What is your primary use of Twitter as a writer?

I enjoy watching some of the conversations on twitter, but I'm still not very knowledgeable about how to make friends there. Most of the folks who actually respond to my tweets or acknowledge me when I respond to theirs are people I know from real life or from other places on the web (like AW). Most people I follow don't follow back, so they wouldn't even see my tweets anyway, unless someone they do follow retweets me or I target them directly with an @ (I think that's how it works), which seems a bit pushy unless I'm replying to a general question they've asked or something.

Maybe I just don't know how to say anything interesting enough in the allotted space to get strangers, let alone people who already have tons of followers, to want to get to know me better.

zanzjan said:

That's because that's not what social media is FOR. You are doing it wrong.

It's like, if you were presented with your choice of every restaurant & every type of cuisine in the world, still only ever picking McDonalds and then complaining that IT'S ALL JUNK FOOD. You make your twitter feed... it is the way it is because you select the people and voices to make it that way. Aaaaand you pretty much just admitted that you do the exact same thing. This is the twitter experience you chose; it is NOT the only experience there can be.

Or what Max said:


A lot of people on twitter take the "social" seriously. It's about community. They aren't there to be a customer base, or an audience for drive-by self-promotion, and a lot of us find it outright offensive that people are pushing it as a platform to sell on. Yes, there are small publishers and self-declared experts who tell you to tout your wares all over social media, but IMNSHO that's a truly terrible suggestion. There are people who I genuinely liked, but not only have stopped following, but whose books I won't *ever* buy just because they were too about the hard sell. I know I'm far from alone in that. By way of analogy, picture being invited over to a friend's house to hang out with a bunch of people and maybe watch a game, or play cards, or something, and as soon as everyone is there and the party's just starting pulling out a credit card machine and a box of things to sell them, and talking over everyone else until they either buy something, leave, or kick you out. It's crass behavior, it's ineffective, and it makes people not want to interact with you. It makes whatever actually interesting things you might have to contribute to the larger conversation not worth the effort to wait for.

There are a LOT of writers on twitter, and a lot of other people in the field, and many of them have lots of funny, intelligent, interesting, helpful things to say. And by being themselves, and being part of the larger conversation, they win far more fans (and sales) than the disruptive me-me-me pitches ever will. And I'm sure there's someone who will say I'm wrong and they've sold a bazillion copies of something by being relentlessly obnoxious at people online, but I don't think any of us should want to be that person. At least I sure don't.

What I can say is that by being on twitter just to participate in the conversations, I have made great friends, I have learned incredible things that have helped me with writing (and art, and fixing stuff, and you name it), have had the opportunity to listen to the voices of people who have vastly expanded my world view and my understanding of my fellow human beings in it. It's invaluable to me as a human being, and even more so as a writer. And yeah, incidentally, it's helped me get readers too.



Yes! Also, one of our AW occasional regulars has a site where she collects the wish list tweets: http://mswishlist.com/

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For years I've avoided twitter, I had a personal account I set up. Mostly I used it to get game update tweets from my favorite football team when I couldn't find a place to watch the game. I had two followers at my peak; very attractive Russian women looking for mates. But I think they got lucky because they disappeared.

Out of necessity, it appears that I will need to be on twitter as an author as part of any successful self promotion. I've followed other romance writers, publishers, writing web sites and so on. I've learned about the Mute feature, and had to unfollow a couple of annoying people and/or companies. I was very excited when Mills & Boon followed me, and a Harlequin editor.

It's not something I particularly *want* to do. I don't live in a connected-all-the-time internet enable existence. I live on a boat, sometimes I am away from the internet for days or weeks at a time. Even when I lived on land and walked around with a smart phone with unlimited data and was always connected all the time the constant stream of random data did not appeal to me.

I probably am using it wrong. I view it like a tool that I have to embrace out of necessity, not as a community to join or a lifestyle changer. If you're a lumberjack you need to learn how to use a chainsaw. Publicity is a huge tool for anyone trying to distinguish themselves in a saturated market, I don't think you can be successful these days without it...and Twitter is one more tool.

