People are forever sharing links to interesting articles and blog posts on Twitter. That's fine. But I do think you can overdo this. It's a good idea to make a good proportion of your tweets your own tips, tricks, insights and thoughts. 

They build authority and hone writing skills

There are many benefits from doing this. Perhaps the main one is that they can truly impress your followers. People can tell that you know your stuff because of what you say, not just because of what you share. So they help build your authority quickly. 

Then there's the fact that the limited space you have to use for this requires discipline. You have to cut right back to the central point. So it's a great writing exercise.

If you can get into the habit of doing this, all the better. Practice makes perfect, as they say. Do this enough and you'll start to find yourself thinking up pithy one liners and insights in your spare time. Then when you next log into Twitter, you'll probably have a few up your sleeve all ready to post. 

Can be used in other media

And you should save them on a file because you can use these tips and tricks elsewhere. A compilation of them on a specific subject makes a great blog post. They can also be used in other online and offline media. 

Speeches in particular are a great place for them. As well as live speeches at networking events, etc, you can rattle them off in front of a video camera and upload them to YouTube.

Speaking to camera for a couple of minutes is an oft-used approach of course. So you'll be up against a lot of competition. But you'll be jamming the same number of good insights into a two minuter that you would normally put into one three times as long. And because you're relating a bunch of useful insights that are crystallized and powerful, you'll speak confidently and convincingly. So your content will stand out amongst all the rambling, low quality stuff and attract more engagement as a result. 

They entail a possible risk

There is a potential downside to this overall approach, however. And that is that you might be giving away some of your best lines on Twitter and other social sites. Because they're concentrated and powerful, other people might start to use them, claiming them as their own. 

That said, in the same way that Twitter is making such plagiarism easier, it's also supplying you with a time stamp that shows you created the quote -- well, at least for a while until Twitter dumps your data. That's why you should also share it on another social network, and include it on your blog. 

If you are worried about this possibility, then it's advisable to keep your very best short insights to yourself. Maybe you can save them all up, then put them in a book? 

It's interesting how different kinds of people gravitate towards certain social networks. For example, I've got a niche website about comedy and satire. It's not just a collection of funny stuff. It's got tips, pointers and news items of interest to people who write and perform comedy. As I add more content to it I've been looking for places to share this to a relevant audience. I've found that by far the best site for finding comedians in particular is Twitter. 

Twitter

It's the perfect medium for them after all -- aside from a stage, that is. It's really focused and quick. And 140 characters is an ideal length for one liners and quirky observations.

They can also use it to announce upcoming gigs, etc. But this seems to be less common than tweeting gags and engaging with other comics and fans.

They use it to promote videos of their standup acts and they are big users of Vine, an intriguing spin-off from Twitter for sharing short video grabs. 

People with the same interests or professions will of course tend to follow each other on Twitter (that's what it's there for, after all). But it seems that this tendency is extreme when it comes to comedians. Scroll down a comic's following list and every second profile will have a photo of a guy in a spotlight holding a microphone! So Twitter is obviously going to be a real asset as I develop my website about this subject. 

Facebook

After getting started there I then had a look at Facebook. It was not nearly as useful. Yes, there are heaps of comedians on this site. But they are harder to find. While lots of them have pages that you can discover by searching for words like "comedy" and "comedian", they often just build pages under their own names.

Not surprisingly, comics use Facebook to construct real fan pages in the truest sense of the word. Their posts seem to consist almost solely of news about their upcoming shows, as well as posts about how much fun they had at the last one. They seem not to do nearly as much interaction with their peers as they do on Twitter. And they don't discuss the craft of comedy so much. 

Now these tendencies are different to people with a real interest in say, social media itself. They tend to use Twitter and Facebook -- as well as other similar sites -- in pretty much the same way. They're forever sharing information, tips and relevant news and blog articles.

This is interesting. Not only do people in different niches gravitate towards different social networks. They also use each of them differently. This is definitely something to remember when working out which social networks to focus on.