Nope! I am not impressed with Twitter since it became X

Back in the sands of time, well in 2008 to be precise, I started a blog called The Barnet Eye. I won't go into the circumstances here, they are well documented. But when I started it, I assumed that no one would read it. It didn't really occur to me that anyone would be too interested. I didn't check the stats for about six months, I didn't want to be discouraged. When I did, I was amazed. There had been over 50,000 views. I immediately put the blog hits tracker in the side bar. That number is now not far off 12 million. I guess it is fair to say I've done something right, not quite sure what. 

After I'd been doing it a while, a couple of my readers started leaving comments saying I should join Twitter as it is more interactive. I resisted. I had a quick look and soon realised that it was pretty dull and uninteresting. But I kept getting nagged to join. People told me that everyone elses blog would get more hits. I succumbed. My plan was simply to post a link to my latest blog, in the hope that they'd go away and leave me alone. But once I was on and people started commenting on my tweets, I realised that there was something to be said for engagement. I then realised that it was a useful mine of information. I started a feature called "The Tweets of the Week in the London Borough of Barnet". I had a list of tweeters and a list of areas of the Borough and I'd check them and post the best bits on a Sunday. 

The Elon Musk took over and it changed. Now unlike many people I didn't hate Elon Musk and I accepted that it was the sort of thing that American billionaires do. Many people I knew left just because Musk was in charge. I stayed. I did however notice that it was becoming ever harder to fill the Tweets of the Week feature. Quite simply, no one was postig interesting hyper local tweets any more, or not enough to justify my time. So I stopped. Then last year, my account was suspended. Apparently I'd broken a rule and they decreed that my account was not genuine. They never told me what tweet had broken the rule or why. After over fifteen years, I just ceased to exist on the x.com platform. I appealed and got a response saying I'd be reinstated, but I wasn't. I contacted them five times. Four times I was told I'd be reinstated, the fifth, I was told their automated systems had decided that I had broken their rules and that was sort of that.

Hello,   We have reviewed your appeal request for account, @Barneteye.   Our automated systems have determined that a violation of our Rules did take place, specifically:   We considered the additional information provided and decided an overturn of our original decision is not warranted in this case. Therefore, we will not overturn our decision to lock your account.   In order to restore account functionality, you can resolve the violations by logging into your account and completing the on-screen instructions.   Thanks, X Support

.

I logged on and I couldn't see any on screen instructions, other that to submit an appeal that I'd already done. I have no idea what my tweets did that broke the rules and they won't tell me.

Do I care? No. It is mildly annoying that there are a couple of accounts that I engaged with purely via Twitter, but hey ho. I was getting almost no engagement. Whereas Tweets used to get 2-3,00 views, now they got half a dozen. The site is banal and they incentivise people to post crappy clickbait. 

Am I impressed. Nope. What am I going to do about it? What my instincts told me to do all along. Ignore the whole bloody thing. It has become dull and is past its sell by date. 

How Much? Barnet Council wasting money on staff to post pointless tweets & Facebook posts

Yesterday, I wrote this blog about how Barnet Council, who have just had a £55 Million baleout from the Government are wasting your money. I didn't post it as Tuesday is food blog day. Today, just as I was about to post it. To my amazement, I saw this post

Don’t forget to bring your photo ID if you are voting at a polling station in the Finchley Church End by-election on Thursday 6 March 2025.

If a voter does not have suitable voter ID, they can apply for one here https://t.co/qt1M4alvde by Wednesday 26 February 2025 at 5pm.

— Barnet Council (@BarnetCouncil) February 25, 2025

Now, for once, it was a useful, sensible tweet, with an important message that directly affects Barnet voters in the forthcoming Barnet By Election. All good? Well not really. Anyone who knows anything about Social media (such as Barnet Council's paid staff) should know that a single post is nowhere near enough. They should have been tweeting this message out ever since the Byelection was announced. They should have been asking us to retweet it and let our friends know. I would have amplified this message more if I'd seen it earlier. What is shocking is that our local parties have not retweeted it. Anyway, on with the text I'd written. I think this rather amplifies the point though........

On Monday,  Barnet Council posted this tweet. A council that has just applied for a £55 Bale out wants to give away money for a Festival of Architecture. I am sorry to say, but if I was going to pick any London Borough to celebrate in the London Festival of Architecture, Barnet would be the last one. The list of buildings of note that we've lost in the last 20 years is something beyond comprehension. A few iconic ones? The National Institute for Medical Research (replaced with a bad Barratts knock off copy). The National Newspaper Library in Mill Hill. Countless interesting pubs,  houses, shops etc have been gutted, demolished and ruined. And the new buildings. Anonymous, dull structures in Colindale, etc. 

So this is what they tweeted. 

Last chance to apply for the Community Fund! Applications close TOMORROW. Grants of £250 to £500 available for your event at the London Festival of Architecture. https://t.co/sM7WgSXHR3 #LFA2025 #VoicesInArchitecture #LFAFestivalVoices #LFA2025Voices pic.twitter.com/G7fCp0WBwl

— Barnet Council (@BarnetCouncil) February 24, 2025

This was also posted to Facebook. .

It's bad enough that they are doling money out, but they are paying staff to do this. As best I could see, this was the only social media post on Monday. 

I've been monitoring Barnet Council tweets etc for a while. I was interested to find out how much effort they were putting into their tweeting and what sort of response they were getting. FYI when I looked on Monday, the tweet above had around 300 views and no engagement. I sent an FoI request and got this answer

Thank you for your request received on 9 January 2025, for the following information: 1. Details of the number of members of staff engaged on maintaining Barnet Council social media accounts 2. The average number of hours that these members of staff spend per day on social media accounts for the last month where figures are readily available 3. If available, the time spent by platform 4. Any targets etc that staff may have for numbers of posts etc We have processed this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

Response I am writing to inform you that we have searched our records and although we hold some of the information requested, some of the information you requested is not held by London Borough of Barnet. We have provided answers to your request below. 

1. Details of the number of members of staff engaged on maintaining Barnet Council social media accounts 1 X News & Social Media Manager, 2 X News & Social Media Officers 

2. The average number of hours that these members of staff spend per day on social media accounts for the last month where figures are readily available Rotates between the team 2-3 hours per working day for the individual on duty 

3. If available, the time spent by platform Information not recorded 

4. Any targets etc that staff may have for numbers of posts etc No targets for posts; annual evaluation assesses posts' performance with reach and engagement metrics

So to produce these tweets etc takes 2-3 hours a day. There is no monitoring of what the staff do and no targets. I wrote to Barry Rawlings, leader of the council and the Tory opposition leader, Peter Zinkin. I got no response from Cllr Rawlings. 