So far it does NOT look anything like being invited over to a friend's house and getting a surprise Amway party. It looks more like a constant stream of commercials, where once in a great while a friend pops out and says hi.

Just checked your Twitter feed. Why not post about your travels? Your book is about sailing, yes? Were I you, I'd post more around the subject. People* aren't interested in interacting with tweets about how many hours they have left to vote. How can they? On the other hand, tweets about sailing, travel and so on are much more compelling.


* Where people = me, and I am representing the entire Twitter-using population of the world**

** Don't make me use a smiley to indicate intention

brswain said:

So I started a Twitter account for my pen name (My pen name is BR Swain), to drive traffic to my book in the contest. So far I've had many social interactions with some interesting people, other contest participants, etc. My pleas for votes have been re-tweeted to thousands and thousands of people. From what I can tell, this has not resulting in a single vote, though I now have more than 50 followers. I don't know what what to do with it yet.

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This is basically you going to a party full of your friends and potential friends in order to get orders for your business. Other people come there to talk about their kids, what they watched on the telly last night, about that game - how could those losers win?. Then there's you who want to steer the conversation over to them buying your stuff, and you won't take no for an answer...

That's never going to go down well.

Roxxsmom said:

I enjoy watching some of the conversations on twitter, but I'm still not very knowledgeable about how to make friends there. Most of the folks who actually respond to my tweets or acknowledge me when I respond to theirs are people I know from real life or from other places on the web (like AW). Most people I follow don't follow back, so they wouldn't even see my tweets anyway, unless someone they do follow retweets me or I target them directly with an @ (I think that's how it works), which seems a bit pushy unless I'm replying to a general question they've asked or something.

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That's basically what social media is, friends talking to friends and potential friends.

I think many make the mistake of thinking that social media is a PR platform. In fact, using social media as PR is often a serious mistake. Ordinary folk see through that and reject it. They basically block and mute people who appear to be there only to push their goods.

In my day job, I'm a marketer who used to rant and rave about having to work Tweeting into her online marketing strategy. (I still kind of hate Twitter on that side of things).

But I finally dipped my toes into tweeting a couple of months ago on my author side, and frankly I've been having a blast. I started it to build a presence as part of an online writing contest I was looking to participate in and in anticipation of querying, then started branching out and connecting with other folks - AWers, fellow writers, random people who started following me that I found amusing. Since then, I've had some great conversations online, as well as stumbled upon some great tips and ideas for my writing.

I'm a person who likes to use online venues as another way to spark my creativity, get unstuck, and well, yes, sometimes procrastinate. I think the key with twitter is that, just like AW, it's a conversation. A community, as others have said. And to get what you want out of it, engagement is key. And engagement on a real conversation/mutual interests level, not just "BUY MY BOOK OR FOLLOW ME". I don't like that. At all.

For those who want to get a little more active and reach out to others, perhaps find new tweeps and stumble into strange conversations that start out talking about apples and #healthyliving, only to devolve into a plot bunny #horror story involving Oreos and brownies...well, check out some of your fellow writer hashtags to start - #amwriting; #amediting; #amreading; #writersproblems. Things like #1lineWed or #fp can be fun, even if you don't participate.

Sure, it's about building brand and a platform. But there's an organic way to do that in which you showcase you - your interests, what you're writing about, maybe something cool you're researching. Even some of my personal favorite authors show their human side, rather than only talk about their next book.

Sorry, this is not meant to sound like a lecture. More like a musing out loud from a person who this time last year used to say "Die, Tweety Bird! If only I could lure you with a cask of Amontillado and brick you up behind a wall..." Am I doing it right? Pfffft! But am I enjoying Twitter? Surprisingly, yeah.

zanzjan said:

*goes and follows you* I don't generally follow people back unless I recognize the name, exactly because of the large number of people I've had follow me hoping I'd follow them so they could tweetspam me.

