The beginner's guide to Social Media: Twitter and Retweeting

The beginner's guide to Social Media: Twitter and Retweeting

Embarking on the writer’s journey often means learning new technologies, some that are about as clear as mud.

I have always been able to navigate my way around a computer but since becoming an author, I have had to take a crash course in computer-geekdom. I’ve had to learn how to create and update webpages, publish web blogs, upload to YouTube, design book trailers and book covers – and that doesn’t even scratch the surface on all the social media networks I’ve had to familiarise myself with. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Blogster, delicious, Digg, Flickr, Fuelmyblog, Gather.com, Goodreads, Google+, LibraryThing, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Meetup, Myspace, Ning, Pinterest, Shelfari, StumbleUpon, Tagged, Yammer, Zooppa...

Ah, the list just goes on and on ad nauseum.

Wikipedia lists over 200 different social media networks, though by the time this blog goes online, that number will have probably already grown  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites)

I am not even going to attempt to cover them all. If we tried to keep up with every social media network out there, we’d never get any books written. And that, my friends, is the most important thing to keep in mind; that mythical balance between writing and promoting.  

I will, however, attempt to explain the pros and cons of the ones that are beneficial to you as an author/aspiring author.

First off, let’s start with the Twitter-verse. Over the next few weeks, I will try to explain what exactly Twitter can do for you and your books.

If you’ve already been using Twitter and know the basics, you might want to mark this blog and come back next week when we check out some of the ways to use Twitter to better effect. This week is for the real beginner that has no idea how Twitter works – the writer floundering in a Twitter-verse they don’t understand.


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Twitter Basics:

I’m going to assume that you at least know what Twitter is. If you don’t, do a Google search (and if you don’t know what Google is... you need help I cannot provide).

I’m going to assume you already have an account. Before we go any further, it is vital that you give some indication as to what you do in your profile heading. For example, in mine (https://www.twitter.com/rileybanksbooks  I clearly state that I am an author. I also list my books and my website address. It is best to put some photo on Twitter, even if it is not you. People tend to naturally steer clear of profiles with no picture. By putting who you are and what you do in your profile, people will be able to search you out.

Now let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s start with the real basics – Twitter definitions.

 

Follower – What is a follower and how do you get them?

No, it’s not some bizarre cult you’ve just signed up for. You don’t have to sell your home and donate all your money to the people you follow (though if you choose to send me money, I won’t turn it away).

Simply put, a follower is someone who chooses to read your thoughts. On the flip side, you follow people whose thoughts you are interested in reading. Your Twitter Feed (or homepage) will show all the posts from people you follow.

Remember, Twitter connections are not always reciprocal. You can follow people who choose not to follow you back (this often happens when you follow celebrities, major companies and news services – they rarely follow back), and vice versa – you do not automatically have to follow back anyone who follows you.

That being said, it is a good practice to get in to if you want your numbers to grow. The more followers you have, the more you get.

So how do you find followers on Twitter?

When you first signed up to Twitter, you would have been asked to follow some popular people, mostly those famous musicians, sportspeople, news services and the likes I mentioned earlier. Main problem with that is that very few will have followed you back, and at the end of the day, that’s what you want Twitter for – the followers.

A great way to grow your follower list is to add other authors.

So how do you add people?

Go to the #Discover tab on your Twitter account and click on the left hand side tab ‘Who to follow’. It will give you a list of people that Twitter thinks is similar to you (this grows and evolves as you add more people).

Alternatively, type the word ‘author’ into the search bar. Twitter will then give you a list of other authors you can follow.

Another way to search this out is to type in ‘#author’. The hashtag opens up popular search lists. We’ll learn more about hashtags later but for now, it will allow you to tap into a wide net of potential followers.

A few other good key words to search for people involved in the book community: publisher, read, book, book review, literary, Indie, Goodreads.

Now that you’ve added some people, sit back and wait for them to reciprocate. If they don’t follow back, you can always unfollow them (we’ll find out how later).

Tweet – Is it a bird...

A tweet is the name given to the mini-message sent on Twitter.  Tweets are public and can be read by anyone searching keywords and subjects, so if you’re looking to say something personal, stick to direct messaging.

One of the hardest things to get used to with Twitter is the 140 character limit. That means every post you send must be short and sweet and to the point.

