# The Twitter Workshop thread: Tips & Tricks



## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I don't know about you all, but I could really do with some lessons on Twitter from other indie authors. So, got something you think people might not know about Twitter? Post it here. Oh, and if you have a Twitter handle, post that too (mine's in my signature).

I'll start. I just discovered the power of the LISTS feature on Twitter. Why is it cool? Because you can click on a particular list and see only posts by the people you added into it. For example, I created a list called _Friends_, composed of people I've actually communicated with, either here or on Twitter.

Here's how to start your own list on Twitter:

1) Click on a person's profile

2) Click on the _more user actions_ gear wheel

3) Click on _Add or remove from lists_

4) A small dialogue pops up. If you don't have a list created yet, make one here.

5) Place a checkmark in the box. This will place the person into that list.

To view your list, click on your own profile photo. You'll see five main subheadings in the middle of the page:

TWEETS | FOLLOWS | FOLLOWERS | FAVORITES | LISTS

Click on "lists". You'll then see a stream of tweets from only the people you added to that list


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## Claire Frank (Jul 28, 2014)

Following! I'm #twitterilliterate. I have a profile, but I don't use it much yet. 

I'm @franklyclaire


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Active chat hashtags are awesome. Twitter is a big part about participation. So for example, I will absolutely be participating in #DowntonAbbey when it premiers again in January. If your Twitter profile is appropriately decked out, just being YOU in Twitter chats for live events, shows, etc. can be all you need to pick up a few new readers. 

I also love #wordmongering and other author support hashtags where you reach out and encourage other authors. #wordmongering is write :00 to the :30 then take a break. I always produce more when I have to be accountable to others.

Finally, short is king. As authors, we have a tendency to use ALL 140 characters, but study after study shows the shorter tweets are the ones that are most RT'd.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Here's one:  from time to time, do a search on your name or author's name.  Twitter automatically shows you anytime anyone puts your Twitter (@PaulLev) into a Tweet, but not when someone mentions your name as an author (Paul Levinson).


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## tiffanycherney (Feb 18, 2014)

I could use some more tips myself in this since I know I'm not using Twitter to it's full potential, but my tip isn't so much new but it's a common mistake and for a thread compiling tips warrants mentioning. Whatever you do, don't spam your followers with a constant stream about your books. I've gotten rid of so many author twitter followers because of this because after awhile all it does is clutter up feeds, especially when the person has them set to automated post every so often.

Thanks for the tips about lists, Sever. I hadn't actually played around with that yet. If anyone wants to follow me, my link is in my signature.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

How to follow hashtags:

http://www.contentious.com/2009/03/08/hashtags-on-twitter-how-do-you-follow-them/


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Here's another tip:  Click on your picture (small picture) in upper right corner.  Click on Twitter Ads in drop-down menu.  Click on Analytics in upper left.  You can then look at the activity on your tweets, and what's happening with your followers.  A well disguised and very useful pair of features.


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## S.R. Booth (Oct 6, 2013)

Thanks for starting this. I'm busy making lists thanks to your directions!

Oh, and I have a tip, too. justunfollow.com makes it very easy to see who has followed or unfollowed you.


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

Think very hard before you send auto DMs (direct messages). A couple of indies I've followed recently are using this tactic. It was popular and more accepted about five years ago. Now, it's seen as spamming.

Twitter is supposed to be about engagement and conversation. If you set your account to auto-DM every person who follows you, you look like a bot, at best; out of touch and annoying, at worst. Auto DMs are often impetus for immediate unfollowing.

Here's a Twitter chat schedule: http://tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/

And here's a list of author-specific hashtags: http://www.bookmarketingservices.org/ultimate-list-of-author-specific-hashtags/

Also, don't put any punctuation or symbols in a hashtag or you'll break it. After the #, letters and/or numbers only, no spaces.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

PaulLev said:


> Here's another tip: Click on your picture (small picture) in upper right corner. Click on Twitter Ads in drop-down menu. Click on Analytics in upper left. You can then look at the activity on your tweets, and what's happening with your followers. A well disguised and very useful pair of features.


You just beat me to that Twitter Analytics tip, Paul.

I also use the Lists option (My interesting People) to bring down the total number of followers (numbering nearly 2,000) to a more manageable 100 or so of people who tend to post interesting stuff. I am also quite selective in following (and getting followed back) by people who have displayed an interest in the topics that interest me and which I write about: Modern History and Space Exploration.

Did you know that the current and former astronauts on the International Space Station are active on Twitter and regularly send down tweets about their daily activities as well as the most awesome photography of the Earth as they pass over some of the most spectacular terrain on the planet? The two most interesting are: https://twitter.com/AstroTerry and https://twitter.com/AstroSamantha

My Twitter handle is @philiplaos


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

No tips here, but I have a question: does anyone know how to reuse photos you've already uploaded to Twitter? I'm thinking of my book cover, which I've already attached to more than one tweet. So far I've either re-uploaded it from my computer each time, or retweeted someone else's tweet that has it attached, and edited the content of the tweet. Is there an easier way?


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## busywoman (Feb 22, 2014)

One technique that is very popular right now is "favoriting."  This means favoriting others' tweets, as a method of engaging with them.  It's easy to favorite -- just click on the star underneath a tweet you like.  

It's a low-key way to engage.  The person whose tweet you've favorited will see that you've paid them a compliment by favoriting their tweet.  But you don't disturb your other followers because they don't see the favoriting in their streams.

Twitter analytics tracks favorites as engagement.

Also, if you want to remind yourself to follow up with someone off of Twitter, favoriting a tweet is an easy way to keep track.  Just check back to your favorites list later.


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## Weibart (Oct 27, 2014)

My Twitter handle is @Weibart. I think the best trick I've found is using Tweetdeck. It allows you to assign, whatever Twitter users you want, a column which displays all of their tweets, and you can create as many columns as you like to view an array of tweets at once. This has been extremely helpful and it's a big part of my writing routine. Tweetdeck allows you to find and categorize Twitter users you can group together. I have a few columns in a row of Twitter users who share helpful self-publishing advice, and after that I have about 5 columns for helpful hashtags, etc.

Here are a couple of the most helpful users I've found on Twitter: Elizabeth S Craig & Joanna Penn.

Elizabeth S Craig, to me, is a great example of how to approach Twitter right. She tweets tons of helpful links for writers and that's inspired me to make a routine of tweeting links that I find useful. She has a killer, searchable website called Writer's Knowledge Base: http://hiveword.com/wkb/search If you type Twitter into the search engine, I'm sure you'll find a ton of useful advice about how to utilize Twitter. It's been a huge help to me.

Joanna Penn is another example of how to use Twitter right. She also tweets a ton of helpful links and does some very interesting and helpful interviews with a variety of guests.

Getting back to tweeting helpful links I find, I'd definitely advocate that. If you're reading an article while you're having a morning coffee, before you go to the next article, use the site's Share on Twitter button. It takes me about a minute to rewrite the tweet as needed, add hashtags that might help people find it, and I've also found it useful to include the article writer's Twitter handle "via [insert Twitter name]. I've also found it helpful to include the Twitter handle of the subject of articles. I tweeted about Alan Moore's new line of digital comics, which included the digital comics line's Twitter username, and it ended up getting retweeted by Neil Gaiman so that was exciting.

Bookmark a folder of websites you read regularly and tweet about their articles when you find interesting ones. I'd also looked into a service like Tweetdeck which I've found is a huge help with organizing the messy reading experience of Twitter.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I am exceptionally gleeful that this thread was created. Thanks, Sever. Thank you guys for the great tips. I'm going to set aside some time today to go through them and make notes and scurry off to implement. I'm really hoping to get the hang of Twitter.

@dawnmckenna63


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## MM3313 (Dec 2, 2014)

Bookmarked.  Great idea for a thread, Sever, thanks for starting it.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

I have followed everyone listed in this thread, and a few more I found on your pages.

@MyraScottWriter

I have a long history as an Internet marketer, but have never gotten into Twitter. I probably need to, but the idea of developing a content plan for Twitter on top of everything else just leaves me cold. I have too many other things to do to worry about being relevant, helpful and witty for the Twitterverse.

I also know there's no free lunch! To get something out of it, you have to put something in.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

My pleasure guys, and really good tips so far, stuff I definitely did not know or grasp! 

I wanted to touch on a small branding note: some authors have a different profile photo for all of their social media accounts. I've found it's far less confusing for your audience if you have the same profile photo for every avenue, including kboards (some readers find us here!).

Also, it's best to make the photo the most appealing side of yourself. This is a known thing in public presentation--there's a name for it, but it escapes me right now. For example, if you have a skeptical look on your face, people subconsciously reflect that. Same with an angry look. There's emotion conveyed visually and subconsciously. So, what message are you sending with your profile photo?

It's the same as book covers--we are judged on them.

This article is more appropriate than the one I posted earlier:

http://www.standoutbooks.com/author-photo-tips/

Anyway, it's been on my mind for a while now, thought I'd verbalize it at last 

That _keep tweets short_ idea is fantastic, same as the favoriting posts! Didn't realize it's considered interraction.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Farkimentally speaking, my current profile pic is the same for all social media, but it's not much of a profile pic. No idea what it "says". What it "says" to me is that I'd just gotten my butt kicked in Zumba class. 

Unfortunately, I despise having my picture taken, so it's all I have. I have a photographer friend ready to take some new, more professional pics when I'm flush enough to afford her.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Tweetdeck is seriously useful, especially if you have multiple accounts to manage. I don't recommend setting up more than one if you can help it, but sometimes it's necessary.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

DawnLee said:


> Farkimentally speaking, my current profile pic is the same for all social media, but it's not much of a profile pic. No idea what it "says".


It says "sultry", "intriguing".

At least to me.

My advice - Do not change it... propagate it around the interwebs. It's a damn fine pic.

Philip


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I will eventually do a blog post on this, but two quick tips:

I've tried practically every Twitter tool, from Refollow to Commun.it to others.

Pay for Socialbro. Seriously, it will dramatically improve how you use Twitter. One way that I use it:

Every other day or so I open up my dashboard and click on New followers. It shows me my new followers since the last time it updated the Dashboard. I average 2-5 a day or so. Which gives me a list of 10 or so. I then click on the "Mentions tool." It allows me to create a message template. Mine usually says, "Thanks for following! Have a great holiday." but yours can include a call to action or a link to a free book... anything. I then set it to "one user per tweet" and click on the ten people following me. Boom. there are ten individual tweets ready to go out to thank new followers. Note, you can set this to be automated, but I'm not big enough yet to where doing it a bit more personally and manually isn't a problem.