Here is the email I sent.

Dear Councillors

 

FYI  - Do you think this is a sensible usage of council resources? Are you happy with the way the success of engagement is being evaluated.

A few observations. The council's twitter feed has a following of approx 35K accounts. Many will be news organisations etc. This represents less than 10% of Barnets population. As best I can tell, posts get an average of around 300 view, which is less than 0.1 of the population. The recent Holocaust memorial being an outlier with 11K views, but still only acheived 11 likes and 4 retweets. 

 

To me, this looks like a very ineffective use of resources.

Here is Councillor Zinkins response (that i it in it's entirity)

as you say almost a complete waste of time

Regards

Cllr Peter Zinkin

I have long found Councillor Zinkin to be one of the more sensible and approachable Tory members. Although brief, his response does seem to confirm this assessment. 

These officers also post on the Barnet Council website. The news section has 1-2 posts a week on average. They also produce a weekly newsletter called Barnet First, which allededly has 45,000 subscribers. This means approx 15% of the people who live in the Borough subscribe. Most of the stories appear in several editions and are generally a rehash of the stories in the news section. You can see the newsletters here and sign up (I'd urge all Barnet residents to do this, you are paying for it!).

Given that there are a full time team of two staff and a manager doing all this, I can only say that it is appalling. The home page is as bland and dull as possible. There are no previews of what is in the newsletters on the homepage, which is also difficult to find. The actual Newsletters are laid out in the most boring way possible. There is no attempt at all to engage with the audience, no "What's in this edition" at the top. No thought given to what might encourage readers to read the whole thing. 

To sum up. I'm all for engagement with the public. I'm all for putting information out there on social media. What I am not all for is wasting taxpayers money in a totally incompetent way. Do it properly or don't do it. On Monday, I wrote a slightly tongue in cheek blog about Elon Musk and DOGE. I am sure Mr Musk would have something to say about this, if he were interested in Barnet. 

Why I am staying on Twitter/X

I was asked yesterday "when will you be quitting Twitter" by a good mate. I was a bit miffed in truth, that someone thought I was so indecisive that if I thought a platform was completely untenable, I'd not depart immediately. There has been lots of talk of quitting Twitter recently. Everyone from the Guardian to Clifton Suspension Bridge have left the platform. If I am honest, I've given far more thought to stopping my subscription to The Guardian than I have to 'quitting Twitter'. The reason? Well it costs me a small fortune to buy the Guardian and there is almost nothing worth reading in it. I used to have a whole list of people that I'd check in the morning, as they had something worth reading. These days, it really is only sketch writer John Crace left, as well as Dooensbury on a Friday morning. I buy the Daily Express and The Guaridan every day. It gives me a balance of writing on the right and left. It helps me hone my arguments. Much of what is in the Express political content is complete rubbish, but a trip to Twitter will confirm that there are no shortage of people who beleive it. Let me give you one example. This morning, their political writer Leo McKinstry claimed Labour were wasting Britians reserves of oil and gas by not exploiting them. Think of this logically, it is an absurd statement. The reserves will be there forever, until we extract them. We are simply making a decision not to exploit them now. If that decision turns out to be a mistake, future generations will still have some wealth in the bank. If I hadn't read this twaddle, I'd not have my arguments formed should someone say something so ridiculous. There was a fascinating feature about a crime writer and how his terrifying experience of being abducted as a teenager influenced his writing. The only article of real interest in the Guardian today (apart from Crace & Doonesbury) was an interveiw with Gwen Stefani, where she admitted that Madness and the Specials were two of her favourite bands. Stefani is a big guilty pleasure of mine (don't tell Mrs T). She used to be on rotation at the Gym when I used to do a lot of running on a treadmill. The point I'm making is that as a rational person, I don't spend money on information sources because I agree with the politics of the owners. 

If I didn't subscribe to products owned by people I find reprehensible, I'd never have subscribed to the Rupert Murdoch owned Sky Sports. As a football fan, this would have meant I'd be depriving myself of one of the few things I really enjoy. Of course, I hated lining the pockets of Rupert Murdoch, a man I despise and who I believe has caused more damage to the Uk than anyone since the second world war. But life is full of compromises. Had I not subscribed to Sky Sports, it would have massively impacted my life in a negative way. I doubt Rupert Murdoch would have missed the money I spent, that made its way into his bank account. Ironically, Sky studios in Elstree have actually ended up making a massive contribution to the local economy. I still can't stand Murdoch, but the concept of watching Strictly on the BBC instead of the football on Sky is something that I personally couldn't do. I'd much rather Someone else got the cash, but in our Capitalist society, that is not how it works. We get these powerful billionaires with a monopoly on information and we have to live with it. It is also worth pointing out that before Sky TV, football coverage was far less professional and there was far less opportunity to watch it. The sad truth is that such billionaires do deliver products that make our lives better, even if they do many other things that make our lives worse.

Which brings us to Elon Musk and Twitter. I first heard of Musk when I started using Ebay in around 2002. I made a small fortune trading on the platform. Musk also owned Paypal. Whatever you may think of Musk, Paypal is a brilliant platform and is the payment platform we use for online payments at the studio. For someone despised by the left, it is rather ironic that Musk invested a fortune building the Tesla green brand, which makes electric vehicles and batteries, which are seen as the future of the green economy. Unlike Trump, who is all for a dirty carbon economy, Musk has probably done more to move us to electric than any other person on the planet. You may not like it, but the facts are there. Then there is SpaceX. Now you may see it as completely bonkers. Musk says that it is the only way that humanity can ever survive in the long term. Moving  beyond planet Earth will secure the long term future of humanity.  He has a point, whether you like it or not, it is a worthy goal. Which brings us to his takeover of Twitter. From the moment it was first mooted, it was met with howls of anger from the left. "How dare a zillionaire take over a start up that we like?" seemed to be the refrain. 

Twitter was a company bleeding money. Press coverage indicated that when Musk saw the books, he was horrified. Much of what he's done to try and make it turn a profit has been very painful, but he's not the first boss to fire staff in a loss making business. He's not the first boss to try and wring every penny out of his customers. He's also not the first boss to mess up a product. Twitter is now a horrible environment. Musk welcomed back the likes of Tommy Robinson and all manner of US far right loonies. He made changes that encouraged them to spout bile on line. There is nothing nice to say about it, except that in the West we believe in free speech and sadly that means these sort of people have as much right to spout bile, so long as they are not breaking the law, as woke lefties like me. 

