Twitter Power

I’ve been twittering for, I don’t know, quite a few months now. For the most part, I’ve gotten the hang of it.

I don’t go out and follow a hundred tweeters every day. I do seem to follow about 5 or 6 new tweeters every day, though. Either I notice someone online and follow them, then they follow me back. Or people find me and follow me, then I check out their profiles and decide to follow them. By the way, if you have no bio and no tweets and I don’t have a clue who you are, I’m very unlikely to follow you back. I like to know a little bit about who I’m following.

So far, I’ve rarely un-followed someone. I did one person. He posted something I considered obnoxious and I decided I’d rather just drop him from my list than have to put up with reading his tweets. But he’s the only one.

Incidentally, a good way to find people to follow is to pick someone you’re following that you like or who have interests similar to you. Click on their profile. Then click on their list of people they’re following. Go through their list and see if you’d like to follow any of them. It won’t take long, just hover your pointer over each follower’s Twitter name and a short bio will show up. If you like what you see, click follow. If that person has a humongous list, break it up into sessions.

If you’re a new tweeter, here are some other things I’ve discovered along the way.

Interact. If someone tweets something interesting, reply to him or her. If they say something really worthwhile re-tweet it.

Tweet yourself. Tweet about what your blogging about - be sure to include the link to your blog. Or do a marketing tweet about your book or service, with link. You can do that three or four or five times over the course of a day, but spread them out. The people who are there early in the morning probably won’t be around at noon, so you can tweet it again without people feeling like you’re bombarding them.

Tweet others. While you’re out visiting other blogs, if you come across an interesting one, pop over to Twitter and tweet it and the link. It gives you something else to tweet about and makes friends. For example, on Monday I blogged about a tag I’d been hit with and then tagged five others. That day I tweeted about each of those blogs and included a link to their blogs. I have a Google Alert on my name and the name of my blog. Each day, if Google tells me I’ve been mentioned (even if it’s in a sidebar) on someone’s blog, I go over and, most of the time, leave a comment - and then, again, most of the time, tweet them with a link.

Announce that you’re a tweeter. Put your Twitter link in your sig line. I’ve found a lot of people to follow by clicking on that link in their sig line. When you visit blogs, sign your name and put your Twitter link or put your blog link (and make sure your Twitter link is in the sidebar of your blog). I know, some people don’t think that’s “cool.” But once again, I’ve found a lot of interesting blogs and some fellow tweeters that way. Yeah, if you don’t leave your link, I will click on your profile and find it, but not everyone will.

Don’t let Twitter take over your life. Seriously. You don’t have to spend all day on Twitter. Either pop on a few times a day and tweet. Or pop on whenever you have something to tweet, such as while you’re visiting blogs. Do not become a Twitter slave.

Offer something valuable. Yes, your book is valuable and Twitter can be a good way to drive people to your blog, website or book. But doing only that can be boring and a turn-off. What else can you tweet about? Friends, movies, other people’s books and blogs, advice, contests, free giveaways you know about, funny videos. Whatever tickles your fancy will probably tickle other fancies as well.

If you make strategic use of it, Twitter can be a great tool to market yourself and your books, to make cyber friends, to find out new things, ideas, and friends, and to practice writing concisely.

Leave a comment and tweet me sometime.
http://twitter.com/MermaidHel