This is just ONE example. You can cut up your followers into geographic lists and then use the above described mention tool to send out bulk messages that look personal. (e.g. find a unique interest to them and then tweet it out. Such as if there is a funny news story that is huge out of a specific city, you can send a funny tweet to people in that city). The fact that this is all bundled via tools makes it very efficient. 

Socialbro allows you to cut your followers into a huge array of groups (they call them sources). The integrate with Kred, which also allows you to rank your followers by influence and things like that.

Ever despair at organizing your 100s of followers into specific lists? Use Socialbro.. Filter them out and then bulk move them into a list.

Okay, second hint:

Klout, which is an annoying platform that wants to tell you how much Twitter influence you have actually has an amazing feature that no one seems to know about: Sharing content that is relevant to your followers. Log into Klout, click on the Create menu item, and you will see a bunch of stories that you can then send out as Tweets with links. Ever despair because you have no time to round up cool links relevant to your followers. Here's your solution. Right now I'm looking at my dashboard, and there is a link that says this: 

Best of Book Fetish 2014 (HOT OFF THE PRESSES. This link was published 14 hours ago)
DC's Featured Comics for Dec. 31 (ON TARGET, Over 62% of your Twitter audience is interested in this topic.)

What's even better is that you can create the content filters yourself so that the content to share is directly related to what you want to share on your own feed.

These two tools will allow you to spend about 15 minutes a day to organize your Twitter followers and reply to them in a way that is personal, while also allowing you to pick content to share and schedule it so that it looks like you are engaged with Twitter all day long. 

One final note: Socialbro has an awesome "best time to tweet tool." When you combine that with the ability to schedule tweets (which you can do at most places these days), you are even that much more efficient at being a Twitter guru.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Marina Finlayson said:


> No tips here, but I have a question: does anyone know how to reuse photos you've already uploaded to Twitter? I'm thinking of my book cover, which I've already attached to more than one tweet. So far I've either re-uploaded it from my computer each time, or retweeted someone else's tweet that has it attached, and edited the content of the tweet. Is there an easier way?


If you click on the photos on the left side of your profile page - under the date that you joined Twitter - you will be brought to a page with the URL for each photo. But that page also contains the text you tweeted with that photo. I don't know if there's any way to access only the photo.


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## S.R. Booth (Oct 6, 2013)

MyraScott said:


> I have followed everyone listed in this thread, and a few more I found on your pages.
> 
> @MyraScottWriter
> 
> ...


Hi! Thanks for following me. I followed you back and went to your account to retweet one of your tweets but ... when I click on the links I go to the tsu site but the page is blank. Is that a member only site or am I doing something wrong? I wanted to mention it just in case there's a problem with the site itself.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

In the unlikely event that you guys haven't seen this yet. Hashtags for writers, organized by genre.

http://www.bookmarketingservices.org/ultimate-list-of-author-specific-hashtags/

Sever, thank you again for starting this thread and thanks to all of you guys who have added your tips.


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## Flay Otters (Jul 29, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> Farkimentally speaking, my current profile pic is the same for all social media, but it's not much of a profile pic. No idea what it "says". What it "says" to me is that I'd just gotten my butt kicked in Zumba class.


If you don't mind my saying...
It kinda looks like the morning after a hot date.
In a good way.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Flay Otters said:


> If you don't mind my saying...
> It kinda looks like the morning after a hot date.
> In a good way.


I may need to save up faster for that new headshot.

But if you don't mind _me_ saying, seeing your username always makes me so happy. It's like having an espresso with Basil Fawlty. Well, not as good, but similar.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Michelle Lowery said:


> Think very hard before you send auto DMs (direct messages). A couple of indies I've followed recently are using this tactic. It was popular and more accepted about five years ago. Now, it's seen as spamming.
> 
> Twitter is supposed to be about engagement and conversation. If you set your account to auto-DM every person who follows you, you look like a bot, at best; out of touch and annoying, at worst.
> 
> *Auto DMs are often impetus for immediate unfollowing.*


They are for me.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I think that auto-DMs to welcome new followers by offereing them a link to something nice (like an ebook) is perfectly acceptable. Do it again, however, in a way that isn't a personal message and people will unfollow you.


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## Flay Otters (Jul 29, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I may need to save up faster for that new headshot.
> 
> But if you don't mind _me_ saying, seeing your username always makes me so happy. It's like having an espresso with Basil Fawlty. Well, not as good, but similar.


No need to change the pic, looks great.
And glad to meet another fan of great comedy


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

jakedfw said:


> I think that auto-DMs to welcome new followers by offereing them a link to something nice (like an ebook) is perfectly acceptable. Do it again, however, in a way that isn't a personal message and people will unfollow you.


The key, for me, is whether the person you follow in turn follows you. If not, I may or may not unfollow the person, depending on how much I want to see what they tweet. But if I follow someone, and all I get in return is an automated DM, without a reciprocal follow, then that's pretty much grounds for me to unfollow. There's an app called TrueTwit, which some people use to "validate" their new followers, which is especially annoying in this regard. You follow someone, and rather than a return follow, you get a DM directing you to TrueTwit for "validation". And when you do that, you usually don't get refollowed, or hear anything more from the person you followed. I'd recommend staying away from that app.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

So I wanted to quickly add on something new I learned with lists: now that I can see my friends' tweets (because I mainly pay attention to my list of friends, most of whom are on this board), I can discern which tweets are very important to them, and retweet those tweets. I also favorite ones that don't need retweeting, and thus feel far more connected to authors I want to be connected to, whereas previous to having a list, it was just a torrent of people I did not know. It was basically one giant spam list, completely useless to interact with. Now it feels like a community.

The list function has completely changed twitter for me, and I feel like I finally am getting somewhere with this juggernaut of a social engine


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm definitely going to have to check out the list thing this week. Twitter is all atwitter at this point. Too much for my ADD, lol.


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## bwcolborne (Jun 11, 2014)

whatever you do, don't set up some auto-retweet everytime you get a mention. Every now and then is cool but if you blow up famous, that's a flooded timeline for your followers. A recipe for instant un-follow.


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

jakedfw said:


> I think that auto-DMs to welcome new followers by offereing them a link to something nice (like an ebook) is perfectly acceptable.


I think auto-DMs with a link to an ebook are saying, "Yay! Someone new to market/sell to!" rather than "Yay! Someone new to connect with/talk to!" The point isn't what the message says or what it offers--it's that it's done automatically, sent to anyone and everyone who follows you, regardless of who they are or why they followed you. That in itself is impersonal no matter how personal you try to make it sound.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I agree, Michelle. I discard the auto-tweeters pretty quickly. Twitter really isn't for us ADD folks, especially those of us that are also Luddites. I'm learning to like it, but only because I'm also connecting with people I truly enjoy and discovering people who really have something cool to say. I try to be cool, but cool's not really my thing. I'm working on becoming more interesting.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> I think that auto-DMs to welcome new followers by offereing them a link to something nice (like an ebook) is perfectly acceptable. Do it again, however, in a way that isn't a personal message and people will unfollow you.


Nope.

Auto-unfollow.

So are a couple of other things:

- people whose accounts keep tweeting about how many followers and unfollowers they have through some sort of service (like justunfollow). FFS people, Twitter is not about numbers. Who. Frakking. Cares.
- people who auto-RT other people's book spam, especially when said spam RTs Bad Book Covers.
- people who auto-RT braggery about "my auntie gave my book 5 stars!!!"


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I agree, Michelle. I discard the auto-tweeters pretty quickly. Twitter really isn't for us ADD folks, especially those of us that are also Luddites. I'm learning to like it, but only because I'm also connecting with people I truly enjoy and discovering people who really have something cool to say. I try to be cool, but cool's not really my thing. I'm working on becoming more interesting.


I hear you, Dawn. I've been on Twitter for a while as it's sort of an essential in my line of work. But I'm not really on it very much. It's often an exercise in weeding through a lot of noise. It can be overwhelming, actually. But every once in a while, something really interesting/cool/helpful/informative/just plain fun comes out of it, so I stick around.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

So let me get this straight: YOU go to the effort to follow someone, presumably because you are interested in them in some form or fashion. After YOU follow THEM you get a DM that says something like, "Hey, thanks for following me. I look forward to interacting with you. As a thank you, here's a novella only available to my Twitter friends."

That's an auto-unfollow?


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> Nope.
> 
> Auto-unfollow.
> 
> ...


The weirdest auto-RTs are those who RT random tweets from their followers and suddenly retweet something utterly inconsequential such as a remark about the weather or what I had for lunch that day.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> So let me get this straight: YOU go to the effort to follow someone, presumably because you are interested in them in some form or fashion. After YOU follow THEM you get a DM that says something like, "Hey, thanks for following me. I look forward to interacting with you. As a thank you, here's a novella only available to my Twitter friends."
> 
> That's an auto-unfollow?


It's not necessarily an auto-unfollow for me, but it feels spammy, especially if I have never directly interacted with this Tweeter before.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> So let me get this straight: YOU go to the effort to follow someone, presumably because you are interested in them in some form or fashion. After YOU follow THEM you get a DM that says something like, "Hey, thanks for following me. I look forward to interacting with you. As a thank you, here's a novella only available to my Twitter friends."
> 
> That's an auto-unfollow?


Yup. Because that's not how Twitter works. Because that message is still trying to sell me something, even if the something is free. Because where there is one auto-sell-tweet, there will be more.

If you appreciate someone following you, the best thing to do is simply follow them back. If you have something relevant to say to them, use an @reply for a specific thing "Hey, my cat looks like that, too!"

The best thing I've done on Twitter was to take the fact that I'm an author (aka that I'm trying to sell something) out of my bio.

I've sold many books as a consequence of being on Twitter, but don't sell *at* Twitter.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

OK, here's an analogy for you:

Making an update on Twitter about your free book in your news feed is like putting leaflets into letterboxes. People are free to ignore. People don't feel bad about ignoring. People don't mind it too much unless the stream is constant.

Sending an @reply or DM on twitter, no matter how friendly-worded, is like those religious nutjobs that used to be around when I was at uni. They'd come up to you and stuff a "free book" into your hand and expect you to say thank you (and then refuse to accept it back from you), while all you really want to do is shove the book in an unspeakable place and continue your regular life.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> If you appreciate someone following you, the best thing to do is simply follow them back.


This is a very bad idea. There are companies that track people who autofollow when you follow them. They add you to their database and then sell your follow to someone else. It doesn't happen right away, but if you maintain that behavior it will happen.

