A few weeks ago on this site, Scott Gerber made a compelling case that conservative professors should engage in public debate by writing op-eds. I wholeheartedly agree, but I’m going to take his argument a step further and say conservative professors should also be active on X (formerly Twitter).

Meaning no disrespect to other social media platforms, if you want to be part of the conversation—well, that conversation is happening on X.

X is also the most free-speech-friendly platform. It’s not perfect, but since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, it has generally been a place where people can say what they want, as long as they don’t mind being fired, stalked, or doxed. (Just kidding. Sort of.) 

And then there’s the potential reach. If you say something on X that resonates with people, there’s a good chance thousands will read it. Maybe millions. How many op-eds get that kind of traffic, to say nothing of academic papers?

Last March, amid the uproar over Vice President J.D. Vance’s Munich speech excoriating European leaders for betraying democratic values, I wrote a satirical post on X that went viral. At the time, I had only about 4500 followers, but for some reason, the post caught on.

The post got 6.5 million views on my account alone. It was then reposted by Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and several other large accounts, garnering more than 50 million views. I also added 23,000 followers in a matter of days.

I say all this not to brag—well, maybe a little; being reposted by Elon was quite the heady experience—but to make the following point: I’ve been writing essays, op-eds, and “thought pieces” for national outlets for more than 25 years, including some with hundreds of thousands of readers. I’ve also published eight books. And yet it’s almost certain that more people read that one X post than everything else I’ve ever written put together.

That’s kind of depressing, but it’s also eye-opening. In the era of social media, if you really want to have a voice in the public forum, you can’t afford to ignore X. It is the public forum.

Of course, this is not an either-or proposition. I continue writing these “long-form” pieces for sites such as Minding the Campus and Campus Reform because I enjoy it and think it’s important. But something else I’ve learned from having a significant presence on X is that I can use it to introduce people to my other writings.

You have to be a little careful, as the X algorithm is not friendly to links. But there are ways around that, which you can probably figure out with a little trial and error—or by reading this excellent tutorial.

There are some drawbacks to having a visible presence on X. For one thing, I wouldn’t recommend going too far out on that limb unless you have tenure. At many institutions, you can be disciplined for what you say online, but it’s a little more difficult—as I wrote back in December—for ideological enforcers to punish tenured faculty.

You also must have a pretty thick skin, especially if you use your real name, which I highly recommend. (How can you share your perspective if no one knows it’s yours?) You may receive plenty of approbation for your witty or pithy posts, but you will almost certainly get pushback, too, some of it quite unpleasant.

But if you’re okay with that and want to be part of important national conversations, jump on X, say true things, build an audience, and help change the world one follower at a time.

Follow Rob Jenkins on X.