I’ve been using Twitter, as a writer, for a few years now. Recently,
I’ve been conducting some experiments and doing a spot of exploration. I
thought I’d share my findings, for what they’re worth, with the writing
community.
I don’t have a huge following: 8,537 followers, as I compose this post,
with me following 8,534 and having made 21,299 tweets. But it’s a lot more than
I started with at the beginning of the year: 5,110 followers, following 5,012,
and 11,823 tweets. Much of that increase has taken place in the past couple of
months, with the bulk of it occurring over the month of December. This is the
result of the experiments.
I belong to a group on Facebook, called ASMSG (Authors Social MediaSupport Group), just one of a number of such groups. The basic premise is that
we re-tweet and post each other’s links in the hope of increasing our exposure.
The group has around 780 members at present and we’re all linked with each
other. There’s a good deal of activity on Facebook as well as on Twitter.
One of the things I’ve started to do is increase my re-tweeting of other
members’ tweets, and that has had an impact, increasing my following. However,
I believe the major contributor to the increase has been my collection of
twitter handles that I then tweet; promoting these re-tweeters in groups to my
followers. By advertising the fact that a tweeter retweets regularly, you
encourage others to follow that tweeter. So, what’s in it for me? Well,
naturally, other tweeters see what I’m doing and want to get in on the act.
They follow me, retweet my tweets and I then add them to my collection. I use a
Word document along with the ‘find’ function to keep track of this activity.
Since it takes me about an hour each day to do this, I won’t be able to
continue it for long. But the experiment has been very instructive.
It’s clear that re-tweeting the tweets of others is an excellent way of
spreading not only their messages but also my own name.
So: Tip 1:
If someone retweets something
you’ve done, something that matters to you, have the good manners to follow
them (if you don’t already) and to RT one of their tweets. You’ll build
goodwill along with new followers. And thank them for the RT: your own tweet
handle along with theirs will go out to the community and be seen again.
Secondly, I’ve taken to following all those who follow me,
regardless of whether I’m fascinated by their activity. This may seem odd
thing, but it’s connected me with others in whose tweets and activities I am
interested. And it’s resulted in sales of my books. The spread is viral, you
see. You’ll notice that my numbers of ‘followers’ and ‘following’ are quite
close. This synchronicity seems to encourage people to follow: they see that
they won’t be following without being followed back and that’s important to
many tweeters.
Tip 2:
Follow back those who follow you.
Are you aware that a tweet that starts with a handle;
@stuartaken, for example, will go only to your followers and those who follow
the named person, and not to the whole community. By starting a tweet this way,
you’re effectively reducing your reach. We’re writers: exposure is vital; the
more people who see your name/message, the better. So, you need to start your
tweets with something other than the @ symbol. Anything will do. You’re a
writer: I’m sure you can come up with alternative wording to overcome this
limitation.
Tip 3:
Never start a tweet with @ unless you specifically want it
to be limited in its reach.
Many tweeters use automated direct messages. These are
generally ignored by the bulk of tweeters. In fact, it’s not unusual for people
to unfollow such tweeters, treating the DM as spam. So beware. If you must send
a DM, and I’d advise against unless circumstances dictate it, make sure it’s
personal, not general.
Tip 4:
Avoid automatic DMs.
Programs, such as
justunfollow, allow you to keep track of
your followers. There are companies and individuals out there who will follow
you until you follow back and then they’ll unfollow you, safe in the knowledge
that most people won’t notice this sneaky way of increasing their followers.
Using something like
justunfollow allows you to keep an eye on those who’ve
ceased to follow you and this, in turn, helps keep your followers and those
you’re following in some sort of balance. Try it. It’s free, and fairly quick and
easy to use.
Tip 5:
Use a program to keep your followers in balance with those
you’re following.
Hashtags, #, identify
areas of mutual interest for tweeters. On your Twitter page you’ll see a
heading, #Discover. I bet most of you
have never ventured into this land, however. Hashtags can be attached to any
number of subjects. There’s one for Doncaster, one for Kindle, for Mandela, for
SciFi, Fantasy, Horror, and, of course, WRITING. In fact, you name it and
there’s probably a hashtag for it. So, what does this mean? It allows you to
join a community with the same interests as you, it allows you to interact with
them and encourages those who retweet to retweet your tweets to like-minded
folk, thereby spreading your name and messages to those most likely to be
interested in the topic.
Tip 6:
Use hashtags (the search facility
will enable you to identify the exact format you need to use for each specific
tag).
One last thing that I suspect
a lot of you don’t know (it’s amazing how reluctant users can be to explore
websites) is that the headings on the ‘Home’ page have functions. If you click
on the tab that says ‘Followers’ you’ll see it lists your followers in date
order, with the most recent at the top of that list. You can quickly follow
back all new followers from this one spot. Easy.
Tip 7:
Explore and use the various
tools Twitter supplies for use. They make life easier and save time.
Some general advice, based on
my own experience:
If you’re using Twitter as
writer, you want the maximum audience; don’t make your tweets private or use programs
like Truetwit to verify twitters. Whilst such barriers may be useful for
private users, they get in the way of easy interaction with potentially useful
contacts for those of us trying to spread the word. Keep an eye on spammers:
the more followers you have, the more likely you are to be targeted by
spammers. (I get about 1 or 2 per week). They attach a URL to your handle and
you’ll discover you’re being associated with some unsavoury or money-grabbing
organisation against your intentions. It’s not a real problem. Just click on
the handle of the spammer and then use the drop-down menu to block them. The
tweet will die immediately and the spammer will be brought to the notice of
Twitter, who will stop them in their tracks, more or less at once.
A few final words of advice,
if you can bear them: beware; Twitter can be addictive. Use it sparingly but
effectively. And, if you like the idea of being able to schedule tweets for
future dates, try out such programs as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. And make sure
your social networks and blog/website are all linked: it’ll save you a great
deal of time in the long run.
Oh, and by all means, please
feel free to follow me at @stuartaken. I’ll follow you back as soon as I can, I
promise!