For example, this company (http://addtwitterfollows.com/) will take your money and your Twitter credentials. They then go to their database of people who autofollow back (including you) and then bulk follow people from their client's account.

Now if you just want a lot of followers this isn't bad. You're kind of getting all these fake followers without paying for it. But if you want a follow list that is relatively clean and you don't want to be spammed with mentions from these accounts, you should probably not autofollow people back.

By the way, a good way to know if you're being pinged for these lists is to examine your followers. If you have one that looks normal but all their tweets say something like "get 10,000 twitter followers. Click here!" There will also generally be a link in their profile.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> Because that's not how Twitter works.


I also want to caution people about this kind of perception of Twitter. One of the really powerful things about Twitter is that it is asynchronous. You can send. You can receive. Or you can do both. Any kind of "it's a conversation" when discussing Twitter is only true for a subset of Twitter users. As authors, the bigger we get the more asynchronous our interactions on Twitter will be. People we don't know will follow us. The assumption we need to follow back or we can only interact with them in some kind of personal respectful way is, again, not true for the Twitter ecosystem. It may be true for you. But it's not true of Twitter as a whole.

By the way, this is very different than how Facebook mostly works. A few years ago Facebook saw the Twitter threat and created "subscribe" options for users that didn't accept you as a friend. That is their attempt to copy Twitters very powerful model, but it is still not heavily used. Facebook is still mostly synchronous.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

S.R. Booth said:


> Hi! Thanks for following me. I followed you back and went to your account to retweet one of your tweets but ... when I click on the links I go to the tsu site but the page is blank. Is that a member only site or am I doing something wrong? I wanted to mention it just in case there's a problem with the site itself.


Hey SR-

Thanks for the heads up. I was trying to use Tsu as a cheap (read- lazy) tool to spread my deeply thought-provoking thoughts about things like fireballs and tunafish throughout the socialverse, but it does look like if you don't have a Tsu account, it will make you sign up for one if you click the automatically-generated link back to the original post.

I think Google+ also has a post-everywhere option, maybe I'll try that. I could download some twitterware software like Tweetdeck but that's still more of a commitment than I'm willing to make at this point.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

I will also say that when I follow you, if you (or your software) immediately sends me a "Thanks for following!  Now buy my ________________" you get unfollowed.  Because you suck.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> I will also say that when I follow you, if you (or your software) immediately sends me a "Thanks for following! Now buy my ________________" you get unfollowed. Because you suck.


Thank you for the laugh, Myra. And people think we Southern women sugarcoat everything.

For what it's worth, burning cubicles and the like are my favorite thing about Twitter.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

The worst automated DM I ever got was from some hapless indie author who wrote "I'd drink bleach to get you to read my book."

Honestly, dude, don't tempt me. Coincidentally, it also makes me wonder how bad that book must be.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> Thank you for the laugh, Myra. And people think we Southern women sugarcoat everything.
> 
> For what it's worth, burning cubicles and the like are my favorite thing about Twitter.


I did think about adding "bless your heart" to the end of it, but really, that implies a fondness for you despite your being a moron.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

CoraBuhlert said:


> The worst automated DM I ever got was from some hapless indie author who wrote "I'd drink bleach to get you to read my book."
> 
> Honestly, dude, don't tempt me. Coincidentally, it also makes me wonder how bad that book must be.


That was one of the ones that prompted my "you suck" comment. Although I think the message was "I'd walk across broken glass to get you to read my book."

Emotional manipulation = fail. Have fun picking shards from between your toes because I don't know you and I don't care.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I received the broken glass one, too. I thanked her for following me and unfollowed her a day later when I was doing my Socialbro follower pruning.

A lot of those users are victims (willing victims but victims) of shady social media consultants and companies. These are the ones that package "we'll get you 100,000 followers in one week and tell you how to master Twitter."

It's all automated scamminess.

But I want to note that just because a strategy or tactic is used wrong does not mean it is a poor one.

If I'm a Harry Potter fan and following @pottermore gets me an auto DM with a link to an unpublished Potter story only for Twitter users as a thank you then I'm not complaining.

Again, don't treat your interactions with how you follow authors distract you from how a fan would see the intersection. That's the target follower.


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

Jake, I think you may still be missing a crucial point. It's not about what you're offering or how the auto-DM is worded. It's the mere fact that the message is automated. That's what smacks of spam.

Think of it this way. When someone signs up for your newsletter, they're opting in to receive something from you. When someone follows you on Twitter, it's because they want your tweets to appear in their stream, not because they want an auto-DM, which may very well amount to bleach-gargling junk mail. (I got that one too.)

It's not necessary to market to everyone, everywhere, at all times.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Maybe I'm not being clear. 

People seem to think that you need to be personal on Twitter. Or that if you are impersonal that is a bad thing. That's just not the case if you have fans. As I mentioned earlier, Twitter is asynchronous and complicated. Each interaction can be defined in its own terms. How I interact with fellow authors and my attitude towards those interactions will be entirely different than how I interact with my fans or authors I'm a fan of. The dynamics are all different.

Let me give you an example:

I follow Stephen King because I'm a fan. Do I expect a follow back? No. If he sends me an automated DM with a link to an exclusive story, do I get upset because he didn't personalize it? No. I'm actually thrilled, because I'm a fan and I love reading his work. I act this way because he's the author, and I'm the fan. I don't have any expectation that he's going to be my friend.

This is the natural dynamic between an author and his or her fans. In fact, your goal should be to have so many that it is impossible to interact with them on a personal one-on-one level. That's pretty much how we define success... lots and lots of fans.

Where I think the misunderstanding comes in is that we start out as authors talking to other authors and we make the mistake of assuming that this type of interaction (one between rough equals that are sharing a goal) is how the other interactions (those between you and people who seek you out as fans) should be.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

He can do this because he's Stephen King.

Where I think authors get this wrong is that they have an over-inflated opinion of how much others are going to care about their work.

When I follow someone, I didn't ASK for a free book. In fact, I don't even own a Kindle. I own a Kobo touch. People DM-spam me "free" kindle books. Even if I had a Kindle, I don't need anything new to read, not even if it's free. Like Stephen King, an author has got to have earned the right to do this without annoying people, and most people who have earned that right don't need to do it (like Stephen King). So it ends up looking desperate as well as being annoying.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Both points are valid and interesting, and from my perspective, I'd love to see both explored thoroughly. We are lucky because Jake is volunteering to try the DM route! With luck, he'll report back in a few months / year with some results on how it went. I'm too cagey to give that route a go myself, but would certainly love to hear a new first-hand account from someone as analytical as Jake


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

If you go that route, why not use an @reply rather than a DM? The thing with DMs, too, is that Twitter sends the account owner an email, which is doubly annoying if it's something you haven't asked for.


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## Nomadwoman (Aug 25, 2011)

Michelle Lowery said:


> I think auto-DMs with a link to an ebook are saying, "Yay! Someone new to market/sell to!" rather than "Yay! Someone new to connect with/talk to!" The point isn't what the message says or what it offers--it's that it's done automatically, sent to anyone and everyone who follows you, regardless of who they are or why they followed you. That in itself is impersonal no matter how personal you try to make it sound.


Agree totally. I and many others don't even read DMs on Twitter as they're all sales msgs. I also unfollow people who are constantly tweeting how many followed and who their new followers are this week - please, you aren't celebrities so watch the narcissism quotient. Twitter works best when you speak and engage and retweet others in real time.
I'd say don't tweet your books either - let others do it for you because you're so damn fascinating. People expect writers to have Stein type wit. 
Sever I already followed you a couple of days ago when you mentioned twitting in another thread- thanks for the follow back lol


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> If you go that route, why not use an @reply rather than a DM?


Because an @ reply is public, so a special treat for followers can't be sent via an @reply. A special treat requires a private delivery mechanism.



> Where I think authors get this wrong is that they have an over-inflated opinion of how much others are going to care about their work.


Imposter syndrome.

I'm not sure why Stephen King's fans are inherently better than mine. I tend to think he just gets more.

Honestly, if I have people who are going to unfollow me because I send them a free piece of fiction then I'm not really too concerned that they unfollow me.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> When I follow someone, I didn't ASK for a free book. In fact, I don't even own a Kindle. I own a Kobo touch. People DM-spam me "free" kindle books. Even if I had a Kindle, I don't need anything new to read, not even if it's free. Like Stephen King, an author has got to have earned the right to do this without annoying people, and most people who have earned that right don't need to do it (like Stephen King). So it ends up looking desperate as well as being annoying.


This is a really great example of someone that I really don't care if they follow me or not. You're not my target audience. My target audience is not someone who doesn't need something new to read. My target audience is someone who has read my work and is looking forward to knowing more about me and reading more of my work or is intrigued withe me to the point where they are seeking me and more work out in some kind of inquisitive manner. My goodness, a follower of an author that isn't looking for anything new to read? That's pretty much the definition of a useless follower.

As I mentioned earlier, you can use Twitter as a private author club. That's fine. And that's part of what makes Twitter great. It can be used that way. But you can also use it as a way to communicate to your fans. That's also fine. And that's how I intend to use it.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

My approach to Twitter (as a new Twit) is to engage, entertain and learn. I tweet one book tweet a day, if that. I promote at least one other indie per day. I retweet at least one other indie per day. If sales come out of all of that, great. But I have no intention of using Twitter to ceaselessly hawk my books and I run from all of the "book marketers" that offer to Tweet the snot out everyone on the planet for me.

The only drawback to Twitter for me is that it can be addicting and I have an addictive, ADD personality anyway. I have to watch the time sucks and I have no doubt that Twitter could suck like an aardvark on meth if I let it. Too many interesting people.

(Sever Bronny and Shayne Rutherford are problematic in that regard.)


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

Jake, I did understand what you were getting at. It's a familiar refrain from the last seven years I've spent in the digital marketing industry. I think we just have different marketing philosophies.


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## Stewart Matthews (Nov 21, 2014)

CoraBuhlert said:


> The worst automated DM I ever got was from some hapless indie author who wrote "I'd drink bleach to get you to read my book."
> 
> Honestly, dude, don't tempt me. Coincidentally, it also makes me wonder how bad that book must be.


Did you ask him to do it? If he does, can you send me a link?

I'm asking for a friend.


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## JR. (Dec 10, 2014)

My twitter feed isn't very marketable. It's got a lot of local content, so you'll see fighting cocks, dog-eating and bloodletting-as-medicine. Today is Victory over Genocide day, another show-stopper. Expect to see my photos of the glass tower of seven thousand skulls, and other remains.


