Marketing for Writers: 3 Tricks for Facebook, Twitter, MeetUp

Not getting much from your social media efforts? Here are some quick and easy tips for Twitter and Facebook, plus tricks for promoting your readings and events with Meetup.com.

Brown-Nosing with Twitter

Gathering thousands of followers on Twitter can take a lot of time. Or you can save time and buy followers. Will this drive traffic to your Web site or sell books? Doubtful. 

There's an option that is cheaper and more efficient: Connect, flatter, and brown-nose people who already have a large number of followers.

Here's How:
- Identify influential writers, journalists, and experts in your industry. For non-fiction writers, this is straightforward -- search Google and Twitter for your topic and see who appears at the top of the list of search results. For fiction, you have to consider themes of your work. I'm writing a novel about a chronically-single guy who takes a trip around the world looking for the woman of his dreams. So, my book covers two topics: life as a single person (dating, loneliness, sex, relationships) and world travel.
- Follow these influential people on Twitter and sign up for their blogs. On Twitter, follow who they follow and who follows them. Make note of hashtags they use in their posts.
- Tweet and retweet their posts. Post images of their books or links to their Web sites. Go to their lectures or readings, take a photo, and post it to Twitter.
- Be sure to include their Twitter handles and favorite hashtags in your posts. By including their Twitter handles, you're telling them that you like their work and are happy to help them get the word out. People may retweet your tweet, which means all their followers will see your name. They influential people and their followers may follow you.

Example involving a play and performer popular with single people:

After attending an event by writer/performer Elaine Liner, I took a photo of her promotional flyer and posted it to Twitter. I included her handle @thesweatercurse and #edfringe, a hashtag she used to promote the event. That hashtag is also followed by the local press and other influential people.

Brown-Nosing on Facebook

On Facebook, you can make posts to groups you follow and mention important people. Most of the same rules for Twitter apply on Facebook:
- Post photos and links.
- Thanks people for help, praise their accomplishments, be a nice person.
- To tag, or include people's names in your posts, start typing their name and it should appear in a pick list. Type capital letters for first letter of their name. You can include their page by typing the @ sign and their page name. More on tagging with Facebook.

An example from a Facebook Group I belong to frequented by writers and performers interested in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. (I just went and performed excerpts from my novel in progress.)

In the post to a Facebook group, I thanked important people who helped me produce and perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Tips for Promoting Yourself with MeetUp Groups

I've discussed using MeetUp groups for promotion before. Recently, I tweaked my strategy.

For MeetUp, you want to promote an event geared toward individual groups. Better still, offer them something special for attending: a discount, drinks with the author (you), or something else. Here's what I did for my recent events in Edinburgh, Scotland

1) Searched for groups by location and topic:

Here I'm searching for single's groups within 10 miles of Edinburgh.

2) Completed a profile and joined the group. I was honest and said I'm a writer who will be in town performing my work at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

3) Contacted the organizer and asked if it was OK to post an event. This is good etiquette. You could just post your event, but you might piss off the group organizer. Either way, be prepared for responses ranging from: "Sure!" to "Only if you pay me" to "Drop dead."

4) At this event in Edinburgh, I offered a discount on tickets and the opportunity to meet with me after the event.

5) Other things to consider:
- Lead time: Do this several weeks to a month before your event.
- Links with more information: Include a link to your Web page or another page describing your event and location.

After striking out with single's groups and groups interested in travel -- two themes of my book -- I contacted a local writers group. First I filled out a profile and then emailed the organizer to ask if I could pitch an event.

Art Attribution:
By Comstratega (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

More Marketing for Writers Articles

 

- Twitter for Writers: Strategies for 2014

- Facebook for Writers: Gripes, Tips (Part1)

- Facebook for Writers: Part II

-  How I transformed scenes from a novel in progress into a one-man show called, "The Chronic Single's Handbook."

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11 More Great Twitter Tips for Writers

These Twitter tweaks for writers and authors show how to: unfollow people who are not following you back; automatically Tweet posts from your blog, Linked In, and Facebook accounts; suck up to important people; and use your Twitter profile to drive traffic to your blog. 

