Explorations In Reading, Writing, and Publishing
I tried for about a year to incorporate Twitter into my book promotion activities.
I decided to leave it alone…
Now, I’m using it “sparingly”—posting titles and links to my blog posts.
Still, this doesn’t mean that authors/writers shouldn’t use twitter for maximum engagement with readers and other writers (not to mention editors and publishers).
One way to begin using Twitter is to start following a few select folks and just lurk—until you get the urge to respond…
One possibility for profitable lurking is the Top 50 Creative Writing Professors on Twitter.
For a Primer on Twitter use try C|Net‘s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter.
Plus, once you get used to the environment of the Twitter-Space and begin “Tweeting”, you’ll want to start using “Hashtags” so interested folks can find your Tweets.
One particularly good article on hashtag use is a guest post on Joel Friedlander‘s blog by Frances Caballo—How Twitter Hashtags Help Authors Find Readers.
Frances says, “Hashtags are a great feature that can help you to expand your online reach by attracting users searching for your hashtags and help you reach your targeted audience. Hashtags are also useful for tracking mentions of you, your books and your genres.”
[Edit] One of our commenters on this post takes rightful issue with Caballo’s article.
Here’s one of my recent Tweets:
That @JaneFriedman tag at the front was to let Jane know that my post was about her :-)
The hashtags are at the end—#amwriting #amediting #authors #books #publishing
Those are all popular tags that writers use to find appropriate tweets.
And, of course, there’s the message, “in A Great Google Hangout Video”; and, after that, the link to my blog post…
The link up there to Ms. Caballo’s article will give you quite a few more popular hashtags with explanations of their use.
Another great resource for hashtags for writers is on the author media site—44 Essential Twitter Hashtags Every Author Should Know.
And, to show the flexibility of the use of hashtags, that author media article says:
“Hashtags are used for:
So, do you use Twitter?
If you do, what are some of your favorite hashtags??
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Thank you! I really feel with all of the Social Networking options we need more of these types of posts to help us get what we want fast.
Right, John—also, a person has to choose their own best fit for social media and not drive themselves nuts trying to do all of them :-)
I do use Twitter a lot and oddly enough, I just finished reading the Frances Cabello article… which I think is amusing and useless if you’re actually trying to get your work in front of readers and not in front of other writers. Twitter is like a cocktail party or happy hour… and if you’re constantly just tweeting about yourself and your stuff, without talking to anyone… well, it’s like the insurance salesman that we all try to avoid. The minute the guy grabs you and starts to hand you his card, you’re cringing on the inside and hoping someone will come along and save you.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I figure if people want to successfully use Twitter, they need to follow age-old standards like listening and being interested in other people FIRST before they start broadcasting sales pitches.
Ugh, can you tell this is a small pet peeve of mine? Guess I need to save all this “rant” energy for a blog post…
Since you help folks take the “ick” out of self-promotion, would you like to do a guest
rantpost or an interview on my blog, Shauntelle?Hi Alexander! :) Thank you for the offer! I’d love to do a guest … um.. rant or interview on your blog! :) My email is snhamlett at gmail dot com… if you’ll email me your guidelines, I’ll create a piece for you.
“Guidelines” on their way :-)
It took me a while to get used to twitter, but I do agree with the comment about it being like a cocktail party. In my mind, it’s more like CB radios in the 1970s (something I can relate to, more so than a cocktail party)….
I kind of agree with the comment too about diving into the broadcast of sales pitches, and yet there are writers I “hear” on twitter who do this in such a creative and engaging way, it intriques me to follow their links.
Yes, Simone, being creative and engaging does seem to be the best way to make Twitter “work”…
It seems to involve trial and error, don’t you think? For example, I thanked my followers with a ZZ Top music video from 1979. After that, many ran like scared jackrabbits – unfollowed me
;-)
Hmmm…
Maybe try Pink Floyd??
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