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Not to derail, but this might be a good spot to ask, what's a good way to go about identifying yourself to others on Twitter whom you interact with here on AW if your tweet handle is NOT your AW name? I have that issue, since I tweet under my pen-name. These are the stupid things that plague my brain when I'm avoiding a plot bunny who's currently choking on a carrot and not cooperating.

tiddlywinks said:

Not to derail, but this might be a good spot to ask, what's a good way to go about identifying yourself to others on Twitter whom you interact with here on AW if your tweet handle is NOT your AW name? I have that issue, since I tweet under my pen-name. These are the stupid things that plague my brain when I'm avoiding a plot bunny who's currently choking on a carrot and not cooperating.

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You can probably work out who I am on Twitter.

I should post a 'frequent creepy-crawly pictures' warning.

I just set up a twitter account yesterday. My friends don't understand the mood swings I'm going through as I edit my novel. And thus I feel the need to tweet into the void.

Helix said:

You can probably work out who I am on Twitter.

I should post a 'frequent creepy-crawly pictures' warning.

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Well done, Helix. You made me laugh yet again. Yes. Yes, you should post that warning. "Cuddly"...pfffft!

zanzjan said:

Now see, public angst is a perfectly acceptable use of twitter

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Absolutely!

Mongoose, check out the hashtags that Tiddlywinks listed in #31.

I've posted in a couple of the other "What do I do with Twitter?" threads with suggestions of who to follow, and how to deal with hashtags.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/sho...o-do-with-it&p=9558171&viewfull=1#post9558171

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/sho...witter-idiot&p=9505836&viewfull=1#post9505836

The biggest thing to remember is that Twitter is more like the old CB radios than a megaphone. If you use it as the latter, you're not going to get very far.

brswain said:

It's not something I particularly *want* to do. I don't live in a connected-all-the-time internet enable existence. I live on a boat, sometimes I am away from the internet for days or weeks at a time. Even when I lived on land and walked around with a smart phone with unlimited data and was always connected all the time the constant stream of random data did not appeal to me.

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Then don't. Seriously, it's a valid option. Like most social media, if you're not prepared to commit to it, you can do more damage by doing it wrong than by not doing it at all. Actually, it's a lot like this forum or forums in general in that manner. Unlike most social media, though, there are so many different ways to do it right and so few to really, really mess it up. And with your sailing you have one very appealing way of using it right there on your platter.

There are so many things writers can do, specifically. I just compiled a book of webcomic strips over the time of a week or two, and basically live-tweeted the experience starting with the initial notion of "oops, only three weeks until the con, I better start compiling a book" and my indecision about what series to collect. (I asked my followers. Later, I asked them about the cover, too.) As for the con itself, I mainly pre-tweeted that in case I wouldn't get live-tweeting-by-phone to work, but then that worked out, too.

You can tweet about books in progress and decisions you're facing, run story pitches by your readers, even discuss other books and movies and TV shows. Which, as a writer, also means placing yourself within the storyteling traditon you choose to tweet about, depending on how seriously you approach it. But most of all, Twitter is about listening. That's why clearing out your lists and following the right people is so important. I'm using TweetDeck to separate the folks-I-Need-To-Know form the ones I actually enjoy reading (TweetDeck allows you to make different lists, independent of whom you follow.)

I use twitter to keep up with birds rights activist

Max Vaehling said:

Then don't. Seriously, it's a valid option. Like most social media, if you're not prepared to commit to it, you can do more damage by doing it wrong than by not doing it at all. Actually, it's a lot like this forum or forums in general in that manner. Unlike most social media, though, there are so many different ways to do it right and so few to really, really mess it up. And with your sailing you have one very appealing way of using it right there on your platter.

There are so many things writers can do, specifically. I just compiled a book of webcomic strips over the time of a week or two, and basically live-tweeted the experience starting with the initial notion of "oops, only three weeks until the con, I better start compiling a book" and my indecision about what series to collect. (I asked my followers. Later, I asked them about the cover, too.) As for the con itself, I mainly pre-tweeted that in case I wouldn't get live-tweeting-by-phone to work, but then that worked out, too.

You can tweet about books in progress and decisions you're facing, run story pitches by your readers, even discuss other books and movies and TV shows. Which, as a writer, also means placing yourself within the storyteling traditon you choose to wteet about, depending on how seriously you approach it. But most of all, Twitter is about listening. That's why clearing out your lists and following the right people is so important. I'm using TweetDeck to separate the folks-I-Need-To-Know form the ones I actually enjoy reading (TweetDeck allows you to make different lists, independent of whom you follow.)

