Are you a liberty-lover looking to connect with like-minded folks for mutual gain? Then Twitter – a service that enables you to broadcast short messages and find a network – is for you. We libertarians are so few and far between that networking is critical. It’s a force-multiplier. It’s a survival strategy.
Tons of Liberty-Advancing Ways to Use Twitter
Twitter has tons of practical uses that will advance your reputation, the causes you care about and the profile of liberty, including
- stimulate folks to be more conscious of the importance of liberty;
- radicalize existing liberty-lovers;
- share breaking news of government idiocy;
- gain new collaborators for your liberty efforts;
- disseminate examples of free market practicality; and
- demonstrate the considerable but often hidden strength of the liberty movement.
How to Get the Most out of Twitter
With that in mind, here are 10 steps on how liberty-lovers can leverage Twitter for liberty activism.
- Check out the above video for an introduction to Twitter, sign up for a Twitter account and choose a short but meaningful username.
- For your avatar, use a well-lit photo of yourself genuinely smiling in which your face occupies a large part of the frame. It makes a difference!
- Fill out your bio and take advantage of the “More Info URL” field to link to your blog, Facebook page, OpenID profile or anything else that enables people to connect with you further. Take advantage of the full 160 characters and include key words such as libertarian, anarchist, voluntaryist, Ron Paul fan and/or Free State Project
- Look for people you already know that are on Twitter and follow them.
- Post your thoughts on something timely and/or post a link with your commentary. Don’t post that you don’t know what to post, that you’re eating dinner (unless it’s some kind of special dinner), that you’re paranoid because you’re being followed or anything else that others probably wouldn’t find interesting.
- Find some libertarian thought leaders (see below for suggestions) on Twitter, follow them and engage with them. Find something they said that sparks your interest and reply to it.
- Post at least once per week and ideally a few times per day.
- When someone new follows you, follow them back if they seem like a genuine person (and not a marketing front). Even those with whom you disagree or who don’t get liberty can be a valuable part of your network.
- Politeness matters. Rudeness does not go down well on Twitter and it’s best to avoid it.
- Remember that Twitter is all about engaging others in productive and stimulating conversation. Everything else flows from that. Have fun!
Keep Trying New Things
I’m no social media expert so consider this a basic introduction to get you started until you feel comfortable enough to perform your own experiments. Oh and don’t forget to follow me at twitter.com/georgedonnelly. :)
P.S. Libertarian Thought Leaders on Twitter
Here are some good liberty-lovers to get started following on Twitter.
- @eastcoaster1237
- @jay4liberty
- @bradspangler
- @libertysnippet
- @libertypile
- @andrewtaranto
- @Jesuspower
- @sheeplescareme
- @aretepraxis
- @goodiemonster
- @leahita
- @ithacannoyed
- @dezine
- @LibertyCafe
- @LibertyMaven
Your Tips?
Please share your tips for budding libertarian Twitter activists. What’s your purpose in using Twitter, how do you achieve it and how have you fared?
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
6 replies on “10 Steps to Effective Liberty Activism on Twitter”
Nice digital activism! =)
Glad you like it! :)
You rock George.
Many. MANY of the things you hit on, I’ve already been doing. I’m not by any means claiming “This is passe”, just the opposite. As activists try, do, and experiment, we learn things. My experience lends credibility to what you have said.
Most of the things you comment about here are relevant to Facebook as well, though I’d also recommend a picture of yourself holding a giagantic version of a well-known consumer product (I’ve got myself holding a MASSIVE box of Jello and a MASSIVE container of Tang).
I would, however, de-emphasize the “liberty luminaries” thing. Most people I know who are “liberal” or “conservative” can name one libertarian or another. Some might say “Ayn Rand” or “Ron Paul” but most can.
What I’ve found, rather than following the “big boys” is that making liberty POPULAR is awesome. When you quote Rand or Paul, you get a borderline0libertarian asking you questions. When 30 of your friends are saying “I agree”, you get questions from EVERYBODY.
I suppose my point is something more like “Add everyone you’ve met in person once” and “comment on anything that is pro-liberty and in line with what you care about”. This is, in my experience, the best way to support the pro-liberty viewpoint and to encourage others to consider the implications of what they care about.
Thanks again George.
Hey Kevin, thanks for commenting. :)
Yes, this is a very basic getting-started guide. I see a lot of liberty lovers expressing confusion regarding twitter or struggling to get started, so I thought I’d start with something basic and work up from there.
Why do you think holding those products in your avatar is useful?
I recommend putting “Ron Paul fan” or some other keyword in your bio only to make yourself easily findable by like-minded folk.
If you limit yourself to only connecting with people you already know, you’re radically limiting your outreach. The “libertarian thought leaders” I mentioned are by no means celebrities, just liberty lovers who are active on twitter and will help newbies find larger networks.
Are we connected on Twitter? I don’t remember. If not pls let me know your username and I’ll follow you. :)
“stimulate folks to be more conscious of the importance of liberty”
— I have a major issue with not being able to stimulate anyone to do anything proactive; they all just want to do silly little things on Facebook and goof around like kids and not pay attention to what’s really going on.
I’ve become unpopular with most people after a while because they think I’m too extreme. Do you ever encounter this? Why do people not care enough? It just makes me mad, and disappointed.
Wendy I run into the same thing. Sam Dodson is in jail for exercising his first amendment rights. They demand he do this “processing” thing, whatever that is, before they release him, for which privilege they are charging 10,000 FRNs (probably refundable). Outrageous.
Yet all I could get were a few expressions of meek suspicion and a couple people who would write a letter online that would be delivered for them.
Things are bad, very bad. Too many people worried about their counterproductive tea parties.
I’m more confused than disappointed by it. It just confirms my current priority of becoming as self-sufficient as possible and of moving to New Hampshire with the Free State Project to participate in a community of other folks who have used their brains enough to understand that nothing good is possible without liberty.
Thanks for commenting. :)