Twitter: The Basics

Default thumbnail.

July 17, 2012 | 2 Comments

Send to Kindle

Along with Facebook, I resisted Twitter like the plague.  Last year at this time, I thought people who tweeted were a little on the crazy side.  Well, I guess I’ve joined the crazies because I love Twitter, and it is, by far, my favorite way to market.

However, it wasn’t a one-jump to be here thing for me.  My enjoyment of Twitter began as hate and loathing.

Simply put:  I just didn’t get it.  I didn’t understand it.  There was what appeared to be a separate language going on over there.  It took spending time on the medium for several days straight and then some help from my FB groupies before I came to appreciate Twitter.

The first thing you need to know is that on Twitter, you can “follow” people, and people will “follow” you back.  So say I wanted to follow Stephen King, I would search for him and if I could find him, I would click “Follow.”  I would be “following” 1 person.

Good so far, right?

Cool.

Now, people can also follow you.  When you start, you will probably follow people who are your friends or professional acquaintances.  Some of those will want to follow you back.  At first I followed everyone who followed me, but I learned you need to use discretion for a couple of reasons.

#1  Not everyone is worth following.  I have made a rule for myself that if someone tweets profanity at me (even in a retweet from someone else), I unfollow them.  I don’t have time nor the patience to put up with that.  I don’t need the trash in my life.  So if they can’t keep it clean and positive, they don’t get a place in my day.

#2  Some people tweet relentlessly about their one thing–their cause, their program, their book.  After I’ve read a tweet about how “Winnable” this program is 15 times, I’m out of there.

#3  Twitter won’t tell you this until you get to the magic 2,000 number–but if when you reach it, you are following more people than are following you, you can’t follow anymore.  Until your followers catch up with your followings, you are stuck.  So just reciprocating follows to increase your followers count won’t work forever.

 

Stick close the next week because I’ll show you how to reach MANY more people than your basic followers, but for now, this is a good place to start.  If you’re not on Twitter, sign up (with your writing name as your @… don’t sign up as @PenBaby unless you write under that name.  Why?  Because you are building a brand, and if you build a @PenBaby brand on Twitter, that won’t transfer to anyone knowing who you are or catching on your writing name when they go to Amazon!).

Once you’re sign up, play around a little.  Follow some people.  Get a feel for the language.  We’ll talk more next time.

*~*

Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we believe will add value to our readers.

Read More

Facebook: Connections are Key

Default thumbnail.

July 12, 2012 | No comments yet

In my experience,here is the key benefit of being on Facebook where marketing is concerned:  the connections you can make! I have been on email loops of writers almost since such a thing was possible, but they have many cons that Facebook fixes.  So today I want to focus on Facebook Groups–groups of…

Read More

Facebook: Marketing Help

Default thumbnail.

July 10, 2012 | No comments yet

As I go about trying to learn social media, I subscribe to programs and information.  One of those for Facebook is called “10,000 Fans.”  Their website is here: https://www.facebook.com/Get10000Fans I have worked through some of their information and it appears very good, though it does seem to take a long time to watch…

Read More

Facebook: Keep it Social!

Default thumbnail.

July 5, 2012 | No comments yet

Send to Kindle I’ll admit, one of the reasons for me that Facebook doesn’t work like a charm for book promotions is that it is far more a pull medium than a push one. Facebook puts the “social” in social media. While this is true for the others like Twitter, I think it is especially…

Read More

Blog Events

Default thumbnail.

May 3, 2012 | No comments yet

One thing you might consider to give people a big reason to come to your blog is to host an event. Events are different than normal blogging in that they have a definite start and a definite end date.  However, just like normal blogging, they are limited only by your imagination and your…

Read More

Doing Reviews as Blog Posts

Default thumbnail.

May 1, 2012 | No comments yet

Some bloggers find that doing reviews is a good way of driving traffic to their blog, and this is true.  As an author, I love directing my audience to a site that has favorably reviewed my book.  Why?  Because it’s not on Amazon where the reviews tend to get bunched together.  It’s more…

Read More