Twitter for Writers

Twitter is a wildly popular micro-blogging tool– one perfect for the writer looking to make connections and promote work via social media.  The learning curve to Twitter is easy, too.

What is Twitter?

Facebook and/or MySpace users are familiar with “status updates.” At its core, that’s what Twitter is: sharing status messages — or tweets — with followers, and really, the whole Twittersphere.  Twitter is completely public, although you do have the option to hide updates.

Twitter is simpler in functionality than its social networking brothers and sisters. LinkedIn is geared toward career-minded folks looking to network professionally, while Facebook and MySpace are more personal, allowing users to create extensive profiles, photo albums and more.

Twitter is free.  You simply register, create a very brief profile, find people to follow and hope to be followed. Then, 140 characters at a time, you make tweets. To reply to someone or include them in a tweet, you use the @ sign, for example, @SMOforWriters. This will ping that particular user that you’ve included them in a tweet.

From the Twitter dashboard, you can view recent updates from followers and from sidebar links, who you are following, who is following you, @replies, direct messages and favorite tweets. The more frequently you use Twitter, the more you may want — or need — to look into advanced third-party Twitter tools and applications, Like TweetDeck to keep up with all your followers and your own account.  There are apps for smart phones, too, like Tweetie and Twitterific.

You can tweet many things- quotes, links, questions, random thoughts, carry on conversations, and more- you’ll get the hang of it real fast! Writers using Twitter may often tweet:

• Links to informative blog posts or articles about the publishing industry
• Announcements of new blog posts (In fact, “New blog post:” is a highly RTable phrase!)
• RTs of tweets of interest from followers
• Inspirational quotes
• Writing goals and updates via hashtags like #writegoal and #amwriting
• New, reviews, and the other occasional self-promotion (be tactful; don’t overtweet about yourself!)

The most important thing to remember is to just be engaging. Twitter is a two-way medium. You are joining the world’s largest conversation and a conversation is about listening and sending message back. Balance your tweets. Be compelling. Share. Be meaningful. Care. The more you tweet, the more followers you will have, and wider your reach.

Social-Media-for-Writers.com will constantly give tips on how to use Twitter to maximize your social media presence as a writer.