The tips are organized into three categories: Followers, Tweeting, and Miscellaneous. If you missed last week's Twitter article, here is is: Twitter for Writers: Strategies for 2014

 

I) Followers

 

1) Follow influential people and writers in your industry

- Use Twitters search tool and search on key terms and hashtags

- Use a search tool like Tweepi to find followers with similar interests.

- Use Twitter's List feature to create lists of only your best, most important followers. Retweet their Tweets. More on this.

2) Follow their followers

- You should be able to follow 10 to 50 new people a day, depending on how many people you have following you. 

- Twitter will warn you if you attempt to follow too many people: Heed the warning and stop following people for 24 hours. Twitters frowns on people who have few followers and follow lots of people. Try to maintain a similar number of followers to people you are following

 - I have 4,000 followers and have been able to have follow about 4,200 or 200 more people than people who follow me.

- More on this:Twitter's policy tips on how to avoid having your account suspended.

3) How to unfollow people who don't follow you back.

Free tools such as Manageflitter used to make this process very easy. Recent changes to Twitter, which discourage bulk following and unfollowing, have made these tools trickier to use. But it can still be done. Here's how to do it with Managerflitter:

Step 1: After signing in to Manageflitter, click "Not Following Back." Go to the last page of the results -- people who have been ignoring you for the longest period of time. (arrow on upper right)

Step 2: Click the little box next to each person's name. Managerflitter let's you dump up to 100 people per day.

Step 3: Click "process now"

Step 4: Reclick the boxes on the left next to each person's name. Then check your Twitter profile to verify that you've dumped some people you were following.

II) Tweeting 

4) Use images and photos -- correctly -- in your Tweets. Here's how.

5) Brown nose

When you retweet important people of folks with whom you want to curry some favor, include their twitter handle -- including the @ sign -- in your Tweet.

6) Tweet more often 

- People "with 15,000 plus tweets have between 100,000 to 1 million followers," according to a post by social media expert Jeff Bullas. 

7) Save time by prescheduling posts 
Try a scheduling such as Hootsuite. Be sure to install Hootsuite's Hootlet, which lets you capture and Tweet Web pages while you're browsing the Internet. To find Hootlet: In Hootsuite, click the wrench icon on the left column to open the Tools menu. Then click on Hootlet.

8) More automation: Have your posts to Facebook, Linked In, Google+, and your blog automatically added to your Twitter feed.

- Facebook to Twitter

- Google/Twiter integration: Sign up for a free account at Manageflitter. Select Engagement from the top menu, then Google+ integration and follow the instructions.

- Linked In: Add your Twitter handle to your Linked In profile. Go to your Linked In home page, enter a status update in the "Share an Update" box. In the "Share with" box below your update, select "Public + Twitter."

- Twitterfeed

 

III) Miscellaneous Tips

9) Add a second link to your Twitter profile

In addition to the link at the end of my profile (randyrossmedia.com), I added a second link to the body of my profile (theloneliestplanet.com). For the body link, use the full url with http:// etc.

10) Are your Twitter efforts paying off?

One of my goals with Twitter is to drive traffic to this blog. This easy to measure with a Web analytics tool. Statcounter is one of the simplest, cleanest Web anaytics tools

Another goal is to beef up my Klout score, a measurement some employers and literary agents consider important. In my experience, adding followers and tweeting regularly boosts my Klout score more than my activities with other social media. More on Klout scores.

 

More Social Media Tips 

 

-Twitter for Writers: Strategies for 2014

- Building a Writing Platform: My Results for 2013 

- Quick, Dirty Blogging Tips for Writers and Authors

 

Art attribution: Top image "Twitter" by Esther Vargas Attribution-ShareAlike License

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Twitter for Writers: Strategies for 2014

Twitter can be a good tool for finding new readers and connecting with influential people you don't already know. It can also be a colossal waste of time -- even more so because the site recently changed some policies that can affect writers promoting their work. This article discusses recent changes -- both bad and good -- and includes work-arounds and tips. As with any type of promotion, be sure to measure your results. For example, is the time you're spending on Twitter driving people to your Web site or Amazon page? You're checking your Web traffic stats regularly, right?