I just use it when I'm not writing, but want to look like I'm doing something at the computer so 'somebody' doesn't ask me to do housework or change a nappy or something. Like kboards.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> The only drawback to Twitter for me is that it can be addicting and I have an addictive, ADD personality anyway. I have to watch the time sucks and I have no doubt that Twitter could suck like an aardvark on meth if I let it. Too many interesting people.
> 
> (Sever Bronny and Shayne Rutherford are problematic in that regard.)


#sorry_notsorry


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

JR. said:


> My twitter feed isn't very marketable. It's got a lot of local content, so you'll see fighting cocks, dog-eating and bloodletting-as-medicine. Today is Victory over Genocide day, another show-stopper. Expect to see my photos of the glass tower of seven thousand skulls, and other remains.
> 
> I just use it when I'm not writing, but want to look like I'm doing something at the computer so 'somebody' doesn't ask me to do housework or change a nappy or something. Like kboards.


Actually, local content from places I've never visited is part of what I like about Twitter. I follow people from all over the world and see things I'd normally never see. Meanwhile, my followers seem to enjoy some of the local German content I tweet. Today, for example, you'd have gotten pictures of star singers (kids dressed up as the three wise men collecting money for charity and candy for themselves) and the ice bet (bet whether the local river is frozen or not, tested via a complicated process involving a tailor and a hot iron).


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## JR. (Dec 10, 2014)

You would be in the minority. I had a big unfollow rush when I mentioned the fighting cock training happening in the street outside my house. I probably would have been reported to twitter if I'd uploaded the picture of the cooked dog in a display case, rather than linking to it in my blog. Maybe I should use a _#moraloutrage_ hashtag or something...


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## FMH (May 18, 2013)

Just followed the lot of you. 

Tip: Writing a series? Is there something your readers can vote on? Right now I've got my "Owned By The Alphas" serial werewolf love story (with a ton of sex) and there are two alphas. At the end of Parts 2 and 3 I've asked readers: "Who should Ali Be With?  Tweet @Faleenahopkins #OBTA #chooseCalt or #OBTA #chooseRed

So far #chooseRed is six to one. It's giving a chance for me to engage with my readers on something we both care about, and it gives them a voice. Will it change the outcome of the story...it just might, and that's the exciting part.

I got this idea from either a Hugh Howey podcast or the book "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon (my hand-written notes about social media did not differentiate... so hey, I'll give them both a shout out.)


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> This is a really great example of someone that I really don't care if they follow me or not. You're not my target audience. My target audience is not someone who doesn't need something new to read. My target audience is someone who has read my work and is looking forward to knowing more about me and reading more of my work or is intrigued withe me to the point where they are seeking me and more work out in some kind of inquisitive manner. My goodness, a follower of an author that isn't looking for anything new to read? That's pretty much the definition of a useless follower.
> 
> As I mentioned earlier, you can use Twitter as a private author club. That's fine. And that's part of what makes Twitter great. It can be used that way. But you can also use it as a way to communicate to your fans. That's also fine. And that's how I intend to use it.


OK, so what you're describing here is that you're using Twitter as market consolidation, and that's totally what I'm doing on my blog, and what I'm not doing with Twitter. Twitter can be so much more than market consolidation! I use Twitter to do my very cautious front-line stuff: to let people know that I exist and that I might have interesting books if they check my website. The hard sell is very much unsuited to that tactic.

Why it's OK for Stephen King, but not for the average self-published author? Because people follow him BECAUSE he's Stephen King (= market consolidation), and not because of "Hey, here is another person interested in SF/F who may have fun stuff to say and chat with".


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

I just followed quite a few of you. I'm totally lost on twitter. Clicking on that. Crinkling my forehead at that. But I can't close it out and get to work because it's JUST SO INTERESTING! 

If you catch me doing anything dumb, feel free to poke me, or womp me over the head if I need it.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Hiyas R.M.! Yeah I was awful at it at first, just awful, but have recently found my stride and learned to not take it so seriously and to have fun with friends (basically other kboarders haha).

What a joyful little community we have here


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> Hiyas R.M.! Yeah I was awful at it at first, just awful, but have recently found my stride and learned to not take it so seriously and to have fun with friends (basically other kboarders haha).
> 
> What a joyful little community we have here


That's kind of what tipped the scales in me heading on over and wading through the confusion. I want in on the fun!


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## Stewart Matthews (Nov 21, 2014)

Can someone explain to me what the hashtag #amwriting is? Is it "Am Writing" like "I am supposed to be writing now, but I'm actually on Twitter." or "A.M. writing" as in "I write while I drink my coffee and hate on morning people."

This is the most pressing question of my day.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

M Stephen Stewart said:


> Can someone explain to me what the hashtag #amwriting is? Is it "Am Writing" like "I am supposed to be writing now, but I'm actually on Twitter." or "A.M. writing" as in "I write while I drink my coffee and hate on morning people."
> 
> This is the most pressing question of my day.


Yeah, it's mostly writer's insights while they're taking a quick break from writing. DO a search of the hashtag and see what people are saying--it'll give you a good idea of what it's about


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> - people whose accounts keep tweeting about how many followers and unfollowers they have through some sort of service (like justunfollow). FFS people, Twitter is not about numbers. Who. Frakking. Cares.
> - people who auto-RT other people's book spam, especially when said spam RTs Bad Book Covers.
> - people who auto-RT braggery about "my auntie gave my book 5 stars!!!"


I have different tolerances for those, mainly due to Tweetdeck's awesome "mute" feature. I use it a lot, mainly to mute specific hashtags I have no interest in. So I'm muting "fllwrs.com" and the word "unfollowers", which sorts out that problem.

I'm actually happy to see authors tweet about their good reviews, within reason, because I want to know about relevant book blogs I may not have heard of. The same for new book releases, I want to know if an author has something new out, or if something is on special offer. The key is volume: once is okay, twice is pushing things, and if I see the same "buy my book" spam again it's grounds for an unfollow.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

I'm struck by how much talk there is about using Twitter to interact with other authors. Reminds me of the blog posts about writers, for writers, by writers that we're always cranking out against our collective better judgment.

As for Jake and the DMs, I bet it's effective and I still think it sounds awful. Rock on, you know? I'm never going to use Twitter if I view it simply as a marketing tool. Better to enjoy it if I can and make that the focus, rather than marketing and pushing books into readers' hands—that's what the website is for; that's what the mailing list is for. I'd find the DM rude and unappealing, just as Patty said.

+1 to JAFF writers live tweetering Downton. +1 to asking erotica/erom readers who gets lucky with whom. Those both sound grand.


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## TheIndieEditor (Jan 12, 2015)

Thanks for all of the tips - I'm new to Twitter myself, so these are very helpful! My handle is @TheIndieEditor - feel free to follow me, and I'll follow you back.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Those author hashtags have been helping, thanks. I've been learning to use quotes from my books lately in my tweets, and it's actually been fun. I've just been so busy editing, otherwise I'd be doing a bit more twitter (and spending more time on kboards).


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I don't want this to come off as arguing, because I'm not disagreeing. I really believe you guys. But I am curious. No I am genuinely befuddled why if you were a fan of a writer--truly a fan and were waiting for their next release and looked forward to their work--that it would annoy you if that writer offered you a free piece of fiction that you couldn't get anywhere else. 

When I was little, I used to hear about Stephen King having a story in Omni, and he was one of my favorite authors, so I would go out and buy a copy even though I didn't subscribe. I look at how many people joined Pottermore in December just to get new Harry Potter fiction. If your fans are interested in your work, how would they possibly be offended if you sent them a DM offering them a secret way to get a piece of fiction? 

Now Patty said that she isn't Stephen King, but that makes me scratch my head, too. Isn't our goal to have fans that love our work? Don't we want to nurture them and give them secret little benefits that only they can get? I occasionally get email from kids that have drawn fan art of from my novel. Those are fans. I mean, like real fans, aren't they?

Now, I totally get if you want to use Twitter as an author hang. As Dolphin says, that's cool. I also totally get if you want to use Twitter as your own personal mini journal. Heck, I get if you want to use Twitter a bunch of different ways. That's the power of Twitter. But what I really don't get is why others can't seem to accept that it can be used as a vehicle to connect with your fans. I mean, you don't have to use it that way, but why do some people just not see that it CAN be used that way?


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Sever Bronny said:


> Yeah, it's mostly writer's insights while they're taking a quick break from writing. DO a search of the hashtag and see what people are saying--it'll give you a good idea of what it's about


I use #amwriting to post updates when I'm writing a novel - sometimes a few a day, sometimes a few a month  But they usually get a fair number of supportive RTs and favs.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> I don't want this to come off as arguing, because I'm not disagreeing. I really believe you guys. But I am curious. No I am genuinely befuddled why if you were a fan of a writer--truly a fan and were waiting for their next release and looked forward to their work--that it would annoy you if that writer offered you a free piece of fiction that you couldn't get anywhere else.
> 
> When I was little, I used to hear about Stephen King having a story in Omni, and he was one of my favorite authors, so I would go out and buy a copy even though I didn't subscribe. I look at how many people joined Pottermore in December just to get new Harry Potter fiction. If your fans are interested in your work, how would they possibly be offended if you sent them a DM offering them a secret way to get a piece of fiction?
> 
> ...


I said if you want to use it that way... *shrugs* it's up to you, but to me it seems that an author website is supremely better suited for that purpose. Twitter is a very fluid medium. A tweet sits in someone's timeline for five minutes, if that. So, for it to work as fan connection thing, you'd have to expect your fans to be online at the time that you tweet. And your book is for tweens? (Who don't use twitter).

For fans, if they search your name,you'd want a clean website to come up. There would be a subscribe link, and you'd promise your subscribers free stories.

I think people follow other people on Twitter for a number of reasons:

1. They hope that you'll follow back
2. They see you as potential source of news/jokes/nice pictures/cat pictures
3. They want to chat

Because of its fleeting nature, Twitter is suited to reaching out to people whom you don't know and who don't know you. You direct the people to your website, where you have your books displayed and you offer freebies.

I don't know that you could make it work the other way around, but if you have a smart plan beyond DMs, I'd love to hear it.


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## busywoman (Feb 22, 2014)

Another Twitter tip: use the "pin" feature to highlight limited-time promotions or special events where you'll be appearing.

Simply create a tweet. Let's say it is about a special promotion. Example: Book x is free starting __ thru __. Enjoy! [Amazon link]

Then on your tweet, click the "More" link at the bottom (3 dots) and choose "pin" this tweet. It will keep that particular tweet at the top of your Twitter stream on your Twitter profile page.

When the promotion is over, just unpin that tweet.

