Twitter hasn’t enjoyed the same massive growth as Facebook because people are still trying to figure out how to use it. However, 300,000 users per day sign up for it. Twitter recently disclosed these facts:
• Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
• 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
• Twitter gets a total of 3 billion requests a day via its API.
• Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day.
Authors can take advantage of the unique relationship-building and promotion opportunities Twitter offers. Twitter is another tool in your social media strategy that could pay off in increased sales or connecting with a publisher. If you decide to join the 300,000 users on Twitter, here are 10 tips to gaining followers and building relationships.
#1 Set your purpose or strategy for Twitter. Your strategy will determine your status updates and the followers you attract. If you wrote a book about fly-fishing, then your tweets would be useful information about fly-fishing or your favorite fly-fishing lakes. Your tips and expertise would attract fly-fishing enthusiasts and hopefully a publisher of fly-fishing guide books.
#2 Use Twitter as one part of your overall social media presence. Besides Twitter, you should have a web site, blog and Facebook fan page. Your tweets – 140-character status updates – are teasers into your web site, blog, or fan page.
#3 Make sure your Twitter presence stands out. The standard Twitter background screams “newbie.” Pay close attention to your profile photo, bio, and background. There are several templates online that you can follow to create a customized background. Take advantage of the background to promote your web site, book, blog, or Facebook fan page. Show your personality in your photo, profile, and background.
#4 Connect with your followers through # tags. A # tag is a list of followers in your niche you can follow. For a list of authors to network with, check out #inkyelbows.
#5 Retweet or reply to tweets. The more you participate, the more your follower base will grow. A follower who retweets your tweet can exponentially grow your follower base. Especially if that follower has more fans than you have.
#6 Mix up your tweets. Just promoting your books or events will come across as spam. I schedule my updates using a third-party application, and then I insert some updates on the fly throughout the day just to keep my presence fresh and show some personality. Besides tweeting useful information, talk about what you’re doing during the day. Tweeters love a funny anecdote or quirky observation.
#7 Use third-party applications such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or SocialOomph to schedule your updates. Joanna Penn, an author with over 14,000 followers on Twitter, schedules her updates and then mixes it up.
#8 Reach out to bloggers in your niche on Twitter. Penn says she has landed podcast interviews by reaching out to bloggers on Twitter. For the fly-fishing author, you can connect with fly-fishing bloggers on Twitter to build a relationship.
#9 Give and it shall be given unto you. In your “thanks for following me” message, include a link to a podcast, free download of a sample read, or your blog. This will help build your follower base.
#10 Keep your tweets positive. The twitterverse doesn’t like negativity. This isn’t the place to rant about your manic editor or publisher. You’ll get unfollowed fast.
Are you on Twitter? Tweet me at KCIslander or HigherLifeInc. — Leilani Haywood
