Basic rules * Never follow accounts with blue checkmarks. * Take the words of very popular accounts (even if they have no checkmark) with a grain of salt. *

Basic rules * Never follow accounts with blue checkmarks. * Take the words of very popular accounts (even if they have no checkmark) with a grain of salt. * Use your account to converse or pontificate, not to advertise your personal brand. * Avoid jokey one-upmanship. It is tedious. * Avoid detailed explanation until prompted. Brevity makes for misunderstandings. * Follow people you do not know personally. * Follow artists. * Follow journalists. * Follow minorities. The reason to use Twitter is to get perspectives that have no other outlet - no advertising, no backing, no organization behind them. These are voices that are so faint that they could be tuned out any other way, and they don't get covered in the paper the next day, because they're going outside of the narrative lines. That is why you do better avoiding the blue checkmarks and people who would strive for them.