Podcasts vs Twitter

Usually when people write or tweet to me, it’s to agree with me (or something that I’ve written). This is a biased function of, firstly, the fact that people are more likely to seek out views they already hold, in order to reinforce them, and, secondly, the basic human desire to be chummy with our fellow human.

So when, last week, I wrote a blog called ‘It’s Time to End Podcast Self-Promo on Twitter’ I was surprised, and excited, to find that there were lots of people disagreeing, vociferously, with the piece (as well as many who clearly supported its thesis). In the days subsequently, people have been arguing in my mentions (fittingly, on Twitter) and, for my sanity, I’ve not been engaging with them. But I thought it merited this quick follow-up blog, just to outline a few expanded thoughts on the subject.

Firstly: the headline was slightly misleading (my fault; I wrote it). I don’t think we should end all self-promotion on Twitter. If we did, Twitter would collapse in on itself like a dying star. And also, we all need to promote our work. What I was, more specifically, referring to is a form of drive-by or spam self-promotion; where people actively tag or message you with self promo which is the Twitter equivalent of ramming junk mail through your letterbox. The difference between writing a tweet saying “Please listen to my podcast, I’ve worked really hard on it!” and sending a…