Now here is what messes peeps up. They forget to unpin. So here's how to avoid that. When you pin your tweet, at the same time go to your calendar and add a reminder to unpin the tweet right after the determined time passes.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

busywoman said:


> Another Twitter tip: use the "pin" feature to highlight limited-time promotions or special events where you'll be appearing.
> 
> Simply create a tweet. Let's say it is about a special promotion. Example: Book x is free starting __ thru __. Enjoy! [Amazon link]
> 
> ...


The vast number of people I know don't use the Twitter site but use an app like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. The pin thing doesn't work there.


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## busywoman (Feb 22, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> The vast number of people I know don't use the Twitter site but use an app like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. The pin thing doesn't work there.


I've been on Twitter for 7 years and visit the site every single day. I just visited six or seven Twitter profiles in the last 15 minutes.

More to the point, we use the pin feature in my company to promote webinars and other special events. We've proven it works, time and again.

There are hundreds of millions of people on Twitter, all with different habits and preferences. I urge everyone to keep an open mind about techniques. Try things and see if it works for you and your audience. It costs nothing but a little time to experiment.

There are many different ways people use Twitter.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

busywoman said:


> I've been on Twitter for 7 years and visit the site every single day. I just visited six or seven Twitter profiles in the last 15 minutes.
> 
> More to the point, we use the pin feature in my company to promote webinars and other special events. We've proven it works, time and again.
> 
> ...


OK, I'll test the pin thing. I haven't visited the Twitter site proper for, like, months. We'll see.

Suppose if people actually use this (big if--many private people access Twitter through phone or tablet via Hootsuite or Tweetdeck), this could also be a good way to display a free story?


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## busywoman (Feb 22, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> OK, I'll test the pin thing. I haven't visited the Twitter site proper for, like, months. We'll see.
> 
> Suppose if people actually use this (big if--many private people access Twitter through phone or tablet via Hootsuite or Tweetdeck), this could also be a good way to display a free story?


Free story? I can absolutely see it for that purpose, Patty.

Say a person goes to your website and finds your Twitter page link there. Or they find a Twitter page link in one of your books or in your newsletter. That is probably what triggers a lot of people to check out a profile page.

So having a free story pop right up at the top is great. Keep whatever is pinned there fresh. Swap it out regularly.

It's a 2-minute investment of time now and then.

Pinning is not the be-all-and-end-all of Twitter success, but then few techniques taken in isolation are.

Twitter success is an accumulation of multiple things we do. Like many things in life and business, persistence and consistency are key, too.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

busywoman said:


> Free story? I can absolutely see it for that purpose, Patty.
> 
> Say a person goes to your website and finds your Twitter page link there. Or they find a Twitter page link in one of your books or in your newsletterr. That is probably what triggers a lot of people to check out a profile page.
> 
> ...


We were talking about a free story with Jake because he said he was using DMs and we were saying we didn't like that because DMs feel invasive and spammy.

I use Twitter as front line tool. I follow loads of people and then just chat and tell jokes and post pictures. Once or twice a day max I will mention a book if I have a special on. Most days I don't mention my books at all. Or I might mention what I'm working on.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I can't recommend the pin feature. Super beneficial, and I only just discovered it last week!


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> Twitter is a very fluid medium. A tweet sits in someone's timeline for five minutes, if that. So, for it to work as fan connection thing, you'd have to expect your fans to be online at the time that you tweet.


Note that I'm talking about DMs, not tweets. In fact, DMs are even MORE powerful than your website, because a lot of people have DMs re-sent to their phones via text. That's about the single most personal way you can connect with someone other than a phone call or face-to-face.

Now I can see where someone would say, "If an author texted me, I'd be annoyed as hell," but if you're a big fan of Stephen King or another writer, and they sent you a link to a story that was super secret only for their Twitter followers (akin to getting a special benefit for being in their fan club), would that really annoy you? I asked a bunch of non-writer friends, and the comments were unanimous (e.g. "If I followed John Green, and he sent me a text with a link to a story? I would love that1").



> I think people follow other people on Twitter for a number of reasons:
> 
> 1. They hope that you'll follow back
> 2. They see you as potential source of news/jokes/nice pictures/cat pictures
> 3. They want to chat


That's true&#8230; but incomplete. Why do people follow their favorite writers or stars? I follow Margaret Atwood for none of those reasons. I'm just interested in what is going on with her and if she has any information about her and her books and also if she is sharing links or wisdom. In short, I'm a fan, so I follow her to stay in touch with her.

Ultimately, this may just be that I see Twitter as a really wonderful way to connect with fans. It is definitely more casual and personal than a website, and it is definitely more fleeting (which is why I make heavy use of the "best time to tweet" report in Socialbro). However, it's also marketing, chatting, and all those other things.

For me, Twitter has become much more powerful than anything else in my arsenal of fan engagement weapons. That will change over time and as my own career matures (assuming it does), but I definitely see it as more than chatting and cat pictures and multiple daily tweets of "my book is awesome; here's a link."


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Pinning is awesome, and it is extra awesome if you combine it with a Twitter card, which you can make in the Twitter advertising admin interface. It costs nothing, and you can add a graphic and even a sign-up button for your email database that will autopopulate the person's email address and twitter handle. You can even link this sign up form to Mailchimp so that it automatically goes into your mailing list.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

jakedfw said:


> Note that I'm talking about DMs, not tweets. In fact, DMs are even MORE powerful than your website, because a lot of people have DMs re-sent to their phones via text. That's about the single most personal way you can connect with someone other than a phone call or face-to-face.


That's pretty much exactly what bothers me. I don't understand following someone on Twitter as a solicitation for that kind of intimate contact. It's like we were just introduced at a party and now you're groping me. Don't get me wrong-groping can be great fun for everybody involved, but there's a time and a place, man. Settle down. I just came here for the lulzy GIFs and ironic hashtags.

Here's a paradox, though: I might feel differently about it if it _was_ Stephen King, because I know that Stephen King isn't so much a person, or even an author, as a corporation. It'd still bother me because it's so intrusive, but it wouldn't be as squicky for me, because it's impersonal. Stephen King didn't write that DM. Stephen King didn't even think to tell somebody else to write that DM. She did it on her own, because that's what Stephen King pays her to do.

I think of indy authors very differently. When I get an autoresponder from Mark Dawson, I can imagine him sitting down and writing it himself...because he did. That's a thing that actually happened. I know I could correspond with him, fan to author, if I wanted to. I know that he's inviting me to do that, and he's being genuine. That's not something Stephen King could do for his fans even if he wanted to (there's far too many of them in the first place, and in the second place, far too many of them would mail him boxes of pig hearts or show up on his doorstep with the same).

I don't think most of us want to be Stephen King, really. I don't. The authors I work with don't. We just want to pay our bills and enjoy having some genuine interactions with readers from time to time. We're perfectly comfortable playing by interpersonal rules, rather than corporation to person rules.

And frankly, funny cat pictures are fucking awesome. I'll be very cross if I ever grow out of those.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> I don't want this to come off as arguing, because I'm not disagreeing. I really believe you guys. But I am curious. No I am genuinely befuddled why if you were a fan of a writer--truly a fan and were waiting for their next release and looked forward to their work--that it would annoy you if that writer offered you a free piece of fiction that you couldn't get anywhere else.
> 
> When I was little, I used to hear about Stephen King having a story in Omni, and he was one of my favorite authors, so I would go out and buy a copy even though I didn't subscribe. I look at how many people joined Pottermore in December just to get new Harry Potter fiction. If your fans are interested in your work, how would they possibly be offended if you sent them a DM offering them a secret way to get a piece of fiction?
> 
> ...


I follow people on Twitter for lots of different reasons, because I like chatting with them, because we share interests, because they're offline friends/family, because they tweet interesting links, because they tweet interesting news, because they share funny jokes, because they post scans of old comics, cute animals, pretty dresses and cool buildings. Sometimes, I follow people simply because they followed me and when I check out their profile, they seem interesting and not spammy. And sometimes, I follow someone because I am a fan of their work.

Similarly, people follow me for lots of different reasons and not all of them have anything to do with my books or my writing. Some followers are people from here who may like me, but not necessarily my books. Some people follow me because they like my blog (which isn't exclusively about writing). Some people follow me because they're friends/family. Some people follow me because they're from the same town/city. Some are fellow authors. Some are fellow translators. Some people follow me because they like my comments about German TV or politics. Some are fans. And with some I have no idea why they follow me, e.g. I have no idea why the official Twitter account of the traffic authority of a South African province follows me or the official Twitter account of a Canadian politician.

Of these very different followers, most are not yet fans, though they might eventually become interested in my fiction, if they like me for other reasons. However, if they got one of those typical author DMs, it might never get to that point, because they'd write me off as a spammy author who's constantly in sell mode.

Besides, like Patty said, mailing lists are a lot better for contacting fans. Because while people might follow me on Twitter for many reasons (maybe they just enjoyed my snark about a fearmongering political talkshow), people who sign up for my mailing list are generally interested in my work. I still have a few sign-ups I suspect/know are more interested in me than my books (e.g. my Dad, my cousin and that old friend from years back), but there are far fewer of them than on Twitter.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I follow people on Twitter for lots of different reasons, because I like chatting with them, because we share interests, because they're offline friends/family, because they tweet interesting links, because they tweet interesting news, because they share funny jokes, because they post scans of old comics, cute animals, pretty dresses and cool buildings. Sometimes, I follow people simply because they followed me and when I check out their profile, they seem interesting and not spammy. And sometimes, I follow someone because I am a fan of their work.
> 
> Similarly, people follow me for lots of different reasons and not all of them have anything to do with my books or my writing. Some followers are people from here who may like me, but not necessarily my books. Some people follow me because they like my blog (which isn't exclusively about writing). Some people follow me because they're friends/family. Some people follow me because they're from the same town/city. Some are fellow authors. Some are fellow translators. Some people follow me because they like my comments about German TV or politics. Some are fans. And with some I have no idea why they follow me, e.g. I have no idea why the official Twitter account of the traffic authority of a South African province follows me or the official Twitter account of a Canadian politician.
> 
> ...


Actually, for what it's worth, I liked Twitter more than mailing lists - both as a sender and a receiver. Twitter has a casualness, and non-intrusiveness, that's not the case with an email, which feels more formal.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

PaulLev said:


> Actually, for what it's worth, I liked Twitter more than mailing lists - both as a sender and a receiver. Twitter has a casualness, and non-intrusiveness, that's not the case with an email, which feels more formal.


Right, till somebody DMs you.

