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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Posting More Better: Social Media Rules of Thumb, published by Nathan Young on May 3, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Thank you to those who commented. This does not imply they agree with this post: Rob Bensinger, John Bridge, Garrsion Lovely, Fin Moorhouse, Bruce Tsai, Rachel Edwards, Linda Linsefors, Joseph Lemien, Ines, Charles Dhillon, Neel Nanda, Linchuan Zhang, Chana Messinger, Kirsten Horton, Vaidehi Agarwalla, Frances Lorenz, Dan Elton, Shakeel Hashim, please DM me if I've forgotten you, I'm very very forgetful. Tl;dr The downside risk of small accounts is low The upside of using social media is high If you like social media you should post more Context I use twitter a lot. Often I think, “Am I having a positive impact?”. I think I am. This post is an attempt to lower the barriers to entry to social media and offer you the chance to critique my thinking. My sense (and yours, though small sample) is that EA is getting more attention recently. Things feel higher upside and higher downside. So here are some rules of thumb I use when thinking about social media. I intend to write a second post around EA, comms and reputation, but if someone wants to beat me to it, feel free. While researching this, I learned the Community Health team are good point people to email for any developing community reputation issues media@centreforeffectivealtruism.org. There is also this article on how to talk to journalists Doing more good on social media: Some rules of thumb If you only read one bit of this article My life is my own. I find deference tempting, but my social media choices are my own. I want to start from a position of agency. I don't need anyone's permission to post Do good better. My social media presence is a resource just like everything else. How can I use it to maximally increase the outcomes I want/behave virtuously? There isn’t a cutoff between my money, my time and my social media use (you might have different boundaries here) You can talk to people you’ve always wanted to through social media. Because of twitter, I have made several close friends, I have gotten 2 job offers and I interviewed Bryan Caplan the other day. If you’re a small presence on social media, perhaps take a few more risks. I generally think people should post their actual views more, not less. There is a huge space of ideas and I think generally we under-discuss, rather than the opposite If you want a place to do this, I suggest discussing your cause area is a good place to explore boundaries. I would not recommend starting out with radical takes on sexual ethics If I make an error, I admit it and say why I was wrong If I posted something completely out of order, I often just delete it. I sometimes take flack from rationalists for this, but twitter doesn’t allow EA forum-style crossing out. I don’t want to be attached to a viral post I no longer endorse. Even correcting doesn’t help if people don’t see the correction I post about what gives me energy. I find social media a good thing between tasks. What do you enjoy talking or writing about and how can you use that for good? Reply well. Social media is about making connection with other people. Learn how to respond to someone in a friendly and conversation-starting way. In some way we are all "reply guys" for someone up the chain. I want Matt Yglesias to respond to my ideas. Matt Yglesias wants Joe Biden to respond to his. Twitter especially just condenses this social graph Correcting strangers is overrated. Changing minds is hard and it often requires relationship. If you are new to twitter, please do not start by arguing with everyone (unless it’s rationalists, they love that) If you are in Global Poverty or Animal Welfare you are particularly missing on social media. Perhaps it’s just me, but EA twitter feels like it has a strong...