Communication over the internet used to be fairly simple. You’d write an email and send it; you’d get an email and read it. And if you wanted to reach a whole bunch of people, you’d post something on a website.
Simple — but complicated too, as any of us who’ve sent the wrong email to the wrong person (or an entire list-serv) have found out.
Now, we can also communicate via instant message—plus Twitter and Facebook, both of which are invaluable to people in the porn business because they provide instant, and free, access to hundreds or thousands of people. (Did we mention the free part?)
That’s nice. But these programs make life even more complicated, because you have at least two more programs to worry about. Or do you?
Actually, you can combine them thanks to a new generation of handy (and free) software. Twitter and Facebook, in particular, work well together.
Your first stop should be TweetDeck, available through online download at no cost (TweetDeck.com) for your PC or Mac.
The program combines your Twitter and Facebook feeds on a single screen and allows you to write posts and read other people’s posts. But that’s not all.
Many people aren’t aware of TweetDeck’s best feature: the ability to “hide” people you follow on Twitter, just like you can on the Facebook site.
Why would you want to ignore someone you follow? Because you want them to read your posts, but you’re not especially interested in theirs.
This is especially crucial for those in the porn business. Let’s say you’re a porn star with 2,000 followers. As a courtesy—this is considered polite in Twitterworld—you follow them back.
Do you really want to spend each day scrolling through the minutiae of 2,000 lives? Probably not. TweetDeck to the rescue!
Click on the group icon up at the top of the screen (the icon is a silhouette of people) and the program will allow you to select the people whose Twitter feeds you’d like to read on a regular basis. You’ll still be following the other people—they won’t know you did anything—but they won’t show up on TweetDeck.
The program has a lot of other cool features. In one screen, you can monitor mentions of you across all of Twitter, read direct messages, and keep track of the Twitterverse through TwitScoop, which tells you which words and terms are most popular.
(Keep an eye on TwitScoop, by the way, and you’ll learn about breaking-news events like earthquakes and celebrity deaths before almost anyone else in the world.)
If TweetDeck doesn’t do enough for you, take a look at Digsby (digsby.com), which combines Facebook and Twitter plus instant messaging plus notifications about when you have email. At this writing, Digsby is only available for PCs, but it promises to have a Mac version soon.
But wait, what if you have multiple Twitter accounts?
If you’re a cyberporn webmaster, you may have even more Twitter accounts, such as one for affiliates and another for your members full of news about Barbi doing anal for the first time. There may be a third feed for your friends and family who think you’re a “computer consultant” but don’t know anything more about what you do in that locked office in the back of the house. (Have you ever noticed how people lose all curiosity when you tell them you’re just a “computer consultant”? If they only knew!)
No problem. Just head over to twithive.com and use the TwitHive program, which looks just like TweetDeck but allows you to access multiple accounts. Best of all, it’s entirely web-based, meaning you don’t need to install any programs, and you can use it easily across computers.
Another program, Seesmic Desktop (seesmic.com), is getting lots of good buzz (it works for both Twitter and Facebook).
What if you’re on an iPhone? TweetDeck has an iPhone version, as does Seesmic Desktop. Just be aware that not every iPhone Twitter app allows you to hide the people you follow.
So let’s say you’ve found a program that blends Twitter and Facebook. Should you post the same messages to both? Probably not, because that will aggravate people who both follow you on Twitter and are your friends on Facebook: They’ll see your messages twice.
It’s better to create distinct personalities on both networks. Perhaps make your Twitter feed more businesslike, with simple updates about what you’re doing, and make Facebook more personal, a place where people get to know you.
You could, of course, be very personal on both Facebook and Twitter. Just make sure to avoid confusing your fans (or members and affiliates) about which network is best to get what they want from you.
They’ll be thankful and more likely to stick around to see what else you have to say (or show).
This article originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of AVN.
