Is Twitter useful for writers? I'm not sure, but that shouldn't stop you from experimenting. Here's a range of tips for writers who are beginner to intermediate Twitter users. Most of the tips are easy to implement, so they won't gobble up precious writing time.
I) Your Twitter Page: Look Professional, Promote Your Work
Beef-Up Your Bio
1) Include phrases and words people are likely to search for related to your writing.
2) Create a separate Twitter page to promote your events or upcoming publications (articles, blogs, books).
I recently launched a humor blog called "The Chronic Single." In the screen shot below, I created a Twitter page to promote a performance/reading I did at a theater festival in Washington, D.C. (I'll be changing the description to promote future events in which I read/perform other material from The Chronic Single.)
Add Background/Wall Paper (Step-by-Step)
3) Use a photo of yourself or your book or other image as background for your Twitter page.
I've suggested this before, but implementation is more complicated than it appears. Here's how to do it (follow red arrows on screen shot below)
- click on Gear icon at top right of screen.
- click Design in middle left of screen.
- pick an image from your computer.
- click Tile checkbox
The finished product with photos from my recent reading/performance at fringe theater festival in Washington, D.C.
*Note: This can be a little bit of a pain. Twitter limits photo and images for wall paper to 2 MBs. As long as images are NOT high-resolution, you should be OK. Otherwise, you may need to resize the image. If this sounds like too much of a hassle, skip this tip.
- click on Gear icon at top right of screen.
- click Design in middle left of screen.
- pick an image from your computer.
- click Tile checkbox
The finished product with photos from my recent reading/performance at fringe theater festival in Washington, D.C.
*Note: This can be a little bit of a pain. Twitter limits photo and images for wall paper to 2 MBs. As long as images are NOT high-resolution, you should be OK. Otherwise, you may need to resize the image. If this sounds like too much of a hassle, skip this tip.
II) More Tips for Finding Good Followers
4) Follow top writers in your writing niche or genre. Don't know many authors in your niche? Use this tool to find top writers.
5) Then:
- follow who they follow
- follow their followers
6) check out hashtags they use. Useful? Use them and follow other people who follow those hashtags.
III) Measure Success
7) Is Twitter working for you? It is if:
- You're adding followers who like your tweets and retweet them.
- Followers are visiting your Web site. In your Web traffic tracking tool, people who come from Twitter will have "t.co" listed as a referrer. (You have a Web traffic tracking tool, right? Major blog platforms, such as Blogger, include such a tool. Don't have one? Here's one of the simpler, free traffic tools: Statcounter)
More Twitter Tips for Writers
- Getting Started with Twitter: One Writers Frustrating Experience
- Tips for Managing the Twitter Mess
- Nine More Twitter Tips for Writers Confounded by Twitter
- More Quick, DirtyTwitter Tips for Writers: Tweeting Tricks
Art attribution at image at top of page: By Pictofigo (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