Twitter is not the place for verbose statements and long-winded sales pitches. As you read more tweets, you will see that people tend to favour abbreviations. As such, Twitter has spawned a kind of Twitter short hand. You becomes u. You are becomes UR. To or too becomes 2. Retweet becomes RT, weekend becomes w/e and so on. It’s all about being frugal with those characters.

If possible, don’t use up all of your 140 characters. You want to leave space for people to retweet or quote your tweet.

That leads us to the next one:

Retweet

A retweet is what happens when someone shares your tweet (or you share someone else’s tweet). It is a stamp of approval, in some ways. Someone is saying ‘I think this post is worth sharing’.

Think of it as a worldwide version of Chinese whispers (hopefully without the errors in the message). You say something, your followers pass it on, and their followers in turn, pass it on.

Great tweets (or just very average ones written by famous people) can be retweeted millions of times. Obama tweeted about his re-election and it was retweeted more than 800,000 times.   Retweets are definitely your aim. Think of a retweet as someone wearing a billboard advertising you and your product.  

Retweeting is also something of a ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ phenomenon. If you see something that grabs your interest, hit the retweet button and share it with your followers. You may just find that person paying you back with some kindly retweets of your own information.

If you want to add your own thoughts to the tweet, when you press retweet, click on ‘Quote’ and it will allow you to add in your own text. The whole thing will still need to stay below 140 characters.

Mention

A mention is what happens when someone inserts an @ sign before your Twitter name. It’s kind of like a wave really. They are acknowledging you publically, and drawing your attention to the post they are making.

Mentions also happen when you press reply to a Tweet. Basically, you are opening up a line of communication with that person.

Direct Message (DM)

Direct message or DM is a private tweet that goes only to the person you are talking to. It is still governed by Twitter’s 140 character count but it is not broadcast publically to all your followers.

You send a DM by clicking on a person’s profile and dropping down the tab next to the following button to select ‘send a Direct Message’.

Please note, you can only send a direct message to someone who is following you back. You cannot send direct messages to anyone not following you.

Another thing to note is that many people consider the direct message a form of spam and don’t tend to read direct messages. Whatever you do, use them sparingly.

Hashtag

What is a hashtag? The hashtag, or # as it is in Twitter shorthand, makes your Tweets more easily searched.

Say, for instance, I want to find out the latest news on the bushfires in Tasmania (hey, going with current news here at the moment), I would search #bushfires #tasmania. That would bring up every tweet that has been made with those hashtags and puts me instantly in touch with the topics I want to read about, rather than wading through millions of twitter posts trying to find something I want to know about.

Popular hashtags for authors include: #author, #book, #writer, #fiction, #non-fiction, #read, #Indie, #ebook , #Amazon, #Kindle, and #Goodreads.

If you want people to be able to find a list of posts about you or your book, you can also create hashtags yourself. For instance, I have created hashtags for #TheWilliamSClub (though I’m not always the best at remembering to use it). That way, if someone clicked on that link, they could see all of the posts and news about my book.

You may have heard people on TV referring to things trending worldwide on Twitter. That’s basically when a hashtag gains so much popularity, people all over the world are logged onto that list, posting and reading posts on the subject.

If you want to tap into what is trending, click on the #Discover tab again and down the bottom of the left hand column, you will see what is trending worldwide. As I write this, #TheBachelor, #Bachelor, and #faydeeandjamesfollow are just a couple of topics trending.  

Next week, we’ll talk about:

·         How to increase your Twitter followers

·         Twitter following limits – what they are and how to avoid them

·         How to write tweets that go viral

·         Balancing social interaction and engagement with sales pitches

·         A few apps that you can use to help make your Twitter experience better.

Hopefully you have learned something new. Feel free to put some of your newfound skills into practice on me.

For starters, click on my Twitter link and follow me. I’m always looking for great new followers to meet and interact with. https://www.twitter.com/rileybanksbooks

If you want to practice retweeting, go to my profile page and retweet some of my Tweets (I know, what blatant self-promotion – shame on me).

Check out some of the hashtags I mentioned in this blog. Also see what is trending on Twitter and take part in some of the discussions.

Most of all; get out there and have a go. Don’t be afraid to interact with people on Twitter – and you learn more by doing than observing. Who knows, you may find yourself loving the Twitter-verse as much as I do.