 

Recent Changes

1) Twitter is now encouraging you to include photos and images with your posts. This could be a good thing if you're handy with graphics software. If not, your posts may get lost in a tsunami of dopey pet photos other people post.

Note: Encouraging users to post photos is a social media trend: Facebook recently implemented policies encouraging its users to do this. Read about Facebook's tweaks and how to make the most of them.

2) It is now easier to add a stream of Twitter posts to your blog or Web page.

3) Twitter clamped down on tools, such as Manageflitter, that automate the time-consuming processes of following and unfollowing people. (Next week's blog will include a work-around for this.)

1) Adding Photos and Images

 

Research suggests that people are more likely to click on a post featuring a "picture" than one feature just a link or straight text. In October, Twitter added a feature called Image Preview that displays pictures in followers Twitter feeds. Previously, followers had to click on a link to see the image, now it just appears -- if it is properly formatted.

Two images I uploaded to Twitter and how they appear in a Twitter feed.Notice that the text post in between the two images gets lost.

- What counts as a picture? Anything that is saved as a graphics file such as a .jpg. So you could take a quote from your book, add a border to it, save it as a .jpg and that would qualify as a picture. A good article discussing pictures and images.

- How to format pictures so Twitter will accept them for Image Preview
* Images can be no larger than 3 MBs. (the images in my example are 50KB and look fine)
*As with Facebook, pick images that are rectangular. Some experts recommend formatting images that are twice as wide as they are high. That isn't always necessary: In my example above, the top image, a screen capture of my Twitter profile, is 440 pixels wide by 220 pixels high. The second image of me with the sheet measures 600 by 400)

- How to upload pictures: When you click on the "Compose a New Tweet" box, a camera icon appears. Click the camera and you'll be prompted to upload a file from your computer.

- Twitter also lets you add youtube videos to your Tweets. However, these will not show up as large images the way photos do. (To include a video, enter the youtube link into the "Compose a new Tweet" box. Include a snappy headline or other text to entice followers to click.)

- Images, as well as videos, inserted into Tweets are collected in the "Photos and Videos" box on your profile page. To remove items from the box, click on the arrow, click on the item, and then click delete, which removes the Tweet from your Twitter feed. Note: If you create a Tweet using a tool, such as Hootsuite, the image or video will not be added to the "Photos and Videos" box

The Photo and Videos box displays six recent items. To remove an arrow indicated by my red arrow.

- Simple tools for creating pictures and images: Items created in Powerpoint can be saved as .jpg files. Irfanview is easy to use and let's you crop, annotate, and resize images.

- For more detail than you want on adding images to Twitter

2) Embed Your Tweets onto a Web Page or Blog

My Twitter stream (recent posts) added to my Web site.

This capability isn't new, though Twitter has beefed up the features. To add your Twitter to a Web page.

On your Twitter page:
- click on Settings (the little gear in the upper right corner of the pages)
- click Widgets
- click create New
- Once you've finished, Twitter will generate somme code that you need to copy and paste onto you Blog or Web page.
- More on embedding your Twitter Timelines (your Tweets).

More Social Media and Twitter Tips for Writers

- Confusing Twitter Terms in Plain English

- More Quick, Dirty Twitter Tips for Writers: Tweeting Tricks

Note: the two posts above are older: some of the Twitter interface has changed, but the strategies still work. 

- Facebook 2014: Gripes and Tips for Writers (part 1)

- Facebook 2014: Gripes and Tips for Writers (part 2)

Art attribution: Twitter image by Dennis70 (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

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18 Months of Social Media: One Writer's Progress Report

For the last year and a half, I've been trying to develop an audience for my writing and a platform for a novel I've yet to finish. I followed the advice of book marketing bloggers and published authors. I drew on my experience with online marketing and Web publishing. I devoted one day a week and a couple of hours most other days to this project. Here's what I have to show for my efforts: It's not impressive.