I have my own suspicions as to why Elon Musk has snuggled up to Trump. I suspect the main reason is that he knew Trump would win and it would be good for business. He is in the inner circle. He has the opportunity to shape the future of the USA. Unlike just about every other appointment Trump has made, Musk is actually very intelligent and has acheived things in his life. His wealth was built in tech and in spotting opportunities that no one else even realised existed. How could he not see an opportunity in what the Trump presidency offers? Musk does not come from a mega wealthy background. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer. He clearly comes from a family where taking risks and seizing opportunities is in his blood. My assessment and it may be cruel, is that Musk see's Trump as a gateway to realising his dreams of space exploration and destroying the old financial world order. He sees a bloke who appears to be suffering from a touch of dementia, who has appointed a bunch of absolute morons to run his government, because they all tell him he's marvellous. If you are clever, ambitious and a risk taker, what is not to like?

That is not to say I don't have massive concerns, which are probably just due to my paranoid and cynical nature. My biggest is Musk's investment in "The Boring Company". What does every credible Bond style villain have, whilst they are planning to destroy the world with nuclear bombs? A massive bunker where they can be safe. I do wonder if Trump ever watched any of the Bond films with Roger Moore? If I was him, I'd be a tad reticent about snuggling up too close to Musk, but maybe that's just why I don't own Paypal and am not President of the USA.

A friend suggested that Musk wants to be the next President. Whatever you may think of him, that's impossible as he was not born in the USA. It would require a change to the constitution and I doubt that will ever happen. I suspect Musk has bigger dreams. He has his eyes on the whole universe. For him, I suspect the USA is a bit small for his ambitions. My gut feeling is that Musk will be one of the few sane people in the Trump administration and that cannot be a bad thing. What few people seem to understand is that as the owner of Twitter, he has ownership of one of the biggest data mines of personal information on the planet. Every opinion that you've ever expressed on Twitter is owned by Mr Musk. I used to write software that mined information to spot fraud patterns in UK government benefits payments. What we soon learned was that once you start looking at such data, you learn all manner of things. A whole bunch of types of fraud were identified that no one even new existed until the data was crunched. I have no doubt that all of the Tommy Robinsons and their followers are having their data thoroughly crunched as we speak and I suspect that the usage of the data will only become apparent when someone realises how you can use it. I suspect that with AI analysis, Mr Musk will be able to study my Twitter history and tell me what colour underpants I'm wearing, what I'm having for dinner tonight, what time I go to the toilet, what I'm listening to on the radio and all manner of other information that would be highly useful if he decided to destroy me by fair means or foul. Whilst I doubt I'd find myself in his crosshairs, I do wonder if all of these libertarian Americans who he's actively encouraging to share their lives and thoughts on Twitter will be quite so lucky, when they cease to be useful and stand in his way. 

And if you've been tweeting your life away for the last fifteen years and you've quit, it's too late. You've already put it out there.  Every time you've tweeted that a company has badly served you, every time you've posted a restaurant, gig or coffee shop you like, every time you mention someone you know, everything. It's all there and it can all be crunched. Even things like the time you tweet at will give away things. There is also the location you are tweeting from. All of it. Not just Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. All of them. The reason why a loss making concern such as Twitter was worth so much to Musk is because Tech investors understand this. Let me give you a trite example. If Mr Musk owned a rare bootleg album of The Ramones at The Roundhouse in 1977, he could get his lackeys to crunch Twitter and he may well conclude that I'd be a great person to sell it to and send me a Tweet offering it to me. There are far darker things he may want to do with data. Who knows? The sad thing about Twitter and all of these other platforms is you've already put it out there. 

Which brings us back to the title of this blog. Why I am staying on Twitter.

1. It costs me nothing.

2. IMHO Musk is no worse than most other multi billionaires and tech companies.

3. The horse had bolted, my digital history on Twitter is already in his hands

4. I beleive in free speech and much as I dislike nutcases, they have as much right to post crap as snowflakes like me. I don't want to belong to a platform that is an eho chamber for my views.

5. No one has actually made a rational case for leaving, other than their personal dislike of Musk.

6. Twitter is still the best of breed and I see good content on it.

7.  I dislike Rupert Murdoch more than Musk and I still have Sky Sport, so it would be deeply hypocritical to flounce off Twitter just to keep my lefty mates happy.

8. Every review of every film, play and record I've read in the Guardian in the last ten years has been wrong, If they like something, it is invariably rubbish and vice verse, so their flounce off Twitter is most unconvincing.

9. Like reading the Daily Express, Twitter exposes me to difficult arguments from people I don't like, which ultimately makes me better able to argue my case.

10. If Musk succeeds in his aims of moving forward humanities colonisation of space, it may mean humanity lasts a bit longer than it would if we were earthbound. As someone with a vested in the survival of humanity, it seems a worthy ambition.

11. Its the zillionaires that we never hear about who really worry me.

12. Having someone in the Government of the USA who is not a thick, useless Trump yes man can only be good. 

And what would make me change my mind? That is really quite simple. If I found that I couldn't be arsed looking at it anymore. I'd not flounce off, I'd just stop looking at it and unconsciously disengage, like I did with Friends Reunited and Myspace. Or if Elon Musk bans me as he doesn't like this blog.

----

Anyway, now I've got your attention, here's another plug for The False Dots gig on Sunday at 2pm, at The Dublin Castle. Please come along. We are launching our first album in 45 years! 

Tickets Here >>>>>> wegottickets.com/event/627785

Don't believe everything you read on Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the Internet

 Who is the hardest working person you know? I know a few, but possibly my good friend Mr Chowdrey, who runs the Mill Hill Tandoori restaurant. He's not a young man, he opened his first Indian restaurant after arriving from Bangladesh in 1973. Any night when you go in, whether it's -3 or 30 degrees, he's in the kitchen, preparing food, keeping the place running. He's usually there until midnight and you'll see him from noon, getting things shipshape. I've known him since he took over the Mill Hill Tandoori in 1977. They do the best onion bhaji's I know, as well as a a brilliant Tandoori salmon. On a Saturday, we'll often get a takeaway and the leftover dhal, brinjal bhaji and rice will be my lunch on Monday. A few years ago, he was telling me he was thinking of retiring. He was in his mid 60's at the time. I asked him what he planned to do. He looked at me in horror and said "I've not thought about that". He then said "I don't think I could sit around the house all day". He's worked hard all his life. Running a small business is a mission, a passion and an all consuming obsession. 