Cora's right. If you start all of your Twitter followers off with a transactional DM, you're defining the relationship and potentially limiting uses for your Twitter account. If all you want it for is to sell to people who want to be sold, grand. Question becomes whether you'd get more sales in the long run by only talking to those people versus playing a longer and more casual game with everybody.


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## Nomadwoman (Aug 25, 2011)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I follow people on Twitter for lots of different reasons, because I like chatting with them, because we share interests, because they're offline friends/family, because they tweet interesting links, because they tweet interesting news, because they share funny jokes, because they post scans of old comics, cute animals, pretty dresses and cool buildings. Sometimes, I follow people simply because they followed me and when I check out their profile, they seem interesting and not spammy. And sometimes, I follow someone because I am a fan of their work.
> 
> Similarly, people follow me for lots of different reasons and not all of them have anything to do with my books or my writing. Some followers are people from here who may like me, but not necessarily my books. Some people follow me because they like my blog (which isn't exclusively about writing). Some people follow me because they're friends/family. Some people follow me because they're from the same town/city. Some are fellow authors. Some are fellow translators. Some people follow me because they like my comments about German TV or politics. Some are fans. And with some I have no idea why they follow me, e.g. I have no idea why the official Twitter account of the traffic authority of a South African province follows me or the official Twitter account of a Canadian


Exactly this. I never look at DMs as it's always SEO marketers and authors wanting me to 'take a look'. Not everyone that follows you on Twitter is a fan or even reads you. Do other authors want your spammy DM that your book is free? Does Margaret Atwood send out DMs? Wonder why. I follow Atwood because the woman is a genius, not as an author but as a human being.
I unfollow people who use tweetdeck and who follow me to get a followback then unfollow me in some ridiculous mission to keep their followers number above their following. 
Authors using twitter well mostly engage in interesting opinion and links to stuff that helps or is of interest to others. Out of that you may get a buy. Big stick not good in social any more.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> If all you want it for is to sell to people who want to be sold, grand. Question becomes whether you'd get more sales in the long run by only talking to those people versus playing a longer and more casual game with everybody.


Yes, you have it. I'm not selling people. I'm not using Twitter for direct marketing. It's fan engagement for me. I get that people are saying, "If I'm a casual user, and the person DMs me. I'm gone." Well, that's fine. I don't want them as followers. I want fans as followers, and that's perfectly fine, too. If I have 500 fans who follow me and you have 20,000 followers that auto-followed you because you followed them from some writing group, we are doing two different things.

So, you may ask, where does the marketing come in. Well, I don't market to my fans. _My fans market for me_. It's the retweets that are the marketing for me, and having an objective person retweet you is quite a bit better and more credible than me tweeting it directly.

I actually track this in Socialbro. For example, in the past seven days I've done fairly poorly. I tweeted 62 times, and got 8 retweets, 45 mentions, and 30 favorites. I can track specific tweets to see how well a tweet that I hope does well (such as "Hey guys, I'm guesting on a podcast next week. Check it out!"), and I can see those that do exceptionally poorly.

So, if I were to summarize my strategy (and, hey, it may suck. Who knows at this point?), it is this: Supertarget fans. Share with them compelling things about me and my work that they'll favorite and share.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

re. DMs.

And in a wonderful bit of timing. I just received this DM:



> Thank you for following! Want to trade facebook likes? I will like yours back I PROMISE! facebook.com/xxx.xxx -via @justunfollow


THAT, is what I call obnoxious spam. Ugh. Yeah, no thanks, buddy.

I don't ever really look at my feed (I use lists), so I won't unfollow him immediately, but as I do my regular pruning, I can easily seem him going into the unfollow dustbin. If he sends me another spam DM, it will be an immediate unfollow for sure.


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## anicolle (Dec 13, 2014)

An unsolicited DM is insta-block territory for me. It reminds me too much of email spam. The most obnoxious are those that are clearly latching onto some keyword in a post and just spewing out dozens of DMs in the hope that someone will click through.

On the other hand, a friendly in-context reply without a solicitation to buy something is fine. It looks a bit suspicious though if you're making that exact same reply to everyone!


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## Axel Blackwell (Aug 10, 2014)

So, I started a twitter account when I realized that my story was turning into a novel and I'd need to develop a following if I ever wanted to sell the thing. This was back around August, I think. I tweeted a picture of my tactical combat socks, and a couple other useless bits of blather. Then I wandered off and forgot about it. Now, I have 170 followers and they want to sell me a book. I can't find anything in my twitter feed to interact with because all I get is people re-tweeting other people's opinions about which book I should buy. I considered auto-tweeting "buy my book" every hour on the hour until they all unfollowed me so I could start over from scratch.  Either that or flushing Twitter all together.

Then a Kboards buddy told me she was having moderate success with twitter. She encouraged me to start building a twitter following as I finish off my book. So I poked around a bit and ended up getting a request for an ARC. This lady who runs a blog dedicated to promoting books with strong female characters. She has a few hundred followers and I believe my book is exactly the type of thing she is looking for. So, score, right? That got me excited about tweeting, but I have no idea how I managed to connect with this particular person or how to go about repeating the process.

All that to say, I was very glad to see this topic on KBoards. Thank you Sever for starting this thread. Thank you everyone else for your contributions to this thread. And thank you, Dawn, for suggesting Twitter. I’m going to put you guys on a list so I can find you and ignore all that other crap.  Then I’ll start figuring out the hash tag thing. And I promise not to tweet “buy my book.”
@axelblackwell


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Jake, I'm curious about the Twitter card. How is it different from uploading an image and tweeting it with a link? I do that all the time. I see other people do that all the time. Is this Twitter card any different?


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Dolphin said:


> And frankly, funny cat pictures are [expletive]ing awesome. I'll be very cross if I ever grow out of those.


Somehow this sums up my entire Twitter experience, which is admittedly limited. Just got started after Sever Bronny dragged me kicking and screaming into the @ScholarlyFox account I hadn't looked at in two years.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

You regret nothing, Chris.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Axel Blackwell said:


> So, I started a twitter account when I realized that my story was turning into a novel and I'd need to develop a following if I ever wanted to sell the thing. This was back around August, I think. I tweeted a picture of my tactical combat socks, and a couple other useless bits of blather. Then I wandered off and forgot about it. Now, I have 170 followers and they want to sell me a book. I can't find anything in my twitter feed to interact with because all I get is people re-tweeting other people's opinions about which book I should buy. I considered auto-tweeting "buy my book" every hour on the hour until they all unfollowed me so I could start over from scratch. Either that or flushing Twitter all together.
> 
> Then a Kboards buddy told me she was having moderate success with twitter. She encouraged me to start building a twitter following as I finish off my book. So I poked around a bit and ended up getting a request for an ARC. This lady who runs a blog dedicated to promoting books with strong female characters. She has a few hundred followers and I believe my book is exactly the type of thing she is looking for. So, score, right? That got me excited about tweeting, but I have no idea how I managed to connect with this particular person or how to go about repeating the process.
> 
> ...


There's something about being an author that inherently predisposes us to being terrible at Twitter. What's the percentage of us that's using it successfully? It's embarrassing. And I'll be the first to admit I Hootsuite poorly-written book ADs.

lol Axel--might as well be a giant spam megaphone begging people to unsubscribe, or one of those giant road-side billboards. I think the problem is we're great with editingor having an editor. Twitter is live--there's no social monkey editor saying, "Uh, maybe you should shut the hell up and not Tweet that, Mr. Author. Just. Sit. Down."

It challenges us to be social. Authors are, like, inherently homebodies. Come on, you can all admit it--we don't get out of the house much.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

This is pretty accurate:

https://revolutionjohnmagazine.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/about-shutting-the-hell-up-an-essay-against-literary-caterwauling-and-hyper-positive-self-reinforcement-by-gabino-iglesias/

I tend to treat Twitter as a virtual water cooler, so the temptation to go on it and catalogue the day's work and ups and downs can be pretty high. But he's right, word counts can be pretty unexciting. Must. Resist.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Ros_Jackson said:


> This is pretty accurate:
> 
> https://revolutionjohnmagazine.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/about-shutting-the-hell-up-an-essay-against-literary-caterwauling-and-hyper-positive-self-reinforcement-by-gabino-iglesias/
> 
> I tend to treat Twitter as a virtual water cooler, so the temptation to go on it and catalogue the day's work and ups and downs can be pretty high. But he's right, word counts can be pretty unexciting. Must. Resist.


I'm not sure of the point of this article other than that he can have a good whine.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

BUMP! 

Twitter's hashtags are great, been meeting some new cool people on Twitter recently and having good chats. It's fun and brand building at the same time! Great thread. 

Making lists is crucial, keep up to date with folks who chatted you back and continue conversation over time.


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## Stewart Matthews (Nov 21, 2014)

All I know is that people on twitter love puns. That's my contribution to the thread.

e: Oh yeah, and if you want to make friends on twitter, you have to engage people directly. Reply to their tweets, don't be stingy with the favorites, find links you'd think they'd like. That sort of thing. Unlike the real world, people on twitter seem to respond well to randos engaging them directly.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

M Stephen Stewart said:


> All I know is that people on twitter love puns. That's my contribution to the thread.
> 
> e: Oh yeah, and if you want to make friends on twitter, you have to engage people directly. Reply to their tweets, don't be stingy with the favorites, find links you'd think they'd like. That sort of thing. Unlike the real world, people on twitter seem to respond well to randos engaging them directly.


+1 It's weird a bit but honestly, it's the same as bunch of people sitting around the room, in small groups, talking different subject.. pick the topic and join in. Some people don't respond, but most do and some chats turn into really good ones.

#amwriting hashtag is very active and everyone here will find people to relate to. Start there!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Anecdotal observations:

- A few months ago, I installed popups on my website. At first it worked, I got more signups, then signups died. More worryingly, I got very little engagement with my website and blog. My comments died and visitors usually only viewed one page. I had to disable the popups for another reason, and signups started again, and comments and pages viewed went up.
- I took the fact that I'm an author and the Amazon link out of my bio, when I noticed that I tended to avoid people who had those things in their bios for fear of being hit with a spam avalanche. More people followed me with more engagement
- I pinned an ad tweet to my Twitter feed. Then I followed a bunch of people yesterday. Normally I get a couple of "hey there" @ replies and a bunch of follows back. There have been very few of either. I've unpinned the ad again.

My casual, non-scientific conclusion: a very significant proportion of people hate this stuff so much that they'll refuse to engage if they get a whiff that there might be a chance of getting sold to. Whatever decision you make about your web presence needs to take that into consideration.