Exhibit A: The Ugly Truth

My stats:
Monthly Blog traffic: about 3,000 page views
(I blog about 3 times a month)

Social Media connections: 8,400
(Linked In, Facebook Fan and personal page, Google+, Twitter)

E-mail addresses: 700
(includes blog sign ups, addresses I've collected over the years and recently contacted, addresses I've collected at readings and lectures I've given. I use Mailchimp.com to manage much of these names)

*What it would take to wow an agent:
Monthly Blog traffic: 50,000 views
Social media connections: 50,000
Email addresses: 100,000

*Source: a 2012 Writer's Digest article, but I can only imagine expectations getting larger not smaller.
Worth noting:
- One agent in the article said she would be impressed with 10,000 social media connections.
- Another agent blog said that for fiction, having a big platform is less important than it is for writers of non-fiction.



Of course, there  is an easier way to impress an agent with your social media numbers.

No time for social media, but lots of money? Buy followers who will ignore all your posts and never buy your book. But hey, you'll have an impressive platform.

Exhibit B: What Worked

 

1) Blogging regularly
But there also seems to be a point of diminishing return -- and I have other work to do.
- My blogs tend to be long: Better to be long and thorough, than short and useless, particularly if you want people to sign up for your blog.
- I've also noticed that some literary agents who used to blog daily are now blogging less frequently. I blog most Mondays.

2) Inserting a sign-up box at the end of each blog post
- Like many blogs, mine has a sign-up box in the right-hand column. When I started to manually add a sign-up box to the end of each blog, my sign-ups jumped ten-fold. (I used to get maybe one sign-up a month. Now I get 10 to 20 and have a total of 290 subscribers.)
- Getting people to sign up, to give you their e-mail address, means you can communicate directly with them. With social media, the sites own the e-mail addresses and  can hold them hostage from you. (more on this below)

3) Posting links to blogs in social media groups and on Web sites frequented by people interested in my topics.
- This is more effective than having thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook Fans who never look at your stuff.
- A recent blog post with tips on posting to groups

4) Public Readings
- You don't need a published book to read at bookstores, literary events, poetry slams, story slams, public libraries, writing centers, adult education centers, etc. Once an agent approached me after a reading and said she wanted to see my book when it was done. (That was two years ago. Will she remember me?)
- Be sure to ask folks to leave their e-mail addresses if they want to get on your e-mail list.
- Tips on reading your work in public
- My recent experience assembling my work into a one-hour reading and performing it at a fringe theater festival.

5) Lectures
- Again, I don't have a published book, but in writing my novel I've developed some areas of expertise, including world travel and social media.
- I've given travel lectures at local adult education centers and at a local store that sells camping gear. I sent a pitch to a local hostel.
- I've been on panels talking about my experiences using social media.

6) Serendipity
- If you're out there, you'll more likely to bump into people
- On Linked In and Twitter, I've met other writers and influential people in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Florida. (I live in Boston) If I ever did a book tour in those areas, these people might invite friends.

7) Guest blogging
- Some blogs have reposted my blogs, which has driven traffic.
- Those blogs include a Boston writer center and blog carnivals.

8) Monitoring blog traffic
I use a free tool called Statcounter, which is much easier to use than Google Analytics. Also, Statcounter actually has tech support. Google doesn't. I use the traffic monitoring tool to:
- See which blog posts and topics draw the most visitors. (I have a seven year-old post that generates almost 25% of my traffic.)
- See where people are coming from to determine which social media platforms are most worth my time. (Linked In has been best, Twitter has been the worst.)