Why do I mention this? Well today, a very toxic, hard right account, which claims to be the voice of Mill Hill posted this obnoxious comment "Seems Muslims live on welfare benefits and never work in London. How ?" As Mr Chowdrey is a friend (when I was undergoing cancer treatment, he was sending me curries over free of charge to cheer me up and I will often nip in for a chat when he's not in the kitchen) I simply cannot allow this foolish man, who, unlike Mr Chowdrey, has ample time on his hands to spend all day posting right wing bile on the Internet, to go unchallenged. Another good friend locally, who also happens to be a Muslim is Romel Miah, who runs the Day of the Raj takeaway in Mill Hill East. Romels family have run restaurants in Mill Hill since 1987 and won the LBC Indian Restaurant of the year. Romel is another hard worker. He's always supported Mill Hill events and charities, giving free curries as prizes etc in raffles and putting ads in programmes. In what is a supreme irony, I happen to know that the person who posted the revolting comment is a bit of a scammer. He took a lot of money from Romel, allegedly to pay for an advert in a "Mill Hill Guide" that was supposed to be delivered all over Mill Hill. Romel, being a public minded soul had paid the scammer as he believed he was supporting a local good cause. Sadly the guide never appeared. When challenged, the scammer posted up a very sub standard 'online' guide. None were delivered as agreed in the contract. 

This resulted in a very public online spat between the two. The scammer changed his Twitter handle several times to try and hide the audit trail. From that day, the scammer started posting islamaphobic content. Sadly, the police have refused to do anything, despite some highly inflammatory and provocotive content, of which, this is just the latest example. Most of the scammers Mill Hill followers have become totally alienated and his posts get 20-30 views usually, mostly from hard right accounts. 

Sadly, some people seem to be taken in by such individuals. The modus operandi of this particular character involves a lot of retweeting, with comments, of extreme right wing posts. This is a clear attempt to get more followers. I would not care, if they weren't pretending to be a Mill Hill Community account. Given all of the activities of this account and the individual who runs the account, I cannot understand the lack of police interest. Why would they ignore such things, given that they know of his past? It bemuses me.

But it is a useful illustration of the what goes on with Twitter etc. If I wasn't sadly aware of the full history of this account and the individual who runs it, I may be taken in. Normally I ignore it, but it is a useful illustration of the sheer idiotic nature of such people and how they are poisonous, dangerous and there is usually a back story. The irony of one of the dodgiest, laziest people I am aware of posting such things about other people is instructive. I'm not a fool, I know that there are good and bad in all communities. However a walk down the Mill Hill Broadway will show you people of all faiths and none running businesses, working in shops etc. We do not need divisive fools posting blatent lies, that our own eyes can confirm are total tosh on the internet.

And I have deliberately not posted the name of the account. The less oxygen such morons get, the better. 

That's all. 

The tweets of the week in the London Borough of Barnet 5th November 2023

I have to say that I think this weeks selection is excellent. Thanks to our local tweeters for their hard work. It is great that some people spend the time to put such wonderful tweets together. This feature is a celebration. Please do me a favour and if you like any of these, give them a retweet and a like. That's the best way to show your appreciation.  

As ever I start with a quick round up of my week. The highlights were seeing Brother Strut, a wonderful funk band, at Koko on Friday. We met friends before for a meal at La Patagonia, an Argentinian restaurant just over the road from Koko. I had the best steak I've had for years. The sort of steak that you always hope will come, but are so often disappointed. 

Yesterday, my Band, The False Dots played at The Dublin Castle for the Madchat (Madness fan club) Charity fundraiser. It was a wonderful afternoon, we had a blast

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The False Dots (@thefalsedots)

We topped the evening with a lovely meal with my cousins at the Orange Tree. 

That was my week, what have our Tweeters been up to?

1. We'll start in Burnt Oak, if this picture doesn't bring a smile to your face, you have a heart of stone!

Rose was ready for Halloween at our lunch club. pic.twitter.com/uSEEBLO3gj

— Good Neighbour Scheme for Mill Hill and Burnt Oak (@NeighboursMHBO) November 2, 2023

2. This looks amazing, stick it in your diary!

Have you tried lino printing yet? Drop in to Edgware library on Tuesday 7 November, 2-5pm, for a friendly introduction to printing using a pre-cut lino block and water-based inks. Suitable for adults and older children. https://t.co/Nwhx9lTx5Z pic.twitter.com/PZSdhHNmkG

— Barnet libraries (@BarnetLibraries) November 2, 2023

3. Imagine my delight at learning that once upon a time, Dr Who saved Cricklewood Broadway from the Auton!

My doctor....

Still remember "Spearhead from space" making me afraid of going past the Burton's shop window on the Cricklewood Broadway!#Autons #JonnPertwee #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/BNgFuEw7RI

— グラハム・スミス® ©Official (@BancoDePapa) November 1, 2023

4. And whilst we are in Cricklewood, @Time_nw has been doing some great work

They built homes on the former Handley Page airfield at Cricklewood https://t.co/PDaA0ZK6lZ

— NW London TimeMachine (@time_nw) November 1, 2023

5. This looks wonderful. Well done for reaching 50! A date for your diary

One week to our amazing 50th anniversary concert, a must for Baroque fans #Handel #Bach #vivaldi pic.twitter.com/i0Rq6VMeFc

— FinchleyChamberChoir (@FinchleyCC) November 4, 2023

6. We love the owrk these guys are doing

So lovely to see the @community_plot gardeners in action. Gardening brings so many benefits to individuals, communities and wildlife, and the team at the Community Plot are making it all happen! We're lucky to have such a group in North Finchley. https://t.co/VPGDPxqVOn

— Finchley N3, N12 Pollinator Project (@FinchleyPollin) November 3, 2023

7. This is well worth a shout out, can you help?

🪶🌱💙We’ve been making reed bed enhancements at #WelshHarp Brent Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest, ahead of major winter works which will require draining the water later this month. Join us next Friday for a volunteer clean up event. RSVP👇 https://t.co/PzTm8v6e78 pic.twitter.com/RvogQCQ9cp

— Canal & River Trust London & SE (@CRTSouthEast) November 3, 2023

8. And it is worth sharing this, from perhaps the best known champion of our waterways and Finchley resident. I hope everyone shares his sentiments

Feargal Sharkey speaks for most of us. @Feargal_Sharkey https://t.co/rDNum7rVBn

— Julia Barfield (@JuliaBarfield) November 5, 2023

9. If you want to be included in this, a bit of local Rock and Roll history is always welcome

1/3) November 3, 1970. At the Resurrection Club in Barnet, #MickBarnard made his debut as lead guitarist of #Genesis with whom he would play until January 5th '71, both in concert and during the composition sessions. @Mitsouko0 @Celosia2 @JudithR1 @seismictc @sandiekins pic.twitter.com/YyPyEZorlc

— Joserael  (@joserael) November 5, 2023

10. And talking of which, the boys are back in town! Legendary 60's soul band The Foundations were in Mill Hill this week, looking rather sharp!

