Using MindSkills to Improve your Twitter Presence

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How much do you know about your own MindSkills? If you’re wondering that they’re two words and not one, you’re in the right place. Yes, MindSkills is mind skills. But it’s also so much more than another casual compound word—MindSkills are the fundamental forces that drive us to be who we are. To learn more about MindSkills and how they relate to Twitter, we invited George Silverman, the MindSkills guy. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: George Silverman
Topic: Using MindSkills to improve your Twitter presence
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

The #TwitterSmarter chat is sponsored by Ahrefs.

Q1: What do you mean by MindSkills?

As the name implies, MindSkills refers to the methods we use for thinking, feeling, and behaving effectively in our environment.

Though individual strategies and processes may vary, the term MindSkills relates to universal comprehension concepts we all use in order to be better at what be do and achieve our goals. These include critical thinking, reading, writing, teaching, problem-solving, emotion, time, and relationship management.

As Alyx put it, MindSkills is also a broader term encompassing the skills and tools you can develop as an individual to enhance your lifestyle. Examples of this include having a learner’s mindset and being willing to share ideas with others.

Q2: Why are MindSkills important for Twitter?

MindSkills matter because Twitter is fundamentally a communication platform. Cultivating your MindSkills will help you set goals and create a strategy around what you communicate, why it matters to you, and how well you do it. George has also written a playbook on MindSkills and how you can hone yours. Check it out here: https://publish.obsidian.md/mindskills-playbook/_MindSkills+Playbook/Welcome+to+the+MindSkills+Playbook

Madalyn mentioned some specific ways MindSkills can help improve your Twitter presence. Being aware of your MindSkills and actively working on them helps you listen to what your audience really wants from you. It’ll help you create more relevant content, resonate with your target audience, and build lasting friendships on the platform.

Q3: What skills do you need to communicate effectively on Twitter?

Apart from the ones we covered in Q1, George also emphasized the importance of offering value concisely, having an open mindset to experiment, take risks, and make mistakes.

Additionally, our guest also pointed out that being true to who you are as a person without getting caught up in changing trends and keeping inner creativity alive are essential skills to becoming a memorable communicator.

Pavel and our friends from VirtuDesk added a bunch of other skills essential for good communication on Twitter. These include copywriting, organizational skills, analytical skills, resourcefulness, and providing empathic customer service.

Q4: Do you need different skills for tweeting and speaking on Spaces?

There’s a lot of overlap between the skills you need to write a tweet and speak in a Space. You have to be clear and concise in both cases, however, when you’re speaking you also have to think on your feet and organize your thought process coherently and sequentially.

Not everyone is eloquent—as you may have noticed if you’ve been on Spaces. Some people tend to blather on, as Christine put it because you can get away with talking a lot without saying anything on Spaces. That’s why it’s important to be conscious of other people’s time when you’re speaking.

On the other hand, as our friends from Biteable explained, when you’re speaking, you can alter your tone and tenor to convey your intentions rather easily. When you’re writing, though, because you don’t have those social cues, you have to put in extra effort to ensure your tweet isn’t open to too much interpretation.

Q5: What are some ways that Twitter Spaces can help improve your MindSkills?

Twitter Spaces can be an excellent way to sharpen the various parts of your cognitive ability to improve your communication, as our friends from Clover Media explained. For instance, being in Spaces forces you to listen carefully, process what the other person is saying, and formulate a response in your head before delivering it. This exercise boosts your ability to pay attention to and comprehend dynamic interactions.

As Dana also pointed out, Twitter Spaces will keep your mind on its feet (that’s a weird thing to say). Because topics can branch into subtopics or change track entirely at any minute, Spaces is a good way to train your mind to be alert and attuned to its surroundings.

Q6: Why is Twitter a good platform to hone your MindSkills?

Twitter is an ideal place to improve MindSkills because you get instant feedback on Twitter. By nature, the platform is designed for back-and-forth spontaneous interactions. And so you get to see how people react and respond to you, and you can use that as a practicing ground to improve your own ways of reacting and responding to others.

Julie from Nimble also reminded us that Twitter is a good place to learn to listen more actively and be open and adapt to changes as they come.

Q7: What are some other ways to develop your MindSkills?

Have a look through George’s MindSkills playbook—it’s a living document, which means that it’s never really finished writing. He continuously updates it and adds to it, making sure that it stays relevant in our changing world. You can also join his Twitter Community to learn more about developing your MindSkills. Our guest also suggested tools like Obsidian and logseq that encourage you to introspect and improve your thought processes.

Sruthi made a good point too: one of the best ways to develop your MindSkills is to seek feedback from those who want to critique you and genuinely see you improve. That’s your friends and family. They’ll notice things you won’t—get their feedback and work on it.

Q8: Do we all have and need the same MindSkills to succeed?

Some of the core principles of MindSkills are universal, as we discussed before. However, we all see the world differently and process things uniquely. How we incorporate MindSkills into our lives and how we combine them depends on our personal interests, capabilities, and purposes. As George said, think of it as making a soup rather than baking a cake.

Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks a lot for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with George, have a look at this Twitter thread. If you think this summary is pretty good, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us every Thursday at 1pm ET on #TwitterSmarter. We also hang out on Twitter Spaces at 5pm ET to continue our chat. Catch you there!


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About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all the things—marketing stuff for the bills; haiku and short stories for the soul. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.

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