Exhibit C: What Hasn't Worked

1) Having lots of followers on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter
- Again, most of my traffic comes from posting links and communicating with people in groups and forums interested in the topics I write about.
- Twitter hashtags have produced little traffic.
- One caveat with Twitter: I have two Twitter pages. One is for book marketing and promotion. The other is for a chonically single people, a theme in my novel. The chonically single page does generate some traffic -- and it has a tenth the followers of my book marketing page. So, your Twitter results may depend on your audience.
- I continue to be active on Twitter because it boosts Klout score, a number is considered important by some agents, publishers, and employers. All about Klout scores in plain English.

2) Facebook Fan page
- Facebook continues to limit the number of friends and fans who see your posts. I have 2,000 fans, most of whom used to see my posts. In April 2012, Facebook began showing my posts to only about 500 of those people. In September 2012, that number was reduced to about 200. Now the number is about 100. To reach all 2,000 of my fans, I have to pay Facebook.
- Facebook experts claim that posts that receive a lot of "Likes" and comments will reach more people. Maybe, but I'm not convince.

3) Paid Facebook Promotions
- I once paid $20 to reach all 2,000 of my fans plus 8,000 of their friends. Most of the people who saw my post were non-native English speakers living in developing countries. More on my experience.

Other Things I'm Going to Try

1) Pinterest

2) Blog carnivals

I found a Web site that allows you submit blog posts for posting on other people's blogs. For book marketing, I've used The Book Designer's Carnival of the Indies. But there are other blog carnivals for other topics.

3) Finding more Web sites -- non-social media sites -- where I can post blog links and communicate with potential readers. This is time-consuming and involves Google searches on topics related to my novel (travel, single people, relationships) and this blog (self promotion for writers.)

Attribution for top image: By Employeeperformance (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  

Had Enough Book Marketing for One Day?

- Top Secret Work Habits of the Successful Novelist (humor)

- Why I Hate Twitter 

- Vicodin, Klonopin, or Heineken: What Do Unemployed Writers Have for Breakfast?

 

 

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Social Media for Writers: One Thing That Works

One of the best places to connect with potential readers is the groups -- essentially online clubs -- offered by social media sites. Groups lets you to post comments and links to relevant Web articles, including those you've written. However, posting links willy-nilly is a type of spamming known as "link-dropping"  and can get you banned from the group, or even the site. This article includes both basic and more advanced tips working with online groups. (Advanced folks should skip to "Posting," sections III and IV, at the bottom of the page.)

I) The Basics

Facebook, Linked In, Google+, and Goodreads provide some form of group feature that allows people interested in a particular topic to congregate. Twitter doesn't have groups per se, but instead uses a feature called hashtags that lets users follow a particular topic. Likewise, many popular Web sites include forums and discussion groups to which you can join and post links.

How to Find Groups

Search for groups by entering your topic of interest in the social media site's search bar. If you're writing about travel, search for groups related to travel. If you join a writing group, you probably don't want to post links about your travel.

Once you join the group, you can begin commenting and posting links. As with most social media features, this is trickier than it sounds because the sites keep changing their rules.


For Linked In
- Enter your topic in the search bar (top red arrow below)
- Then narrow your results to only groups (second red arrow)
- Note: Linked In only allows you to join 50 groups at a time.
- Note: Linked In is a business site, so their groups are generally for people who work in a particular industry. For example, a search on "travel" will not produce a lot of travelers, but will produce a lot of people who work in the travel industry: travel agents, travel bloggers, etc.
- See "Tips" section below before you begin posting. Linked In added a feature that allows group owners to black-ball you from posting in their groups or other people's groups. (Yes, it's very screwy)

Linked In

For Facebook
- Enter your topic in the search bar (top arrow below)
- You'll get results that includes groups, pages, and people.
- Narrow the results only to groups (second arrow)
- Note: Some Facebook Pages created by businesses will let you post comments and links to your blogs. I have not found this useful for driving traffic.
- Note: Facebook will allow you to join up to 300 groups.
- Note: You must use your Profile page to join a group, to comment, or to post links for group members. You can't do this from an Author, Fan, or Business page.

Facebook

For Google+

- Go to your "Home."

- Click on "Communities" and search by topic.

- Note: I'm not sure if Google+ limits the number of Communities you can join.  I belong to 46 and can still join more.

