My Twitter Policy

My Twitter Policy banner
By Dustin Tigner
My Thoughts
Actually...

I’ve decided to leave Twitter (or X if you prefer). You can find me on Facebook! Why did I leave? Ultimately, I just want to focus on one platform, and I feel like a lot of my readers use Facebook. I also don’t love the direction it’s going. If things change, I might return. We’ll see! :)

Hello you lovely person!

Out of all the different social media websites, Twitter is my favorite. I like how open-ended it is. There are no group rules per se. You have a textbox and 280 characters to write your message for the world to see or—more likely the case—to ignore. That’s cool.

Everyone uses Twitter for different reasons and in different ways. This post is to help you understand how I use Twitter so we can better jibe.

The most important thing for me is . . .

I’m looking to build real relationships.

What does that mean? It means I actively look for opportunities to make friends and network. I want to comment on your stuff because we both find it interesting or fun. I want you to comment on my stuff for the same reasons.

I’m not looking to game the system, pad my follower count, post fake engagement questions (questions where the answers don’t matter), or—in general—pretend to be your friend.

What do I post about?

At the end of the day, this is probably the only thing that matters to you, whether or not I post content you’re interested in.

So here’s me . . .

  • I love writing & storytelling
  • I think painting can really help spark the imagination
  • Music inspires me to give depth to my worlds
  • I’ve studied game design extensively and developed an Xbox 360 game
    • This is why my stories take place in game/game-like worlds
    • I’ve played video games and board games all of my life
  • I’m a developer and designer; this website was hand coded by me

And that is what I’ll tweet about. If any of that interests you, follow and comment on my posts. I’d love to engage with you!

Can I direct message you?

Sure thing! I like hearing from my readers for any reason, be it positive or negative. Found a typo or have a question? Hit me up.

You can . . .

  • Direct message me on Twitter
  • Send me an email at [email protected]
  • Fill out my anonymous feedback form

Why won’t you follow me?

I follow people who genuinely want to build a relationship.

In no particular order.

  • You’ve never engaged with me (join the conversation!)
  • You’re a company, not a person
  • You don’t have any original tweets (everything is a retweet)
  • You’re a bot (literally; your name is something-something bot)
  • You’re overly negative, using Twitter for your soapbox
  • You post a lot about politics or religion
  • You post dozens of times a day (and flood my timeline)
  • You have a 1,000:1 follow ratio (probably a spammer)
  • You post explicit material
  • Your posts are not in English

Do you follow back? Nope. The idea of “follow back” is coded behavior, cause-and-effect. It has one goal, which is to increment the almighty follower count. That’s dumb.

Again, I follow real people who want to build a relationship. If you just randomly follow me, there’s a good chance I won’t follow you back.

Let’s do a #WriterLift! No thanks. Everyone who participates in a #WriterLift is supposed to comment and blindly follow everyone else who has commented. What’s the end goal? To inflate your follower count and ruin your timeline.

Dude! I added you to a huge #FF list! Ehhh. . . . First, I want to say that I truly appreciate the sentiment. Unfortunately, if you’re tagging more than one #FF person, your good intentions have become spam.

RIP everyone’s notifications.

Follow Friday should highlight a person and give everyone a reason to follow them as an individual, not a group. Make it personal. Start a conversation. Introduce people to each other.

Are your book retweets recommendations?

No, they are not. Most of the books I retweet, I have not read. I retweet to help authors who write in my genre, assuming that those who follow me would be interested.

Unless I make an actual recommendation like, “This is a fun book!” then it’s not an official recommendation.

Why won’t you retweet my book?

In no particular order.

  • I didn’t see your promo tweet
  • The book is not GameLit
  • The focus is erotica or harem
  • I’ve already retweeted it before
  • I’ve retweeted too many times today

Hey, it’s not rocket science!

If you’ve read this far, you must be really curious about this stuff.

Look, it’s nothing too crazy. I’m easygoing, really! If you want to connect, just reach out. See you around!