Why and what I tweet

Can I be considered an expert in anything?

Okay, some topics could be debatable, but I know I’m not one when it comes to social media—particularly Twitter. It might be different if all I did was tweet what I ate for breakfast (I’ve done that once so far, with amazing results), what my little one is doing (my two sons are now adults and thus lost their baby cuteness), or just trying to be funny (I do that, with the emphasis on trying).

However, my main reason for using any of this social media is to market my book, through promotion of its page on Amazon, its cinematic book trailer companion, and this blog. In doing so, I’ve tried to be creative and non-repetitive with my promotional tweets, and I’m finding the need to do so (be creative and not repetitious) spills over into other things, like replies to shoutouts, mentions, and in my own acknowledgements when my tweets are retweeted.

I’ve fallen into the latter, mainly, because I’m trying to entertain myself. If I end up entertaining anyone else in the process, cool. If I manage to make someone laugh, or intrigue them with my “sparkling wit” or “dizzying intellect,” or actually manage to help someone, then there’s a feeling of satisfaction as well as the potential benefit of gaining and keeping them as a follower. I’ve noticed that people seem to follow me more, though, when I’m bantering back and forth with other tweeps.

I’ve read, and undoubtedly you have, too, differing opinions about tweet content. Some folks definitely espouse the repetition method, tweeting out identical, or nearly identical, tweets about their product (I see mostly books, but it applies to everything) as if they were classified advertisements. Those are easy to automate and send out, but being on both sides of the spectrum (I own two small weekly newspapers, and I am also a consumer), I can say repetition does not catch my attention after a while.

And it doesn’t take long. I see the avatar of the tweep, the name of the product, the links, the same verbiage, and it’s on to the next tweet for me.

So, as I said, since I get bored with it, I figure others are getting bored with the same old stuff, too, or just plain tuning it out.

Lately, I’ve been trying to limit my product tweeting to one to three tweets per day. Sometimes, I’ll try to get in on an appropriate trending hashtag and go crazy with it, but most of what seems to trend isn’t worth attaching your name to, unfortunately.

Before, when I first started, I was following the crowd and sending something out multiple times per hour. Then it fell to once an hour, and now it’s down to a strategic time, usually around midafternoon. Why? Well, I’ve noticed, purely by accident, that when there are fewer of my book tweets going out, more tweeps will coalesce around them and retweet them. I can’t say the numbers are staggering yet, but still, I’m pretty impressed—and grateful—when I see multiple people retweeting something I said.

So, I think I’ll continue to do that. At this stage, nearly everyone else who is following me has a larger audience, so I do depend on and greatly appreciate all the help they are willing to provide.

Another thing I’ve begun to do is up the amount of my retweeting. It is, after all, the easiest thing to do. I figure the Golden Rule applies. If I’m going to want people to retweet my words, then I should retweet theirs.

However, I don’t do it indiscriminately. I am still branding here, and I feel like I could damage the brand, and perhaps lose followers, if I don’t do them the courtesy of actually taking the time to follow the blog links, or look at the photo or video attached to the retweets. So, I do it. Then, if I actually like the content or find it noteworthy, I retweet it.

I do this with everyone’s tweets, including the book promos, by perusing at least the sample pages of people’s books. If I find them well written, regardless of whether I’m personally intrigued, I’ll retweet the information.

Sure, there are some people’s tweets that I tend to retweet more than others. I do that because I’ve already done my homework on them, and admittedly, because many of them tend to reciprocate the retweets. However, when they tweet or retweet someone or something new, I take the time to look at that, too. And if they get too repetitive, I hold off for a while.

The last thing I’ve been doing more of is engaging in conversation. Sometimes this can feel like crashing the party, but I figure that anything coming across my Twitter stream is fair game. I sometimes wonder if others were surprised I did actually glom onto something they’ve sent out based on their own replies back, but I’m going to continue to do that, too. It’s too much fun to stop.

The one thing I’m not really into is direct messaging. Personally, I haven’t had much of a need for it yet, and with it hidden away, save for a tiny half circle of light, I don’t often see it—certainly not immediately. Some people do it, I guess, to be more discreet, or to personally invite me to their blog or to read their book without it being broadcasted to everyone. I’m not sure why that is, since we all seem to be promoting something, but maybe they’re trying to avoid the follower fatigue I’ve alluded to above.

Are there things I avoid retweeting or engaging in? Definitely. I hate to put absolutes on any of this, and I certainly don’t mean to offend anyone or call anyone out, so please don’t take it that way. I definitely believe in free speech as a pillar principle. That means all kinds of things I wouldn’t go tweeting or seeking out myself can come flying by. Do I wish it didn’t? Sure. Am I going to tell someone to stop it? Probably not. Most likely, I will just unfollow if it gets so bad.

Specifically, I’m talking about curse words and sexual innuendo. Even if the rest of the joke, photo or video I find to be humorous or noteworthy.

Something else I probably won’t tweet or retweet much are religion and politics. That’s not because I don’t have my own views about either, or are necessarily afraid to espouse them. Nor is it that I don’t want to see them on my Twitter feed. I like such tweets when I see them. I just know how sensitive those subjects can be, and I’d rather spend time promoting my book.

If someone asks me about either topic, I won’t shy away from them. I will go as far as the other person wants to go, though. Not a step further.

There are plenty of others, after all, to tweet and retweet all kinds of things. Excusing myself from participating will not slow its flow.

That’s pretty much what I wanted to share, I guess. Now you know why and what I tweet.