- Note: Google+ has a lot of oddball groups. If you're having trouble finding relevant groups on the other sites, give Google+ a try.

- Note: You can join and post in Communities from a Google+ business page. (If you don't know what a Google+ page is, don't worry about it.)

Gooble+

For Goodreads
- Similar to the others.

Web Sites in General
- Search Google for your topic
- Look for Web sites that have a "group" or "forums" option.
- For example, my novel-in-progress is about a chronically-single guy. I searched for dating and singles sites. Here's one I found that has forums. I joined and post links to dating scenes in my book. (I have not gotten any dates, but I'm getting some traffic.)

 

II) Now What?

 When you find groups of interest, weed them out by considering the following:

- Number of members

- How active the members are (Are the posts recent? Are posts from different people, which is good, or from just one person, which is bad.)
- Content: are people making intelligent comments or are the posts spam for products and services unrelated to the topic.

- If you are looking for readers don't spend time promoting your work to groups for writers.

A word about Twitter:
- With Twitter you can post to groups of people interested in a particular topic using hashtags. One way to find appropriate hashtags is to Google: "best hashtags for <insert your topic>" For example, you might Google: "Best hastags for travel" 
- For this blog, I have found Twitter virtually useless for enticing people to click my links and visit my site. Maybe I'm doing something. Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe for topics related to this book marketing blog, Twitter is a waste of my time.
- I have a fair amount of followers on Twitter (4,000), some of them retweet my stuff -- so I'm getting interactions, but few of my followers visit my site. But my Twitter activity is responsible for much of my Klout score of 54. I assume that my Klout score will of interest to an employer or publisher, so I keep using Twitter.

 

III) Tips for Posting Links to Your Blog in Groups

As mentioned earlier, joining a group and then immediately posting links to your blog, can get you banned from the group and maybe even the social media site.

Getting Started

- If the owner of the group, posted rules of engagement, read them. (Some groups on Google+ do not want people posting links to blogs.)

- Spend some time commenting and reading other people's posts. "Like" good posts. Re-post good ones to your followers on Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In.

- See what other members are doing. Are they posting links to other Web sites and their own blogs? Great, you'll be in good company. Is the group very chatty and informal? Then make your posts chatty. For example, instead of just posting the link, lead in with a comment. For a chatty travel group: "Here are some travel sites that I thought were cool" then add a link to your blog.
 

Formatting Your Blog Posts

Format posts appropriately for social media: Include a simple image at the top of the blog followed by a summary paragraph describing the content of the blog. Cutesy, clever, or complicated images and leads won't cut it because group members only see a snippet of your article.

Here's what they saw on a recent post I made on Linked In

And on Facebook

Note: Google+ recently changed it's rules and no longer pulls any text from your blog -- you should add it manually. You can even include the first few paragraphs of your blog as I did here:

IV) Posting Problems

 1) Linked In made some changes that make it easy for you to get black-balled if you piss off the moderator of one of your groups. If you are posting on Linked In and your posts -- and even your comments -- produce a note that says something, like this, you've been black-balled.

This note means that many of your posts will sit in a Pending folder until a moderator approves them. Your posts may eventually go live. Or they may not. But it's easy for you to check. In the past, I've sent a nice note to moderators and asked if my posts were Pending because I had done something wrong. Most said "no" and my post went live. Others didn't respond. Read more about this issue. There is even a Linked In group about this problem.


2) Sometimes, Facebook will fail to grab the top image from your blog. In that case, look for the little pointers next to the image -- you may be able to choose another image.

 3) Wasting too much time on this? It's easy to measure whether you are connecting with readers in social media groups. 
- Are you getting positive comments from other group members?
- Are people visiting your Web site? Signing up for your blog?
- Are group members asking to be your Facebook friend or Linked In Connection or adding you to their Google+ circles? 
- Some groups will work for you, others won't. Leave the groups that don't appreciate your unique genius.

4) Social media sites change their policies constantly. Be sure to verify that your posts are going live.