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## Stewart Matthews (Nov 21, 2014)

Pinning a tweet is pretty harmless. I like to look over people's tweets before I decide to follow them or not. My eyes scan past a first tweet every time.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

M Stephen Stewart said:


> Pinning a tweet is pretty harmless. I like to look over people's tweets before I decide to follow them or not. My eyes scan past a first tweet every time.


I would think so, too, but apparently a fairly significant proportion of people sees the ad, thinks "urgh" and goes away again. I'll go back to tweeting the ad with different links every few days or so. I've had very good results with that. I might try pinning my latest blog posts. They're often about photography and have pretty pictures, or they're about what I'm writing now, with background stuff about the plot or characters.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> Anecdotal observations:
> 
> - A few months ago, I installed popups on my website. At first it worked, I got more signups, then signups died. More worryingly, I got very little engagement with my website and blog. My comments died and visitors usually only viewed one page. I had to disable the popups for another reason, and signups started again, and comments and pages viewed went up.
> - I took the fact that I'm an author and the Amazon link out of my bio, when I noticed that I tended to avoid people who had those things in their bios for fear of being hit with a spam avalanche. More people followed me with more engagement
> ...


Experiment with Popup timing and who sees it etc. Maybe you set it to appear too fast etc. Many options here still! 

Also, real question is - what's more valuable? Blog comments or email subscribers? I'd take subscribers 10 times out of 10. Some sites turn off comments completely these days.

And as far as pinned ads and replies, many people set automatic DMs thanking for follow, maybe you just got those by stumbling on the few who did?
Or some of your latest tweets were more interesting. Or they just followed back because they don't want to get unfollowed (main tactic now, which I don't like.. but people do follow and unfollow just to pump up numbers). Anyhow, experiments like these should be longer, at least one week to get real results, if you test for too short of time, it will be too random to matter.

And to be honest, those people who get that whiff, might just be the same type of people who leave 1 star reviews... Who cares.. as long as you're pinning a good tweet (not 'buy my shit') then you're doing fine. Some will not like it, some will like it. Just as with your writing.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

It's just my personal opinion, but I really dislike these "Join my mailing list" pop-ups, because they're intrusive. If I like a site (like e.g. Patty's blog), I will still visit in spite of a pop-up. But that doesn't make pop-ups any less annoying.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> It's just my personal opinion, but I really dislike these "Join my mailing list" pop-ups, because they're intrusive. If I like a site (like e.g. Patty's blog), I will still visit in spite of a pop-up. But that doesn't make pop-ups any less annoying.


Personally, I've never minded.  So it's just subjective stuff. I think it's all good as long as pop up offers a good valuable thing (be it information or entertainment).

And to be honest, when authors have these judgements (good vs bad) doesn't mean your audience does too. You are not your customer so you have to test and forget prejudice. Or else you might just be shooting yourself in the foot!

Back to the topic - here is a great article and advice about what not to do on Twitter:
https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/be-a-peep-not-a-pain-how-to-use-twitter-effectively/


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Subscribers vs blog comments? There wasn't a versus. After a little bump in subscriptions, I was getting neither.

I think this is the "well, *I* don't mind" mentality really harms people. The marketing gurus say that we have to do it this way and that xyz got a big increase in subscribers when he did it.

I have to admit that I bought all the books. I have a copy of Supercharge your Kindle sales, and David Gaughran's books. I have KindleSpy and Kindle Samurai, so I'm not some silly Luddite woman. I have run Tweet-everyone-to-death campaigns, and tweaked my keywords within an inch of death.

(hint: none of it works if your books aren't selling a base number of copies a day in the first place, and if your books are selling you may see some improvement, but you can also make sales much worse)

Go online and listen to what people say. *Really* listen.

They hate unsolicited phone calls.
They hate "Buy my book" tweeting
They hate spam of any kind, and spam is a very broad definition, and yes if you're trying to sell a book, that falls under the category "spam", even if you don't think it is.
They hate being hit in the face with popups. They really do. No, not everyone, and I'm not a hater either, but a very significant proportion of people are. *These people are my friends, my fans and the ones I want to champion for me.*

I suspect audiences of the people I mentioned (plus other sell-your-books-in-30-dot-points self-published authors) will see increases in subscriptions, because of the type of audience they attract. If I'm going to a website about selling, I more or less expect to be hit with a popup. I'll grumble and tell it to eff off, but the expectation is there.

As an author, I'm not selling marketing strategies. I'm not even selling my own books. I'm selling my ability to tell an engaging story. I showcase that ability on Twitter and my blog. I don't want to put anything on there that my audience finds annoying (even if *I* don't have a problem with it).

P.S. In the past few years, all the major businesses in this country have stopped cold-calling customers because it was doing their reputation more harm than good. The only cold calls we still get are those for investment schemes, holidays and certain charities. Even the telcos have backed off a lot recently.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> Subscribers vs blog comments? There wasn't a versus. After a little bump in subscriptions, I was getting neither.
> 
> I think this is the "well, *I* don't mind" mentality really harms people. The marketing gurus say that we have to do it this way and that xyz got a big increase in subscribers when he did it.
> 
> ...


There is a big problem with listening to what people say. It differs from what they DO. Yes, I hate spammy pop ups. I've said that before at times. But also notice that I don't mind them really if they are executed well and relevant.. So while I've said I hate it, it's just drawing lines in the sand. Yes, people say they hate calls, they hate cold emails, they hate all kinds of stuff. But half of it is just drawing lines in the sand by people who aren't self aware. If the website is great and valuable, I don't mind pop up at all. I subscribe quite often too.

And cold calls are alive and well. So are cold emails. So is Direct Mail. Trust me they are still used and work. Just people aren't self aware enough to see what works on them.

And actually, the more people go 'oh this would never work on me', the more likely they are to be actually unaware of themselves and succumb to some dumb cult leader who runs his own church in a small town and abuses young girls.. Honestly, all kinds of marketing works on me, and I know that. People say they hate this or that and they don't work on them because it makes them feel better and smarter. As if marketing is 'below' them.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I can only speak for myself, but I really, really dislike any sort of spam. I'm not saying this to make myself feel better or smarter, but simply because I dislike intrusive spam. 

Hence, while a subscribe to newsletter pop-up won't necessarily make me leave a website/blog I otherwise like, it certainly won't make me subscribe to the newsletter either. I hardly ever subscribe to e-mail newsletters anyway, because I'm not a newsletter person. However, I still have a mailing list, because even though I have never subscribed to an author newsletter, plenty of people obviously do. 

I actually do click on the occasional Buy my book tweet, if the book sounds interesting. However, if I keep seeing the same few tweets over and over again, I quickly get annoyed and unfollow or mute said tweeter.

We don't have marketing cold calls here in Germany, but if we did, I'd probably just hang up. Direct mail spam annoys the heck out of me, because unlike e-mail spam which I can delete with a click, snail mail spam is work, because I have to go to the mail box, open the envelope and then take it out to the trash again. I hardly ever read snail mail spam (the only exceptions are election flyers from parties/candidates I consider voting for). Unsolicited snail mail spam once or twice a year is tolerable, but if a company repeatedly sends me snail mail spam (bonus points if I never patronised said company before), they make sure that I'll never ever buy from them. For example, there is a optician in town which unfailingly dumps a flyer into my mailbox once a week. Now I don't wear glasses and therefore I have no need for an optician. But if I did, I'd go to the other optician in town, which advertises a few times per year via newspaper flyers. 

Advertising flyers in newspapers often go into the trash unread, though I may check out a flyer in which a supermarket where I shop advertises discounts or I might check out a flyer from an electronics store, if I'm in the market for a new printer. Again, I know I'm not typical, because I've seen studies where plenty of people pointed out that the ad flyers were the most important part of the newspaper for them and the part they checked out first, whereas for me they are a necessary evil I have to put up with, so the newspaper can finance itself.

However, I always pick up the weekly specials flyer of a German discount store chain which is laid out at the cash register. The sales clerk doesn't even need to prompt me to pick up a flyer (and indeed, they never do), I just do it and look at it as soon as I get home and have packed away my groceries. Indeed, the weekly specials flyer is the only promotion this discount store chain does. They don't do TV ads or magazines ads. Nonetheless, this is Germany's most popular grocery store chain and its owners are the richest men in the country. This flyer is the physical equivalent of opt-in marketing. No one pushes it on me or dumps it into my mailbox unsolicited, I choose to pick it up.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

The trouble is that spam is not defined by the method it is delivered, but by it's obnoxious content. There is spam email, and there is email you are glad is in your inbox. So you can't say that popups are spam in the same way that you can't say email is spam. As RBC notes, the content and context is critical. 

The issue with popups are their intrusiveness. People who click on a link to read an article don't want to take any additional actions to read the article. But there is a tolerance here, as well. Preroll ads on Youtube are also intrusive, and I'm sure we all click the "Skip this ad" button as soon as it appears, but the tolerance for them is increasing dramatically. People now understand that it is part of the price for viewing a video.

Okay, back to newsletter signups. I have a form and a popup on my website. The pop up generates about 80% more registrations to my database. My site traffic is not bad for a nobody, with 1037 unique users over the last 30 days, so it's a decent sample. (data via Google Analytics). 

Still, I follow the leading practices, and I'm about to move to a different kind of popup. It is a popup that slides from the lower right and does not cover the core content. It opens after the person scrolls down a full page and is persistent unless closed. It's what economist Richard Thaler calls a "nudge." You are reading an essay of mine, and the popup catches your eye. It doesn't block your view, so you go back to reading, but it follows along as you read. If at any point the user feels like, "Hey, this guy is worth following," he or she can just toss in his or her email address. It is initially distracting but not intrusive. 

I'm doing this not because I think popups are too obtrusive, but because I think that they are too fleeting. We are getting to the point where people just absent-mindedly click the X and move on. Much like banner blindness they are now getting popup blindness. So I'm moving on to a variation of it.

Anyway, I kind of went on a tangent here. This is a fast evolving space, and one thing that I do is immediately question my own assumptions. Six months ago I never would have done a popup, now I'm refining the popups I'm doing.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

RBC said:


> There is a big problem with listening to what people say. It differs from what they DO. Yes, I hate spammy pop ups. I've said that before at times. But also notice that I don't mind them really if they are executed well and relevant.. So while I've said I hate it, it's just drawing lines in the sand. Yes, people say they hate calls, they hate cold emails, they hate all kinds of stuff. But half of it is just drawing lines in the sand by people who aren't self aware. If the website is great and valuable, I don't mind pop up at all. I subscribe quite often too.
> 
> And cold calls are alive and well. So are cold emails. So is Direct Mail. Trust me they are still used and work. Just people aren't self aware enough to see what works on them.
> 
> And actually, the more people go 'oh this would never work on me', the more likely they are to be actually unaware of themselves and succumb to some dumb cult leader who runs his own church in a small town and abuses young girls.. Honestly, all kinds of marketing works on me, and I know that. People say they hate this or that and they don't work on them because it makes them feel better and smarter. As if marketing is 'below' them.


