that. I mostly don’t know the people that follow me, and unless I’ve been following some famous person or a celebrity, I usually follow people that seem cool according to what they tweet, even if I don’t really don’t know them.
So I made a quick poll, among friends, I asked them “Why don’t you use Twitter? or Why do you think bolivians are not into Twitter?. These are some answers I got:
- People here are not so used to express in few words (the 140 restriction which drives me insane)
- It´s about gossip worst than Facebook
- Because I don´t see any benefit on it
- It´s enough with Facebook, why would I have Twitter?
- People here are used to personalize social networks and are more into wanting to know what their friends will say or tell. They’re not into free expression, not because it’s banned, but because it’s not motivated, and we feel inhibited. (I like this one, it comes from a friend that actually uses twitter, thanks Vanessa 🙂
So after all these reasons and opinions, I really don’t have a strong opinion about Twitter, all I know is that it’s good to have it for an author platform. So for any of you of my brilliant blog followers out there, if any of you would like to follow me on Twitter, please do so at: @carlisdm
And if you have any strong opinions of why you like or don’t like twitter, please feel free to leave your comments!!!
Carla Doria - Fiction Author 
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