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Robert D. Kaplan writes new books at the rate that some of us conjure up new tweets. As of this writing, Kaplan has written over 20 books has tweeted 110 times, a 5.5-to-1 tweet-to-book ration.
Looking at Kaplan’s Twitter page @RobertDKaplan, the author last tweeted in June of 2014. Despite this lack of activity, he has 9,101 followers - including the larger-than-life venture capitalist (and Netscape co-founder) Marc Andreessen.
What are we to make of inactive Twitter accounts with thousands of followers?
Does Kaplan’s zombie Twitter feed tell us anything about the nature of thought leadership, idea diffusion, networked collaboration, and social media?
Can we say draw any lessons about the future of Twitter as a platform (and a company) from the microblogging undead?
Do you know of any other examples of abandoned Twitter feeds that still maintain large numbers of followers?
My thoughts on zombie Twitter are below - written because I don’t know what I think unless I write - and 140 characters is not enough space to learn my own mind.
Thought #1 - We Don’t Really Understand The Interaction Between Social Media Reach and Academic Status:
The fact that Robert D. Kaplan has over 9,000 followers, but that he never tweets and doesn’t follow anyone else, should tell us something about the nature of notoriety. Kaplan got all those followers for what he does on everything else but Twitter. Nobody followed Kaplan for his tweets, they followed him because they are fans of his work.
In academia, we are still trying to understand what social media means within our status economy. In the traditional sense, one’s reach and impact in social media matters very little. Nobody gets promotion or tenure based on how big a public presence they have online.
But in academic other contexts, it seems as if social media reach does matter. We just don’t know how it matters, how much it matters, or what it matters for.
The point is that someone who makes their living in the world of ideas, such as Kaplan, can seem big on social media (9,000+ followers), without doing anything at all on social media. While others can make an impact on the marketplace of ideas mostly through their social media presence.
Kaplan is not an academic. He is a reporter and an author (although he teaches some I think), so the lessons of his Twitter account may not be perfectly applicable to academia. Still, Kaplan’s case should cause us to ask questions about what social media status (and followers are an easy way to judge status) means in our higher ed world.
Thought #2 - Some Of You Are Great At Twitter:
Twitter is easy to start, and hard to use. Well - at least hard to use well.
The idea that Twitter is hard to use may come as a surprise to many of you dedicated tweeters. I’d say a plurality of colleagues in my professional circle are active on Twitter. You seem to use Twitter as a platform for connection. The best tweeters are able to be authentic, generous, relational, an connective in their use of the platform.
I, on the other hand, use Twitter poorly. Mostly I use Twitter as a broadcast mechanism. I’ll tweet my blog posts, but not much else.
Yes, I’ll scan the twitter flood if I have a few moments - and will every now and again click on link from a tweet. (Mostly from my phone). But Twitter could go away tomorrow, and I would not really miss the thing.
At least I’m better at Twitter than @RobertDKaplan. Having a zombie Twitter account is worse than having none at all. I’m sure that Kaplan got on Twitter with the best of intentions, only to quickly realize that the ROI for active twitter engagement was low for his purposes. Now the account roams the earth, separated from the body that gave it life.
Part of me is envious of you really good Twitter people. Twitter for some of you seems like an extension of your professional network. You tweet about interesting things, in interesting ways, and never seem to come across as self-promoting and careerist.
Do we have any understanding of the relationship between Twitter skills and higher ed career success?
Are higher ed people who are good at Twitter more likely to be good at their higher ed jobs?
In a networked profession, one in which we depend on colleagues across the postsecondary ecosystem to provide us with information and intelligence, does a facility with Twitter offer any professional comparative advantage?
Thought #3 - Not Being On Twitter Is Just Fine:
The final lesson that I take @RobertDKaplan is that it is perfectly possible to say no to Twitter. One can make a living in the marketplace of ideas at greater than 140 characters at a time.
My worry about Twitter - and the reason that I’m bad at Twitter - is that the platform has always seemed to me to be too tempting. I wonder if microblogging cannibalizes regular blogging. (Macroblogging?) You might not know it from my blog posts, but they are often hard to write. I put lots of thought and effort into these words. It would be wonderful to have the same impact with less work. Twitter is seductive that way.
Many of the thinkers that I respect most in the world are very good at Twitter. For them, Twitter is but one the platforms in which they communicate. They make connections on Twitter, on their blogs, on Facebook, Instagram, and loads of other digital and physical spaces. They are authentic and funny and real - and they have figured out how to pull this all off with Twitter in the mix.
I wonder, however, if we have thought through all the downsides of platforms like Twitter. The best tweets are clever, ironic, detached, and cool. There is no space for nuanced arguments, ambiguity, or complex thinking.
I treasure blogging because I get to be wrong in my thinking more than I’m right. It is less instructive to be wrong on Twitter.
Not being on Twitter has not hurt @RobertDKaplan. If you want evidence of that, go and read his latest book Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World.
You too can make the choice to stay off or leave Twitter. You can ignore Twitter and be just fine. You can spend your time, energy, and attention doing other things.
What reactions do Twitter zombies provoke in you?
