The problem with contemporary poetry doesn’t lie in the fact that it’s terribly wordy. No one writes rhymed verses anymore – they all write free ones. Thus today’s poetry is highly verbose and there’s a terrible amount of words in contemporary poems. What the poet wants to say fits easily into 140 characters.” The most popular Czech user, Petr Kukal, wrote this about Twitter at the time when it only allowed 140 characters for one tweet. A poem and a tweet is thus the same thing – they’re about expressing your thought in a certain form to make it understandable for others and to speak to them in some way.  

Therefore, with social networks it’s important to think about the content that we want to convey, but also to have a grasp of what can happen when we (or others) add content to a social network in a certain state of mind or out of ignorance. The fact that we delete our tweet or post from our socials doesn’t in any way mean that other people won’t find out about it (e.i. delated tweets for Donald Trump). What can at first glance seem funny, pertinent or fitting on social networks can lose its context and give a completely different impression than the one we initially wanted.  

So how should we deal with content on social networks? It’s not really possible to provide a universal guide, but the following points can point you in the right direction:  

1. What you share on social networks can have a great impact on your life and on others – maybe even greater than you can imagine. Be restrained and careful.  
2. Posts on social networks create a digital footprint about you. This can be negative, but can also be helpful. Think about this footprint.  
3. Try to understand the network that you want to work with as well as possible – absorb the culture, customs and methods of interaction. If you’re able to do this, you’ve got a greater chance of your posts being a success.  
4. Take time with your posts – no one is interested in a crooked, blurry photo on Instagram. Try to make your posts really good. This doesn’t have to mean that they’re impersonal, but try to think about them. For example, YouTubers devote extreme attention to all the phases of the creative process – from scene design to post-production. What might look like a random video is often built upon a great deal of work in advance.  
5. “You are who you connect with. Not what you read. That’s the music of the past.” This was said by Bořivoj Brdička and he’s right in many ways. Who we connect with on social networks influences who we are, what content we can create, and why. 
6. Pay attention to comments and interactions – they can also help you fine-tune how your posts should look – you’re writing, taking photographs or making videos because of them. But this doesn’t mean that a person should stop thinking about what he or she wants to say. A photo of bare breasts might get more likes than one of you in a dress, but is that really what you want to show?  
7. Make content that is fun for you. If it’s not fun, then it’s a waste of time and not worth doing.  
8. Be careful of spelling and grammar errors – you’ll only get lambasted for it and you’ll look foolish. Social networks are also places that can play an important role in looking for employment. 
9. When we hear the word social networks, most of us think primarily of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok, and also maybe LinkedIn. We’d like to point out some other social networks that specialize in a certain artistic activity. They can come in handy when you want to improve your photography, poetry writing and many other activities where you want to receive more sophisticated feedback than “<3 OMG so beautiful :*”. 

• Písmák – the largest Czech server focusing on poetry, but you’ll also find prose texts here as well. If you want to work with creative writing in literature, we really recommend trying it out. You’ll usually get tough but clear and structured feedback that can help you improve. Everyone gets it, so don’t worry.  
• Digiarena – a large server focusing on photography. If you take photographs, we highly recommend trying to upload some of your photos here. You’ll get feedback here too both in the form of points and also commentary. The server primarily offers the opportunity for beginning photographers to “grow”, and builds a community around itself with longer, continual content.  
• ResearchGate – a project focusing on science and scientists. We recommend it if you want to follow what others are exploring, and also if you want to connect with them and ask for advice. At the same time, you’ll find many articles that aren’t otherwise free to download. If science is the field of your creation, this is a crucial tool.   
• Deviantart – this website claims to be the biggest online gallery. If you’re focusing on the visual arts and you ideally want to work with an international context, this is the website for you. You’ll find more marginal themes here such as texts, fonts, videos and more.
• Ello - a big international project that allows you to create a community with other artists in many fields - writing, creating GIFs, 3D objects, painting, ...

These social networks will give you relatively easy access to a community that wants to learn and can be a great help for you to improve your work. There’s a large difference between knowing that a photo should be cropped and getting a suggestion from someone to crop it “here by the branch” or to make a square out of it. You’ll see this promptly and your progress can also be fast. Just don’t let yourself be put off initially by the stern comments. It’ll take some time before you get used what people put emphasis on and where, but it’s worth it.