Great to have iconic 60’s legends #thefoundations in for a rehearsal and photo shoot. Alan Warner was one of our first customers in #1979 and still going strong!#buildmeupbuttercup #badbadolddays #babynowthativefoundyou #60s #soulmusic #1960s pic.twitter.com/D0VSWOQdzG

— #MillHillMusicComplex (@MillHillMusicCo) November 3, 2023

That's all folks!

Social Media is so 2022! Has the greed of Twitter/Facebook/youtube/etc destroyed their business

 Lets start by saying, I enjoy writing a blog. I've been doing it for over 15 years now, and 99% of the time it is something I enjoy. When I started it, I didn't have a Twitter account or Facebook account. I didn't use Facebook to promote my Facebook account and only opened a Twitter account as people kept nagging me, saying that it would make it easier to know when I posted a new blog. At first you could only post short messages on Twitter, which was wonderful. We didn't have to put up with lengthy posts, by people who really didn't have much to say. You'd see the tweets of people you followed and they'd appear in Time order. Facebook was pretty much the same. I found Facebook to be good for catching up with friends and getting back in touch with ones who I'd lost contact with. At some point, and I cant be bothered to check when, Facebook decided that they knew better than me what I wanted to look at. At first, this was just ordering posts so I saw certain freinds posts and others I had to look for. Then I started getting adverts and 'sponsored posts', now all I seem to see is sponsored posts and old posts from friends, most of which I've seen already. If I look through my friends list and randomly click on someone, I find all manner of posts that I've not seen. It seems beyond the wit of Facebook to understand that I want to see posts from all my friends and I don't want to see a load of spam. It is interesting that you can report spam, but Facebook are the biggest spammers of the lot. 

Then there is Twitter. It has gone completely bonkers since Elon Musk took over. It defaults to "For you", which is what Mr Musk thinks you want to see. I was confused initially when Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg posts started appearing. If I wanted to see their bilge, I'd follow them. I am sure some people feel the same about my tweets showing up on their timeline. It is also starting to clog up with ads. Mr Musk claims that he needed to do all of this to stop it losing money. Given that he staged a hostile takeover, I rather resent the fact that he is whinging about the state of the company. If he didn't do his due diligence, is it really fair to inflict this on us? It used to be that sometimes I'd get cross with people on Twitter, now it's Twitter itself that is the problem. 

The bottom line with this is that I am absolutely fed up to the teeth with Social Media. There is little of interest. Most of the people I want to interact with have almost given up posting. For almost a decade, I've done a feature called "The Tweets of the Week in the London Borough of Barnet". I used to enjoy putting a collection of great tweets together and sharing them. The feature works best when those who's tweets are selected retweet the feature. That way, their followers get to see a selection of other interesting tweets, and hopefully all will grow their real follower base. Over recent weeks, there has been a noticeable decline in Tweeters bothering. Sometimes, they will retweet days or even weeks later. This tells me that there is a growing disconnect with Twitter. There seems to be a marked decline in views and engagements. It is a bit hard to tell as the analytics only go back a year for views. I know that far, far less people are clicking throuygh from Twitter these days. Probably 75% less than a decade ago. Now this may be because my blogs are boring, but the direct hits are pretty constant. 

Even more irritating is the barrage of notifications for Tweets that are of no interest. I only want notifications if I am tagged, retweeted or liked. Twitters algorythms are absolutely useless at predicting what tweets I want to see.

Oh and finally a word about Youtube. They've put a feature on where you can't see videos if you have an ad blocker. I think Youtube are massive piss takers as they put ads on my videos, but don't pay me anything from the ads. That was why I put the ad blocker on. I also get ridiculous notifications. I know these companies need to earn money, but they don't seem to have any understanding of the fact that they if they make their platforms too money orientated at the expense of user experience, users will use the platforms less. 

All in all, it seems to me that in the dash to wring every last bit of advertising cash out of mugs who pay to advertise on these platforms, they have totally alienated their customer base. I am not saying there isn't good stuff out there, as there is, but I rarely look at either platform now, unless I am completely bored or have just posted a blog. 

Twitter exposes the fibbers

 There has been much debate about Twitter since Elon Musk took over. I can't say I was too worked up about it one way or the other about it. He's not the sort of fella I'd be massively keen to have a night in the Mill Hill Tandoori with talking football, but by the same token, I'm not sure he's the worst of the rather strange billionaires that seem to own just about everything these days. His electric car & battery technology seem to me to be a positive thing. Yes I know about the issues with mining for batteries etc., but we do have to address air quality and emissions and he seems part of the picture in a positive way. I'm not an expert and I've no intention of arguing with anyone who's done a bit more googling of his career than me, sorry I mean research.

Anyway on to Twitter in the Musk era. The most amazing thing is how little has changed. He's let a few rather odd souls back on, some of whom have royally made fools of themselves, some haven't bothered to post anything and some have been slung straight back off. I've always had a bit of a problem with censorship, as I like to know what people have to say, even when it's obnoxious. It allows me, as an adult, to form an opinion. If I decide someone is a bit of a moron, troll or just an irritation who is not worth the effort, they get blocked. The advent of social media and armchair experts has tested my faith in people's ability to see through the crap to destruction. I simply cannot believe how many complete Charlatans are taken seriously by people. The fact that it appears a sizeable percentage of the UK population still believe Brexit is a sensible idea is, to me, evidence that sensible argument is not really possible within the constraints of Twitter. Sadly for many worthy people of reliable intellect, they fail to understand that a Nigel Farage Twitter soundbite can never effectively be answered by a 2,000 word article in the Guardian. Until fire is fought with fire, snappy slogans and shocking pictures, the masses will never even bother to look at the evidence. It is, however, not the job of Twitter, IMHO, to fact check or screen out such things. I don't have any problem with the banning of accounts promoting dodgy medical advice, promoting suicide and self harm, but where things are subjective, such as "Brexit has worked" it is a matter of opinion. For a business owner such as me, who has suffered a material loss, it clearly hasn't. However for a bloke in his front room in Saffron Waldon, who hasn't seen a direct effect and hated the EU, it may well have. To me it is like amputating your leg because your leg itches, but other people take a different view, which is their business. 