More Self-Promotion for Writer's Articles

Quick, Dirty Blogging Tips for Writers and Authors

If you write what you love will the money follow?

Promote Your Writing: Events, Readings, and Fringe Festivals

Attribution for image at top of this blog: By RRZEicons (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons  

 

 

 

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Social Media for Writers: Confusing Twitter Terms in Plain English

 

 

 

Confused by even the most basic Twitter terms? Me, too -- and I've been using Twitter for five years. Twitter Help was only of modest help. This article took several hours to piece together. Comments and corrections appreciated. Also, the end of the article includes links to sources I used.

 

Twitter Terms:

Home timeline (Little birdhouse icon in image at top of this blog post)

Twitter inbox. (First thing most people see when they sign in to Twitter.)

Includes:

- Tweets from people you follow.

- Mentions of people you are following.

- Mentions of you from people you are following.

@ Connect

(see image below)

Includes:

- "Interactions," all of your activities, including Tweets you favorited, plus any mentions of your Twitter handle. (see Mentions below)

- "Mentions": Mentions of your Twitter name and replies to any of your Tweets. I have this set up so that any Mentions of me on Twitter are forwarded to my e-mail inbox

Me (Little icon of a person's head and shoulders)

(see image below)

- Your profile page, which includes your bio, photo, and list of any Tweets you've sent. (your Twitter sent or outbox)

- Generally, anyone who looks at your profile can see Tweets you've sent.

Note: be sure to fill out your profile with a professional-looking photo and descriptive words and phrases about your writing and topics of interest.

Putting it All Together

Normal Tweet:

- In the "Compose a new Tweet box," you include a description of something you wrote with a link to it, and then click Tweet to send it.

- A copy of the Tweet is stored on your Profile page and Home timeline.

- The Tweet appears in the Home timeline of anyone who is following you.

Mention:

- A Tweet that mentions another person's Twitter name, preceded by the "@" symbol.

- For example, You might create a Tweet about this blog post that mentions my Twitter name, rsquaredd:

Hey, @rsquaredd, great post about Twitter! Can I send you some money?

- A copy of the Mention is stored on your profile page. Anyone looking at your profile can see this.

- The person you mentioned (rsquaredd) will see this Tweet under their @Connect tab, in their Interactions and Mentions. Depending on how they configured Twitter, a copy may also be sent to their e-mail inbox.

- If the person you mentioned is following you, the mention will also appear in their Home timeline.

- Anyone following you (the sender), will see the mention on their Home timeline.

Replies

- You receive a Tweet and click the "Reply" command under it.

- This creates a Tweet that begins with the sender's Twitter name. For example, if I sent you a Tweet linking to this blog post, you might click the reply command and write:

@rsquaredd Great post! Can I send you a check for all your hard work?

- As with a normal tweet, a copy of your reply is stored on your profile page.

- The recipient, @rsquaredd, would see this in Interactions and Mentions. If they are following you, they will see it in their Home timeline and possibly their e-mail inbox.

- Anyone following both the BOTH the sender (you) and the recipient (rsquaredd) will also see this in their Home timeline.

Tweets that Begin with Someone's Twitter Name

- If you visit someone's Twitter page, whether you follow them or not, you will see a little box that says, "Tweet to…", the @ sign and their Twitter name.

- If you write something in this box, it will behave similar to Replies above. (The recipient would see it in his Interactions and Mentions.)

- A great way to connect with someone who is not following you, such as big shots who normally wouldn't give you time of day, much less their e-mail address.

- Example:

Retweets

- When see a Tweet from someone else -- whether you follow them or not -- you have the option to Retweet it to your followers. (Hover your cursor over the Tweet and you're see the Retweet option)

- The Retweet appears in your follower's Timelines, like a normal Tweet you created.

- If you Retweet something from one of your followers, say, a Tweet you saw in your Home timeline, a copy will be saved in your Profile.

- If you Retweet something from someone you are not following -- say, you were perusing Big Shot Author's profile and saw something your followers might like -- a copy will be saved in your Home timeline and your Profile.

