Helen Nianias Journalist @helennianias is regularly one of the most clicked links on our @Twitter timeline, acting as a sociological and political compass between what is otherwise just pictures of records. She has just started the most magnificent newsletter called “Getting Cleverer with Helen Nianias”, already covering the Hijra people, helium, David Hockney’s first trip to California, the non-Bantu click languages and the Obscene Publications Act 1857. But what could she tell us about record shops? - 352 Deluxe: We’re Twitter friends, so I wanted to be in touch to talk about record shops and the world in under 140 characters… Helen Nianias: But you do know that I’m actually not very good on Twitter? Some of my close journalist friends are absolutely fantastic at it. @dollyalderton is unbelievable using Twitter and also my good friend @sophwilkinson, to be honest I actually find it makes me feel very selfconscious.
Twitter presence should be. You don’t want to present a really rounded representation of yourself, you have to present certain aspects, a certain side. Another good example would be @caitlinmoran who can’t possibly be like that all of the time, but in terms of Twitter you certainly know what you can get from her every time. I think I am just not very good at knowing what it is I want to say. D: So you’re in some way using Twitter as a portfolio of you as a person and a writer?
D: I know Dolly, well I follow her on Twitter if that makes any sense, so I feel like I have a bit of a gauge of her. She seems very extrovert, I don’t know how different she is in person to her Twitter profile?
HN: Oh yeah, absolutely, I definitely would have nothing to do with Twitter if I didn’t use it for work.
HN: I don’t know, I think Dolly is a very good example because she built herself on social media – and I would add by being extremely hard-working and very talented – I don’t think she really is the same online as she is in real life, which is actually a very important thing. I think people who are really good using Twitter know exactly what their
HN: When you’re self-employed and work from home as a freelance, it is very easy to feel quite lonely. It is a good way to feel like people are reading your work and engaging with what you’re writing and the stories you do. That aspect is really nice. I like also that you get to interact with people more directly which can be really useful. I think
D: How big a part of your work is it?