Twitter is a wonderful yet overwhelming beast.
When used properly, it will be one of the greatest tools in your arsenal for making new connections, building relationships with readers, and becoming an established voice in your topic/genre.
When used improperly (i.e. not really used all that much), your Twitter page with 67 followers and 93 Tweets over the course of 6 months is going to do more harm than good! A Twitter page like that sends potential followers the message that you don’t take it seriously; if you don’t take it seriously, they figure you must not be that professional or that much of an expert, and definitely not worth their follow.
A moment for sympathizing: I get it. I really do. It’s easy to put Twitter on the backburner, because there are always so many other things that “need” to be done right now.
For this coming week, I implore you to put Twitter on the top of your list for only 20 minutes each day. You will get more followers, and you will find some treasured connections!
Monday: Start stocking up on Tweets
Use Buffer, Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck to stock up on Tweets that will take you through the coming days. Try to get at least 8 for each work day, and 4 for each weekend day. This step will be ongoing–if you can stock up three days in this first round, you’re already ahead of where you were before!
Tuesday: Expand your use of #hashtags
It’s easy to get used to tagging the same #hashtags in every Tweet. But who are you missing out on with other hashtags? Go to your favorite hashtag pages and see what other hashtags are being used. Add some new hashtags to your Tweets, and explore what others are saying under those new hashtags.
Wednesday: Create or join a Tweet chat
Twitter is a wonderful platform for customization, and lots of Twitter users (such as Neil Gaiman @neilhimself and yours truly @aeqeditor, with @darairene and @wiseink) have strategically used hashtags to promote a chat/Twitter conversation at a certain time. Seek out Tweet chats that are happening OR create one yourself!
Note: Next Wednesday at 3:00 CT, Wise, Ink will be hosting a Twitter chat at #indiepubchat! Tell every author you know!
Thursday: Connect with 10 people directly
By now, you will have spent plenty of time finding new people to follow via your expanded use of hashtags! Identify 10 people in particular who share a similar audience. To each of them, write a kind message introducing yourself and showing interest in what they’re all about. Don’t make it all about you and your product; ask them something about themselves. Compliment them on their blog or product. Ask if you can help in any way. Offer ideas on how to help (“Do you need any guests for your podcast in the coming months?” or “Do you need a guest blogger?”). Remember, they need to continually come up with material to engage their audience just like you do. Your offer to help will give you access to the audience they’ve already developed and will give them some time off from content creation! Win-win!
Friday: Update your Twitter profile page
Create a Twitter background of your book cover. Add your website to your short bio. Add photos for viewing on your profile page. Make sure your Twitter page represents you as well as possible–the more professional it looks, the more you seem worth following!
Saturday: Explore different Twitter apps to enhance your Tweeting experience!
TwitPic: Allows you to post pictures on Tweets.
Twitterific app: Post pictures to Tweets while away from the computer.
WeFollow: Site that allows you to add yourself to lists of Twitter users by tags that relate to you and your topic.
Manageflitter: Manage followers and easily read who’s active or inactive and who’s not following you back.
FriendorFollow: Like Manageflitter, this site allows you to see exactly who’s not following you back and gives you the chance to unfollow them.
Qwitter: A service that will send an email when a follower unfollows you.
TweetMeme: A service that easily shows the topics that are trending on Twitter.
Sunday: Back to Tweet scheduling…
It’s time to catch up on Tweet scheduling! Get back to it! Be sure to tag new users and promote others in your Tweets–this will give them great incentive to follow you and promote you to their followers, which is way more valuable that you just promoting yourself to your current followers.
Happy Tweeting, folks!
Great post Amy!