Twitter and Blue ticks

Some of you may have noticed that we now have a blue tick on our Twitter profile. 

Firstly, can we all agree that buying a blue tick makes you a bit of a wally?

Now that's settled, I'll explain why I've done just that.

I've been on Twitter for 10 years now and have always felt more at home there than any of the other SM's. 

Facebook is not really me at all. 

Instagram is set up for people who use smart phones and if you use a PC like I do, you're very limited as to what you can do.

TikTok?  Aaaah, no, far too fast and jumpy.  I'm far too old for that malarkey.

I do have an account on Mastodon but it's slow going. I've got 12 followers so far so I can't really say I've got to grips with it.

Which brings us back to Twitter.

I love Twitter. I have two accounts, one for Jemima's and another personal one which I use when I want to have a bit of a rant and don't want our customers to see how gobby I can be. 

The little blue bird has been good for me and allowed me grow my little business. We can't afford regular advertising so I've spread the word using Twitter.

The blue ticks, in case there's someone who doesn't know, have previously been given to accounts of the famous or worthy.  Getting a follow from an account with a blue tick was a tiny little boost to us mere mortals and several people I admire have blue ticks such as Ricky Gervais and Deborah Meaden.  Neither of these people have ever followed me back by the way but I'm not bitter.

The new management at Twitter have made a lot of changes to the way it works.  I have noticed that the number of people visiting our site and buying seeds after seeing our tweets has dropped considerably.  Obviously there could be many reasons for this, not least the cost of living crisis. I'm also sure that some of the nice, intelligent, environmentally aware people have left Twitter as the atmosphere is definitely not what it was.  

This means I'm having to work harder to get Jemima's seen.  The change to the Twitter algorithms means  your tweets are unlikely to be suggested to anyone new unless you have a blue tick.

So we're back to the blue ticks which are now available to any Tom, Dick or Harry, (or even Jane or Jemima),  for a tenner a month.  This has made them meaningless in one way but getting a blue tick does mean your tweets are more likely to be seen by new people. 

Trying to make a living out of doing something you believe in is really not easy at the moment. I really dislike what has happened to Twitter but flouncing off in a huff is not going to get me very far and it would be a good idea to see if a blue tick helps with flagging sales.

I hope that eventually Twitter will get back on track, (maybe the ownership will change again), but in the meantime, I've paid my tenner and Jemima's now has a blue tick.

All the best

Jane