Late night on Twitter…

I love Emma Thompson. So when I saw Netflix recommending the film ‘Late Night’, for me it was no-brainer. It might not be a cinematic masterpiece, but it was still enjoyable to watch. To give you an idea of the plot (without too many spoilers), I can tell you that the heroine’s main initial attribute is that she has is entirely disengaged with social media. Even though she has been a successful talk show host for many years, she had never opened a Twitter or Facebook account. In the end she begins to tentatively try her hand at them, but is still left scratching her head by the option of having more than one favourite thing and at what the purpose of ‘add to favourites’ might be. Why am I writing about this? Someone quite close to me recently remarked that if someone wants to make a career in (almost) any field these days, then they have to be active on social media. And that doesn’t mean just setting up a profile page and occasionally clicking ‘like’ or ‘recommend’. Watching ‘Late Night’ made me think about this once again and I came to the conclusion that there’s a lot of truth in it, especially so during the pandemic, as we still wait for the total lifting of the ban on public meetings and gatherings. Quite simply, networking today is really internetworking.

For this reason I’m now spending more time on LinkedIn and taking more of a professional interest when I scroll through Facebook. I’m still mainly just browsing – I read the commentaries and occasionally click on a link – but I’m finding myself spending more time reading this or that comment by someone in our sector. I’m also increasingly finding myself corresponding with PRs and other experts through social media commentaries, even though just a year or two ago such behaviour might have seemed a little inappropriate if not outright strange. But over time I’ve come to appreciate the efficiency and effectiveness of this means of communication. And on more than one occasion I’ve stumbled upon information that I’ve then used to write a news story or even a longer article. But what I’ve been doing is just scratching at the surface of the changing virtual landscape. There are even companies (at the moment, not many) that will only use this mode of communication with journalists. Maybe soon it will even be the norm to add a link to a Facebook or LinkedIn article in a public chat, instead of sending out press releases with photos. Who knows? People I know have already been saying things to me along the lines of: “How come you haven’t seen my latest child/fiancé/dog/car? I put all the photos on Twitter!” For now I’m just using Twitter in a professional capacity and only when my editor texts me: “And don’t forget about Twitter!!!” – typically with three exclamation marks.

Katherine Newbury, the character played by Emma Thompson, in the end starts tweeting and spending more time following what’s happening on the web – and in this way she‘s able to get a little closer to her new, younger generation of fans. So she discovers a new communication channel, where she can promote herself and her programme. Even though I’m quite a few years younger than the heroine of ‘Late Night’, just like her I’m rather cautious in my approach to new things. It took me a few years to use a touch-screen telephone, but now I can’t even imagine life without one. Maybe I also need to spend more time in my professional life on social media using my own name and not being just one of the editors of various company accounts. I can see my colleagues in the sector actively tweeting, even in their private lives, and making recommendations on LinkedIn – and I secretly envy their chutzpah. But with tiny little steps I am beginning to open up, although many think I should start by updating my Facebook profile picture. But I don’t think – even for the sake of my virtual career – I could ever say goodbye to that picture of me in a pink fur.