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The twitter account I created isn't about my personal life, it's for a pen name. Given my gender (male) I see most of my category romance writing being marketed under a gender neutral pseudonym. I've been entering all writing related social media under this name because I don't particularly want to have it all come up under search engines with my real name for that reason. So dragging my personal life out there to tweet about it isn't something I ever planned to do under a pen name.

I've got a personal blog where I talk about our sailing adventures (http://sailevenstar.com), I haven't really seen Twitter as a need to promote that, or for social networking. Someday I may publish under my real name, it remains to be seen if I will ever get published at all, however.

I may be irritating people with my twitter use, I'm not sure. I am trying to be judicious and NOT emulate some of the spammy author tweets I keep seeing. I was drawn to twitter during social media voting part of Harlequin's SYTYCW contest, but it was pretty unproductive from what I can tell. To date I've not been doing much more than tweeting with the other SYTYCW entrants, though a lot of us also talk on the Harlequin forums about a lot of the same stuff. So how many places to I need to post "I finished my manuscript and sent it in for the contest today" before it seems silly.

My twitter account is in my pen name @JohannLaesecke and its main purpose is to connect with other authors, although I have added a few personal follows. Yes, many authors flog their books relentlessly. In my naivete and twit-ignorance I tried one of those tweet blast thingies for a few days to see if it helped - it did not. That's just spamming and most twitterers pay no attention to it. Save your money. So I set about trying to learn how to be noticed and found I had much better results sending out my own wordcrafted tweets, maybe 6 or 12 a day depending on how much time I have (I wisely have not given up my day job). These work very well and I have been able to drive a substantial number of hits to my website, blog and Amazon pages. I re-use some of the successful tweets, but never on the same day and even then I make some small change so it looks different.

Best results have been when I do not try to sell the book, but to sell the sizzle. Post a tweet to provoke someone to become interested enough to go to my page, go to my website/blog, go to my Amazon listings to see what the heck I'm talking about. That drives a lot more hits than any amount of "BUY MY BOOK!!!" pleading. My theory is, if I drive enough interest to my authorpage/website/amazon some small percentage will turn into sales. I did join @independentauthornetwork where I have an author page and many fellow authors in IAN retweet if you put the #IAN1 tag in your tweet. There are others for every genre you can imagine. I haven't seen a hashtag for AW authors, maybe the mod can get one started. I would be glad to include it as a way we could identify ourselves to each other. If I see it, I'll follow you.

I follow about 300 and have about 260 followers. I don't need thousands, if I can get 500-1000 real connections I'll be happy. I follow most authors who I find interesting, even if I'm not into their particular genre. I do not follow those who are simply following me to advertise that I can buy 10,000 followers for $39 or anything along that line. Common sense tells me that most of them are fake and why would I want to pay for fake just to pump up my ego with 10K ghost followers?

One thing I've found effective - my website host offers the usual hit statistics, but for some reason spambots keep blasting my website so the graph goes up when sites like success-seo and others go on a rampage. Result: tons of hits and meaningless hit statistics. I've asked my web host to filter those (I've seen articles in the tech forums of how to do that) but they claim to be unable (probably unwilling) to do that, so I'm looking for a better web host (any recommendations?) I use the tinyURL converter to post links. It has a hit counter for each tinyURL I have created, so when I make my own tweet I can see the success of that tweet by the number of times that tinyURL is used.

So I'm still learning how to use twitter. It's not the be-all and end-all, it is just another promotion tool if used properly. I have also found a few authors/books that interest me and I have bought them - which led me to try to discover how I got hooked so I can make use of that hook myself.

I portray an obviously fictional character on Twitter and use it as my comedy publisher. I've built up 5,000 followers in a month. It's been wild.

Everything I post there is in the voice of my character, always. The fourth wall remains sacrosanct and my followers appreciate that. They always know where to go for the most scathing political satire.

I don't always agree with everything my character says but that's how characters are, eh?