However Twitter has made one massive improvement. They have started putting the number of views a tweeter gets on the Tweet. This has, rather hilariously, exposed a few local Charlatans, who claimed millions of views. As soon as this was brought in, they seem to have almost stopped posting. One dodgy character, who regularly claimed to be the "Biggest local social media site" has realised that when people see his tweets only get 30 or 40 views, the lie is exposed. He has taken off his pinned tweet and now only seems to retweet stuff. What is more amusing is that he's paid for a Twitter blue tick, to enhance his credibility. 

The one thing I'd love to see on Twitter is for accounts to have to say who they are. I think that if a Twitter account makes a derogatory account about you, then you should be able to obtain their details. I stuck my name on my account as I don't say anything I'm not prepared to stand by. I don't see why people should be able to slander you and hide. But for now, just seeing that such people are in an echo chamber is plenty enough.

Don't let Twitter Trolls bug you. Block them and enjoy the good stuff

When I first learned of Twitter (which then had a 128 character limit), I thought it dangerous and felt it risked trivialising serious issues, I avoided it like the plague. How can you have a serious debate when you have so few letters to make your case? I was persuaded to relent, as friends pointed out that I was missing the opportinity to promote my blogging activities, which are important to me. I am still not sure I made the right decision, although having just shy of 3,000 genuine followers, all of whom are lovely, I do realise I shouldn't judge the community by the dozen or so vainglorious fools I've blocked. 

Almost immediately I regretted joining. I discovered the appalling world of Trolls. I discovered that people actually think having lots of fake and phoney accounts following you is not only desirable but worth spending time and money on. I learned that some rather silly people judge you by the size of your following, rather than the quality of what you post. I found that some people see Twitter as a game of "Gotcha!". I discovered that some people set up accounts where they pretend to be someone else, purely to congratulate themselves on the marvellous quality of their own tweeting. For the first few years, with a sense of pompous self importance, I had a policy of blocking no one and always responding to lies, misinformation and all of the other rubbish we have to endure. Then I was diagnosed with cancer, took a long, hard look at myself and realised that not only was this futile, it was stupid and damaging. I took a different path. If I think someone is an idiot, I block them and ignore them. Quite often, friends screen shot and send me details of the stupidity of some of the worst people I've come across, but I have no interest in them. Why would anyone choose to fill their life with nonsense? Very occasionally, today was one such day, I get sent a screenshot and my curiosity gets the better of me and I have little peek at what the Trolls have been up to. 

Invariably, I see a stream of banal rubbish, that any sane person would block. It has absolutely confirmed my determination to exclude such rubbish from my timeline and my thought processes. In some ways, the worst trolls I've encountered have done me an enormous favour, as they made me realise that blocking stuff that is boring, stupid and plain idiotic is a great idea. If it isn't directed at me, I just unfollow the account, but if stupid people want to start a dialogue that is purely done to irritate, it is very much C U Next Twaterday mate. 

What is interesting is how Trolls are almost universally narcissistic, thin skinned, very unintelligent (often pretending they have degrees from Oxbridge, when their tweeting displays that the only time they've been to Oxford is to buy a tin of beans from Aldi) and compulsive liars. They regularly contradict themselves. They adopt confrontational positions, which they post remorselessly, posting links to dubious websites and Daily Mail comment articles as 'proof' and 'facts'. They develop unhealthy obsessions with unsavoury characters, who they see as fellow travellers, remorselessy retweeting them. They will manically post dozens of tweets, then completely disappear for a while, only to re-emerge (I wonder if it is when the Largactol wears off?). They love to tweet how wonderful they are, how many followers they have, how they were the first to do something, yet never actually post any content of their own, preferring to nick the pictures of others. I am constantly surprised that when Trolls do post original content, it is always awful. Pictures are badly composed, websites they create are dull and unoriginal, which look like adverts for 1970's cats home bazar's. It seems that many Trolls seem to think that their imaginary friends are real people. I am sure many of them could do with some counselling ( I am not saying this as a dig, I'd genuinely like to see them get help and get a life). 

When I say this, I am, of course, completely ignoring the good side of Twitter. The side we highlight on the Tweets of the Week. The interesting info, the good guys. The rich goldmine of fascinating information. These keep me engaged with the medium.I have a small hope that Twitter will become what it should be, interesting and fun. This will happen, when people stop getting sucked into battles with Trolls and simply ignore them, block them and move on. You don't deliberately pull up a chair at the Pub Bore's table if you see them in your local. You move on to the next pub. Do the same with Twitter

Urgent - Please beware of this Internet/Instagram/Facebook/Paypal/Twitter Scam

One of the things we do is try and keep the readers of the Barnet Eye safe. When we learn of Internet Scammers, we tell you how to stop yourself getting scammed. Yesterday, one of my engineers at the Studios, who makes a living selling beats he has created, was contacted via Instagram by a supposed potential customer. The customer claimed to want to buy a track which was being sold for £249. The buyer asked for my engineer to send him a Paypal Invoice, a perfectly normal way of paying. Once the invoice was sent, he recieved a message saying that my engineer would have received a confirmation code from Paypal and this was required to complete payment. My engineer checked his phone and sure enough there was a confirmation code. As he is a savvy guy, he also noted that the confirmation said "Do not share this code". It became apparent that the supposed buyer had tried to access my engineers account, presumably to do a password reset. 

The only time you will ever receive a paypal confirmation code, is when you have tried to access Paypal. If you have not and you receive a code, someone else is trying to hack you. Never reveal a confirmation code to anyone. It is for you and only you. My engineer did some research and found articles on Reditt that this particular scammer has been active for a year, several people have been scammed and both Instagram and Paypal have done nothing. I found another example of this scam documented on the unbanster.com site. 

Thus far, my engineer has had no response from Instagram or Paypal about this fraud. When will these social media platforms start taking these issues seriously. Users who commit fraud are clearly no asset to the brand. So finally, a reminder. Do not share confirmation codes. 

The weekend has been lovely with no social media

When it was announced that football was going to have a social media blackout as part of the campaign to stop online abuse, I thought that the only morally correct thing to do was to support it. As someone who has been on the end of a concerted trolling campaign for a period of two years, I have a degree of sympathy for anyone who has had to put up with it. After finding that both the social media platforms and the police are completely useless when it comes to dealing with these matters, despite death threats, threats against my business and threats against my wife and family, I had a long chat with a friend who is works as a professional social media guru, advising blue chip companies. He was kind enough to do some research and pointed out a few things that made me see sense. 

