I’ve somehow succeeded on Twitter so I finally decided I would explain some of how I work. I did so in a series of tweets I’ll post here as a blog.

A few practical tweets about my twitter. First, I use @buffer to schedule tweets constantly, I usually have a month or more in cue. /1 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

…I use @fenix_app to follow a select secret list of <100 tweeps & it brings me back to where I last read (hence delay responses). /2 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

…I used to love the mention tab a lot but got annoyed that it doesn’t get tweets quoting me so I use “FrMatthewLC” as a saved search. /3 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

…I did use some follower churn (following then unfollowing if no follow back) for a while but have basically stopped. /4 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

…In late July, I decided to make a stricter criteria for who I follow and have unfollowed 17,000 in the past 45 days (almost done). /5 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

Update: I finished out my cleaning at a little over 20,000 people unfollowed a few days ago.

…I applied for the verified check a few days after they opened it to applications as a follower tweeted a link & suggested it. /6 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

…I don’t have a parish but study, write (blogs, books, etc.), take care of my community’s money & help at a retreat center. /7 — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

I wanted to use this opportunity to (1) be open, (2) explain oddities, & (3) apologize to those I annoyed by follower churn. /8 /end — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016

After I thought I’d finished, a few more thought came up:

A final thought on social media: I didn’t set out to be top & I resisted it. A year before I joined, I wrote this: https://t.co/dMxMhL2QKP — Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) September 13, 2016