After joining Twitter about a year or so ago, I have to say that I love it. That says a lot coming from someone who was reluctant to join the social media scene--I was the last person in my book club to join Facebook and only did so due to peer pressure. I'm on Twitter much more than Facebook these days because I like the immediate back and forth it allows between people, and I enjoy the constant stream of information. NOTE: If you don't yet follow me on Twitter, you can do so by clicking the twitter icon on the side, or just click here. All the cool kids are. ;) Here are a few tips I thought I'd pass along, and please add your own observations/tips in the comments:
DO
1) Share useful information. I love it when people pass along informative links or RT articles on the publishing industry.
2) Engage with others. Though it's great to share, don't solely rely on RT's and links to other things. Spend some time engaging with your fellow writers and industry peers.
3) Be yourself. The people that I enjoy following the most are those that seem to just be themselves. Whether you are naturally interesting, witty, or funny--embrace it and do that. Trying to present as something other than you are comes through.
DON'T
1) Promote your book constantly. One of the few things that will cause me to immediately unfollow someone is if they follow me and I follow them back--only to get a "message" a minute later asking me to buy their book or check out their site. Don't do this!
2) Follow people just so they'll follow you back, and then unfollow them to jack up your numbers. Rather than making you look popular, you look like a [insert favorite curse word]. NOTE: People reading this post are clearly awesome people who don't do this.
3) Don't exclude. Even if I can't follow everyone back (because it's only possible to keep track of so many people in my feed), I always respond to @replies. Unless you're Neil Gaiman, you are not too cool for school, and will come across as a [insert favorite curse word] when you are only seen interacting with published writers.
What are your Twitter tips? Do you autofollow everyone? Share below.
I can't possibly autofollow everyone. I already follow about 150 people, and some of them are prolific tweeters. I don't necessarily read every tweet, but I'm just OCD enough that I at least skim through them all. I'd never eat, sleep, or write if I tried to follow all the people who've ever followed me for a day and then dropped off the list because I didn't follow them back immediately. If their feed is relatively interesting, I'll follow.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the absolute worst is following someone who might offer some insightful information, but then 90% of their 20 tweets a day are links to reviews or sites selling their books. Okay, one little blast of good reviews/self-promotion per day is fine, but if that's all you share, then I have no reason to follow you. I got the message the first time, please don't assault me with it! Be interesting!
Yeah, I think I'm going to have to stop following back and just focus on the interaction part. It stops feeling useful when you can't possibly keep up with everyone you follow. Thanks for weighing in!
DeleteI agree with this! I am really tired of self promotion blasts people do all day. I am pretty sure it's just auto-tweets. I don't mind an occasional tweet about books and reviews, or promotions, but not 17 a day spread out about one every hour.
DeleteThanks for the post! I just started Twitter a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I know, I'm late to the scene. These are helpful tips, and even after a short while, I know exactly what you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Twitter and I hope you find it as much fun as I do. :)
DeleteWhat a timely post. I'm about to cave and start Twitter. I just started a blog....slowly, but surely working on that one. Twitter's next. Thanks for the much needed advice!
ReplyDeleteAfter I caved, I found Twitter really easy to jump into...good luck!
DeleteUse lists. Once you start following a certain number of people it gets to be really tough to stay on top of the ones you really want to follow.
ReplyDeleteJack--that's an awesome tip and something I've been meaning to do. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet--thanks for the advice!
DeleteI learned the hard way. ;)
DeleteI don't mind following just about anyone (except for obvious non-niche spammers). Gives me variety when I go to the feed. I create lists of people so that if I'm in a mood for a smaller group of people, I can do that too.
ReplyDeleteI don't unfollow ones who spam me. I can ignore them and move on, but I understand ones that can't. I'm interested in helping ones market, though, so I can't be super tight with my numbers. More the merrier!
Yeah, I think my next step is to break it up into smaller lists like you have--it seems more manageable that way. Thanks for the input! :)
Delete