Advanced Tip: .@

- As noted above, if you send a Tweet that includes someone's name, preceded by the @ sign (@rsquaredd), they will see the message in their Interactions and Mentions. People who follow both of you will see this message in their timelines.

- Using .@ instead of just @ before the name means that all of your followers will see this post in their timelines.

- Impractical use for .@  Say, Mr. Big Shot Author tells you not to contact him again? You could respond to him using .@ and all of your followers would see your response and know what a bastard he is.

- Example:

 How to Use This Stuff to Brown-Nose and Stalk People

- Offer shout outs to people you don't know by including their Twittter handle in your Tweets. This includes Big Shot Authors and other people with some juice who may be able to help you out in the future.

- Retweet posts from people you want to butter up (whether you follow them or not).

- Some experts say you should be posting seven posts promoting other people's content for every post that promote's your own. (Not sure where the "seven" came from, but you get the idea -- promote others and maybe they'll promote you.

- Don't be afraid to ask someone with whom you have Twitter rapport to Retweet your stuff. (Don't over do it!)

- For other tips, see my recent Twitter post with Twitter Tips for Writers

 

Sources 

 

- Twitter Help Page on Types of Tweets

- The Digital Media Machine article on Twitter syntax

- eHow article on syntax

 

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Six More Twitter Tips for Writers: Brown-nosing, Apps Update

This article discusses: how to use Twitter for online brown-nosing, the .@ command, plus a slick tool for analyzing followers (followerwonk) and new limitations to an old favorite tool (manageflitter).

Note: If you're as confused by Twitter terminology and features as I was, see this simple -- I hope -- Twitter glossary I created.

I) Twitter Brown-Nosing

Twitter includes several features that allow you to get someone's attention even if they're not following you.

1) Use the @ to include someone's Twitter handle in a Tweet.

For example, in this Tweet, I'm flattering Author Who Can Help Me.

He could see this Tweet in his list of Mentions, under his @Connect menu, whether or not he is following me. Depending on his settings, he may also receive an e-mail letting him know that's he's been mentioned. In addition, people who follow both of us on Twitter will see this.

2) Use .@ to shoot this Tweet to your Followers and further flatter your subject.

Adding the "." in front of @Authorwhocanhelpme means that all my followers -- including those who are not following Author Who Can Help Me will see this Tweet. This is another way of adding content to my Twitter stream and boosting Author Who Can Help Me's reach on Twitter.

3) Retweet Tweets from Author Who Can Help Me   

If I'm following Author Who Can Help Me, I can also Retweet his posts to my followers and he will know that I've mentioned him. 

Notes: Yes, these three tips are Twitter crapshoots.
- If your target is very popular, they may not check their Mentions.
- But, if your target is a Twitter addict, they may have all Mentions forwarded to their e-mail.
- I have received thank-yous from popular folks for Retweeting a popular person's posts.

4) For More on Online Stalking...

This is an old, but great article on techniques and strategies for engaging others to help boost your Web traffic and online presence: Stalking for Links

II) Tools Update

1) Followerwonk

The free version of this tool supplies some useful data on your followers. I'd read somewhere that the best time to Tweet was before and after work. The Followerwonk chart below shows that most of my followers are checking Twitter during work or on their lunch breaks (if they're on the East Coast). Time to readjust my posting strategy?

2) ManageFlitter

This was a great tool for finding and dumping up to 100 people a day who were not following you back. A graphical feature allowed you to click and dump quickly. But recent changes to the tool, mean that you have to manually click each person you want to ditch. Bummer.

More Social Media Tips ... and Caveats

- Blogging Tips for Writers: 5 Ways to Boost Traffic 

 

- Self-Promotion for Writers: Dump Social Media, Embrace E-mail 

 

- Nine More Twitter Tips for Writers Confounded by Twitter

 

Just for Fun

 

 Top Secret Work Habits of the Successful Novelist

 

Art at top of blog: By Paola peralta (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

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