The troll was getting zero engagement for his posts against me. In actual fact, his efforts were simply making his accounts look like the work of an obsessive with a grudge, undermining his credibility when it came to him posting about other matters close to his heart. This is obvious to anyone who follows these accounts and most people would figure out for themselves what was going on. It was also clear that there were almost no followers for the account that were genuine accounts, as the troll had a penchant for 'follow back' accounts and spambots. His advice was to block any accounts, under no circumstances respond and advise everyone I know to do the same. He said "Don't bother looking at the accounts, as all it will do is irritate you. No one else is looking at them, so why get upset at someone ranting in an echo chamber". 

From a personal perspective, this worked like a dream. Sadly a few people I know didn't take my advice and still engage and get very upset. A local restaurant owner was also targetted. Being a Muslim, he was outraged at recent Islamaphobic attacks. He has taken such attacks very personally and feels that he shouldn't have to put up with this. He is outraged that Twitter does nothing. I share his outrage that such attacks, which are clearly illegal under English Law are tolerated. The accounts are not even removed, let alone reported to the authorities. 

In solidarity with him, with the premiership footballers who make my life a pleasure and my football club, I've had a social media media blackout. I've not looked at Twitter or Facebook (apart from one post about my cousin who passed away that her sister mentioned in a phonecall). And guess what? I've not missed it all.  The faux outrage of Twitter is not something worth the bother. Of course there are some great tweeters, I normally feature their work on a Sunday, but so much of twitter is horrible. I follow Manchester City and it seems that any post by the club invariably is followed by hundreds of tweets from 'supporters' of rival clubs spewing vitriol on the team. It is not just City, every team seems to have the same thing. Normally I just filter it out. As for Politics, just about every tweet is banal. On a Sunday, I normally read the Sunday Times before I get up. This has interesting articles, which are properly researched. There is value. Where is the value in reading a Tweet that says "Boris is corrupt" or "Keir Starmer is a Tory!" or the like. What is even more worrying is when such tweets get dozens of retweets, just because the Tweeter has a profile. 

I honestly wonder if twitter has changed a single mind. What I've observed is that people congeal into groups of like minded people. They all follow each other and stoke each others prejudices. Accounts that support #Brexit are followed by Brexiteers who all wholeheartedly agree with every word they say. The same is true of remainers/rejoiners. People spend their lives composing 256 word pearls of wisdom so all of their mates can say how marvellous they are. In truth, Twitter is a narcissist dream. I didn't realise how much I dislike so much of it, until I stopped looking at it for a couple of days. I suspect that when I start using it again on Tuesday, I will have a massive cull of people I follow. They have every right to their views, but I genuinely don't want idiotic drivel that is not funny in my world.

I just want to reiterate though that there are some wonderful tweeters and twitter does have its uses, such as Samuel Levy who we regularly feature with his tweets of widlife and Mark Amies and the Mill Hill Historical Society's excellent historical tweets. I also thoroughly enjoy the people I follow on our studio account, which is 99% music content and altogether far more pleasant. When I used to work in central London, Twitter was actually quite useful when there was travel disruption, incidents with crime and terrorism etc. You could instalntly learn where to avoid. With terrorist events, you'd hear helicopters, and a quick check of Twitter would tell you all you needed to know, generally my policy was get as far away from any incident as quickly as possible. Since I now work full time in Mill Hill, hopefully that is not something I'll need any time soon. If Twitter won't detox itself, then maybe we should do it for them with a mass unfollow. 

As for Facebook, this is more complicated. There is less interaction with people who have nothing much to say but say it very loudly. I'm not friends with anyone I don't like, but it seems that there is more and more paid content and for reasons I can't fathom, interesting post from friends don't seem to appear (the one I mentioned above about my cousing being a case in point. It required a good old hunt, even though I follow my cousin). My timeline is filled with unfunny paid clips, as well as clips of snakes (which I have a phobia of) eating various things and adverts for pies. It seems that every second or third post is paid content. I get that Facebook has to pay its way, but it is so completely full of rubbish I'm not interested in, that it is actually irritating. Facebook is the worlds best spying platform. People put their whole life on it, then rant that Bill Gates is using a vaccine to implant a microchip in them to spy on them. It really is all quite bonkers. 

What is quite interesting was the number of people who looked at my blog for this Saturday, where I hadn't cross posted it on social media. This was roughly the same as the previous Saturday. 

When the Election campaign in Edgware is done and dusted, I am very minded to take a complete break from Twitter and Facebook. I won't close the accounts down, I'll just ignore them as much as possible. If and when my studio staff can come back to work and I can take some time off, I am very tempted to go on a retreat somewhere very far away and properly chill out. 

This break has made me realise that checking Facebook and Twitter before you've had your first cup of tea is a silly thing to do. I suspect that when the pandemic is over and we have real lives to live, they will reap the whirlwind they've sown with all of this rubbish we are bombareded with. I lived for 40 odd years very happily without social media. We all did. 

 

I think that the pandemic has put all this in sharp focus. Whilst there has been nothing else to do and no other way to keep in touch, it has been useful, but as I realised last night, at the Claddagh Ring as the third pint went down, sitting under the heater with friends, real life is much more fun than a digital one. 

And before you ask, yes the blog will continue. I enjoy writing it and it seems a few people enjoy reading it. Have a great Sunday.  Here is my 'cheer me up' Playlist, if you need a boost!

How to have a successful Twitter Account

I received an email from a friend asking me for hints and tips on how to make their Twitter account work better for them. They also asked whether I felt that my Twitter accounts 'worked for me'. For the record, I have a personal/blog  Twitter account @Barneteye, I co-administer the work account at Mill Hill Music Complex - This is used by reception staff at the studio to promote the studio and the artists who use it and is @MillHillMusicCo, I also co-curate the @abettermillhill account with the local Lib Dem focus group team. I will also make a confession. I occasionally have a peek at accounts that have blocked me, using the account my Missus uses for acedemic research. She would murder me if I posted from it, but once in a while it is useful if I want to be nosey. In all honesty I am not that interested most of the time to bother, life is too short, but occasionally someone DM's me and tips me off, such as when Brian Coleman tweeted that he hoped my Prostate Cancer had flared up a few years back. 

So lets have a look at these accounts (except for the Missus). 

