Dear Mr. Femi Adesina,
We understand that getting a hang of Twitter might be such a chore. However, your new position as the special adviser to the president on media and publicity makes it necessary that you understand the social media platform, the government’s audience on it and how to talk to them.
Being a journalist must have been interesting and might have gotten you your current position, but using the ‘traditional’ approach on Twitter won’t cut it for a lot of tweeps (google the word troll). They are young and they are watching you like eagles and will definitely make a joke of every error you make.
Seeing that you could do with a little help on Twitter, we have deemed it fit to point you in the direction. Here is an account you can learn a few tricks from.
Josh Earnest is the current press secretary to United States President, Barack Obama. He uses Twitter in 5 simple ways:
- He retweets credible sources. Rather than say too much or try (hard) to clear the air about certain issues, he simply uses the retweet button.
- His tweets concentrate on main points. Short, sharp, precise. Like writing poetry.
- He tells stories with powerful photos.
- He shares fun photos of himself doing ‘government work’.
- He created his own hashtag series #AskPressSec to engage the public for easy social monitoring.
You can also learn a few things from some of these young Nigerian fellas, @ToluOgunlesi, @Omojuwa, @DoubleEph, @BlossomNnodim, and even political figures like @Atiku, @BukolaSaraki.
We hope this helps.
Good luck.