Nothing puzzles me more than the proliferation of articles online explaining how people, and especially companies, should act or behave on Twitter and other social networks.




Yes, there is a role for companies that teach the basics of how to actually 'use' a social network, but beyond that, come on, it's pretty simple, right?

As I see it, there is reallyonly one rule within social media: just be yourself and to hell with it all. It's like this:

Being yourself also gets rid of all the digital froth that you don't want in your life.

By froth, I mean, of course, the shadowy figures on the peripheries of your social network that you will never really get on with.

There's no doubt that I have lost followers along the way because I openly tweet about how I like to go out and shoot animals in the head when I have 20 minutes to spare at lunch.

Neither could I care less about the fact that I openly encourage excessive drinking (albeit of fine liquor) and 50-gauge+ cigar smoking (everyone should do it). Why not? It could all be over tomorrow and hell is no place for regrets.

I'm not scared about being who I am because I resolutely don't want followers who might be alienated by anything I say, and I certainly don't want to work with people that might take offence at the way I am, or the way I think.

Instead, I just want to spend time online with people I get on with and find interesting myself, however bankrupt and disturbed they may be.

So my advice to anyone starting out in social media, or unsure about their online identity, is this:




In the morning, you'll wake up with a million crowing followers and more business leads than you can shake a shitty stick at.

Well, either that or a suit.