Sorry, but marketing IS "below" a lot of people. A very large percentage of people intensely dislike being sold to. This has nothing to do with whether they think they're "too good" (actually, this is a way I'm perfectly happy to be considered "too good" for something). It just has to do with that they prefer to make their own choices in their own time. Car salesmen, call centre operators and real estate people are amongst the least trusted professions. We need to buy things, but detest being sold to, unless we asked for the spiel. If I'm spending a Sunday visiting car yards because I'm thinking of buying a car, I'm kinda OK with the salesmen, but wouldn't buy from the really snake-oily ones. Once we walked out on a deal because the salesman kept trying to force us to take out finance, while we expressly said we didn't want any.

There is a balance between providing information about a product and ramming the product down someone's throat. Providing information they've asked for, or providing targeted information in a non-intrusive way is how I'd like to advertise.

People come to my website to read a post I've advertised on Twitter, or a post someone else has posted to Facebook. First thing that happens is they get hit in the face by a popup. Nuh-uh. A very significant percentage of them will leave again straight away. I know they will. They DID, for those months that I had the popups running.

I agree that there is a difference between what people say and what people do, but if I hear a lot of people say that they hate popups and I disable mine and all of a sudden I get more subscribers and more people read more pages on my site, I don't need any marketer to tell me what to do.

Do the experiment for yourself, and find out what your audience prefers.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> Sorry, but marketing IS "below" a lot of people. A very large percentage of people intensely dislike being sold to. This has nothing to do with whether they think they're "too good" (actually, this is a way I'm perfectly happy to be considered "too good" for something). It just has to do with that they prefer to make their own choices in their own time. Car salesmen, call centre operators and real estate people are amongst the least trusted professions. We need to buy things, but detest being sold to, unless we asked for the spiel. If I'm spending a Sunday visiting car yards because I'm thinking of buying a car, I'm kinda OK with the salesmen, but wouldn't buy from the really snake-oily ones. Once we walked out on a deal because the salesman kept trying to force us to take out finance, while we expressly said we didn't want any.
> 
> There is a balance between providing information about a product and ramming the product down someone's throat. Providing information they've asked for, or providing targeted information in a non-intrusive way is how I'd like to advertise.
> 
> ...


*First, marketing is not sales*. That's a big difference which you cram into one.* Marketing is preselling and good marketing actually makes a person want to buy before any sale is happening.* Being at car yard is already being sales process, not marketing process. Marketing happened before you went there. Also, there are different ways to sell, and some sell like [expletive]s, others don't (Consultative selling is great!). Truth is people say they hate being sold to, but somehow love to buy. Great salesmen don't even make it feel like it's a sale. So it's an enjoyable process.

There are different ways to market and you just pick out few professions that have bad reputation. Marketing is a tool - you can use it for good or bad. Fork is a tool too, but you don't say it's beneath you just because some people have stabbed a person with it.

And yes, I said already, do test first, see what works, but at the same time don't go preaching negativity about a tool or even more importantly a Strategy or broad category of something.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I can only speak for myself, but I really, really dislike any sort of spam. I'm not saying this to make myself feel better or smarter, but simply because I dislike intrusive spam.


No one likes spam.. that's not the point. Point is - context is changes those things. People draw lines in the sand all the time but in the right context they will do what they supposedly hate. So stating popups don't work or anything 'don't work' is not true. Same for 'this works all the time', it doesn't work all the time too.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

jakedfw said:


> The trouble is that spam is not defined by the method it is delivered, but by it's obnoxious content. There is spam email, and there is email you are glad is in your inbox. So you can't say that popups are spam in the same way that you can't say email is spam. As RBC notes, the content and context is critical.
> 
> The issue with popups are their intrusiveness. People who click on a link to read an article don't want to take any additional actions to read the article. But there is a tolerance here, as well. Preroll ads on Youtube are also intrusive, and I'm sure we all click the "Skip this ad" button as soon as it appears, but the tolerance for them is increasing dramatically. People now understand that it is part of the price for viewing a video.
> 
> ...


Huge thing about questioning your own assumptions. It's easy to draw lines in the sand. It's also not evolving. If you do question those things, you are actually trying to evolve and improve and that sometimes means doing things that you didn't think you'd do. So it's a huge step towards success!

And those slide up popups are cool. Work well too from what I've heard (and I intend to test). But still, it's the same principle, it's the same pop up, just with different setting and placement. Different context a bit. So again, all depends on context. Who's website it is, how good content is etc.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I've been seeing those side-sliding pop-ups a lot more lately, and actually don't mind them. I'd love to get some data on how they're working for people. Mind you, my mailing list signup rate is 15% (sales to signup ratio), so if and when when it slips, I wouldn't mind exploring other options.


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## ilamont (Jul 14, 2012)

Once, I saw an author who set up some sort of auto-tweet function every 15 minutes, consisting entirely of promotional links -- I can't imagine why anyone would want to follow an account like that.

As a user of Twitter, the value I find in using the service is A) being able to connect with people or accounts that matter to me and B) discovering new information. As an author and publisher on Twitter, I encourage my readers to follow me and help them when I can (for instance, by answering questions) and by providing information which I think might interest them. Sometimes that includes links to new titles that I've released, but it also includes observations about the industry, retweets, and links to this forum and industry blogs.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Here is a great read about how to effectively use Twitter and which hashtags to use for certain genres:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/why-writers-should-use-twitter-and-how-to-use-it-effectively/


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Good read, RBC, full of common sense tips. I never really got the buying followers thing. I think organic growth is far stronger nowadays.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Sever Bronny said:


> Good read, RBC, full of common sense tips. I never really got the buying followers thing. I think organic growth is far stronger nowadays.


Sadly, common sense is uncommon  Glad you enjoyed the article! Hope others do too and will get more from Twitter.

Currently biggest trend is to follow bunch and then see who follows back, unfollowers are gotten rid of and then cycle repeats. Stupid thing too. Follow those you enjoy, not everyone..

Another annoying thing I noticed is retweeting 10 tweets in a row in span of 2 mins.. jeez.. even tho some tweets are great there.. it just clogs up the stream and devalues them. I'm unfollowing those retweet monsters..


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

So I started an AD campaign on Twitter. It's doing terribly. Anyone have any tips?

It's a standard campaign, 0.15 bid CPC, a few keywords, and promoting a link to the book on Amazon. Nothing grand. (Will try Twitter Leads type next).


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Twitter advertising is all about the art of the keywords. You can target actual phrases that people tweet. It's insanely powerful but requires a ton of thought. Want to target people who tweet "looking for a book to read after harry potter" and *boom* you can do that. Same with "recommend a book to read." The possibilities are endless.

You can also target specific people and their streams. Want to target people who follow J.K. Rowling? Boom. You can do that. Again, very powerful.

The real challenge is balancing a desire for impressions versus what is truly some extraordinary targeting capabilities.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

jakedfw said:


> Twitter advertising is all about the art of the keywords. You can target actual phrases that people tweet. It's insanely powerful but requires a ton of thought. Want to target people who tweet "looking for a book to read after harry potter" and *boom* you can do that. Same with "recommend a book to read." The possibilities are endless.
> 
> You can also target specific people and their streams. Want to target people who follow J.K. Rowling? Boom. You can do that. Again, very powerful.
> 
> The real challenge is balancing a desire for impressions versus what is truly some extraordinary targeting capabilities.


Ah, that makes sense. Going back to the drawing board--thanks, m8!


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

RBC said:


> Here is a great read about how to effectively use Twitter and which hashtags to use for certain genres:
> 
> https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/why-writers-should-use-twitter-and-how-to-use-it-effectively/


Very interesting. Thanks for that!

Key point for me was:



> I want authors to blog and to blog off their author WEB SITE. Someone sees a tweet for a post that looks interesting and click and enjoy the post and guess what is in the sidebar for sale? BOOKS.


That made a lot of sense the way she describes it. But what to do? I don't have a blog but I can easily visualize what interesting (to certain people) content I could put on it. Can I make a blog on my author website (it's a WiX website) or do I need to do it through Wordpress like she does?

Any hints on how to set up a blog would be most appreciated.

Philip


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## Nancy Warren (May 5, 2014)

This is great. I'm following all of you who've posted. Or trying to!

I really want to figure Twitter out this year. I don't understand the whole hashtag thing. Or how to have conversations. I recently figured out that RT is much more helpful to fellow authors than favoriting, which I never knew before. 

Nancy


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Nancy Warren said:


> This is great. I'm following all of you who've posted. Or trying to!
> 
> I really want to figure Twitter out this year. I don't understand the whole hashtag thing. Or how to have conversations. I recently figured out that RT is much more helpful to fellow authors than favoriting, which I never knew before.
> 
> Nancy


What you don't understand about hashtags? Hashtag is basically a way to get included into a 'channel' or a 'topic'. So if you tweet:

''I'm working on my novel now.. 1000 words written! #amwriting'

Then you tweet will be seen in the stream of #amwriting. To see all the tweets at #amwriting go to Twitter Search and enter words ''#amwriting'. That's it, the stream will show up and you will see everything that is happening. Go in and reply to tweets that are interesting to you.

So hashtagging means you mark your tweets for certain community to see. TV Shows have their own hashtags often so watch your favorite TV Show and then go to Twitter and see what's happening there. Answer tweets.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

I finally caved in and decided to create a twitter profile. I am not kidding when I say that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep because I was so stressed up about it. It's a mystery to me how I can raise three children calmly without any issues, but a social network makes me anxious  
Anyway, I have an account, yay! and I wrote my first twit, and the twitter engine told me it was really good, so I think I totally got this 
My twitter thingy is @mike_omer


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

smikeo said:


> I finally caved in and decided to create a twitter profile. I am not kidding when I say that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep because I was so stressed up about it. It's a mystery to me how I can raise three children calmly without any issues, but a social network makes me anxious
> Anyway, I have an account, yay! and I wrote my first twit, and the twitter engine told me it was really good, so I think I totally got this
> My twitter thingy is @mike_omer


Congrats on first step!

Don't worry about writing tweets and talking at first if you don't know what to say or have not much happening. Just dive into hashtags about your book genre and TV shows or Science or Cosmos or Tech etc..


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