Lets start with my main one

Roger Tichborne/RogT

@Barneteye

Follows you

Lib Dem candidate for Edgware by-election in May. Ex Orange Hill School. #savetherailwayhotel #cancer #dyslexia #savelondonmusic musician and studio owner

Mill Hill, Barnet, London, NW7barneteye.blogspot.comBorn August 16Joined April 2011

2,611 Following

2,765 Followers

I started this in 2011, with the express intention of not using it very much. My initial strategy was to simply post links to my blogs and leave it there. It has been steadily growing ever since. Sadly my initial strategy failed and I got dragged in to what makes Twitter a nightmare. Strangers who turn out to be malicious Trolls, random fall outs with people who were friends who become upset at random postings, all manner of offers I can refuse, etc.  So did it work? Well approx 16% of my blog hits arrive via Twitter, so I guess yes, it makes a contribution and I'd guess many of these are people who are new to twitter. Here are the last days stats for the blog. As you can see, most arrive via Google searches. 

If it was a business, I'd say it was well worth while. As it is my personal Twitter account, I post all sorts of stuff on it. I am sure that people who are interested in the Welsh Harp occasionally get irritated about posts about Manchester City's amazing team. It has been suggested that I have a blog Twitter account, purely for blog related posts and a personal one. If it was a business I'd definitely do this, but I am just too lazy. You'll notice that I have more followers than people I follow. Generally if someone follows me and I think they look interesting, I follow them back, but I don't always bother. If work is busy, I miss people, so please don't be too insulted. I also follow useful news sources. 

What I learned was that Twitter is far better for engaging when you are campaigning than for most other purposes. If there are a group of people, Twitter can work as glue. It is however and echo chamber. It is rare to genuinely engage with people outside your circle via Twitter, unless you make some effort. You have to go to the mountain, as it sure as hell won't come to you. 

Very occasionally Tweets do go viral, but this genuinely only happens when there is some groundbreaking new. I got 25,000 hits in one day once, as the result of a tweet about the reopening of the Oriental Centre. I simply couldn't believe that. A similar thing happened when I had a spat with Mail on Sunday writer Peter Hitchens. Thousands of blog hits, but my followers on Twitter went up by 3. 

www.google.com

942

t.co

192

m.facebook.com

182

www.google.co.uk

93

l.facebook.com

15

lbbspending.blogspot.com

12

mrlimitless95.blogspot.com

4

barneteye.blogspot.co.uk

3

www.google.com.au

3

Other

3.26K

Next up, lets have a look at Mill Hill Music Complex

#MillHillMusicComplex

@MillHillMusicCo

Call 020 8906 9991 #studiocomplex #musicshop #rehearsalstudio #recordingstudio #dancesstudio #castingstudio #photostudio #videostudio #pahire #nw7 #ha8 #nw9

London,NW7 2AJmillhillmusiccomplex.co.ukJoined October 2011

2,288 Following

2,326 Followers

This was set up in October 2011, to promote the studio when we launced our new development, in association with our new website. I very quickly realised that Twitter has almost no role to play in developing new business for a music studio. Wht it is great for is engaging with customers and friends of the studios. It gives you a chance to keep in touch and show some love. If a customer has a new release, video or gig, you can share it. This helps the customer generate interest, which in turn means they have more reason to use the service. It shows that you are not just interested in their cash. A Better Mill Hill

@ABetterMillHill

Follows you

Twitter for the Mill Hill Lib Dem Focus team. Local news from Mill Hill

London, Englandabettermillhill.blogspot.co.ukJoined September 2017

507 Following

633 Followers

Finally we have the account for the Mill Hill Lib Dem focus team. We set this up when I rejoined the party in 2017 and was selected to run in Mill Hill with Donna and Richard. Twitter does not get you new supporters, change people's minds about voting intentions, or serve any major function in local election campaigns. Generally people follow you because they are sympathetic to you (or they are an opponent waiting for a slip up). The idea that a Tweet saying "Free parking for all in Mill Hill" (or the suchlike) would win a single vote is ridiculous. What it does do very well, is keep your particular community engaged. At the start of the Pandemic, I had a Zoom chat and beer with a friend who is a social media branding expert for one of the countries biggest companies. He's guided me on many matters over thelast 12 years. We discussed the Pandemic and he made a very interesting comment. Many people are alone and isolated. They have little interaction and Twitter is one of the ways they keep an eye on their community. He suggested that we use the account to post positive images, post links to relevant information and use our community profile to keep our friends and supporters engaged. It means that when you see them, they don't have to ask the "what have you been doing since the last election" question. I've made it a personal mission to take nice pictures around Mill Hill. 

I recently saw a friendly local Tory Councillor. He complemented me on some of the pictures and asked whether he thought it was worth the effort? Ive no idea if it will translate into a positive vote for the Lib Dems in Mill Hill. I've no idea whether it will push the vote over the line. But for anyone who follows the account, which is well over 600 people who live in Mill Hill, they know that we care for and appreciate our environment and the green belt. No one can say "You only raise these issues at election time".

As general rules, here are some

There are some complete no no's I'd recommend for Twitter if it is for any sort of professional or campaign purposes

* Don't expect the account to grow overnight, it takes months or years to develop a genuine and useful Twitter account. It is who you engage, not the number that matters.

* Block Troll and don't engage in spats

* Dont chase followers who are not genuine, it undermines your credibility

* Don't call people names, names or make potentially libellous claims if you don't like people

* Don't regularly change your handle. It looks dodgy looks suspicious.

* Don't lock and unlock accounts on a regular basis. If you do have a credible reason

* Don't set up spoof accounts to congratulate, like or Troll (yes that happens) yourself to make you look good.

*  Don't Troll your competetors. People are not stupid and will soon catch on 

* Don't lose your focus. If you are non personal account, don't launch personal crusades.

* Don't over egg your mates products, whilst ignoring or belittling other, better alternatives

And the list of things you should do

* Be clear and transparent in your profile as to who you are

* Post regularly

* Stick to the themes that you set the account up to promote (unless it is a personal account)

* Like and retweet other tweeters who you feel are doing a good job

* Retweet campaigns/products you support

* Share useful and interesting information

* Work out your strategy and stick to it

* Follow people because they are interesting and post useful tweets. Don't follow people who just churn out rubbish. It will just fill your time line with noncense

And a couple of safety rules.

* always report Trolls if they are clearly harrassing you or someone else

* Don't follow people who appear to be abusive, you may be next

* Before you follow someone who has retweeted you or liked a post, read their profile and check other tweets. They may just be fishing for followers, that doesn't make them a bad person, but be aware of what sort of stuff they post, as it will turn up on your timeline.