9 Twitter Basics You May Not Know 
How long have you been on Twitter?
I’ve been on Twitter for, well, going on four years now. From the beginning, I sensed the enormous marketing potential with the platform, and that has only grown over the years.
In the last two years, I’ve published three books and started my own social media and author marketing consultancy. Being on Twitter for not only myself, but also marketing authors who hire me, has given me quite a bit of insight in what to do, and what not to do. Tweeps can be a finicky lot, so here are some insider do’s and don’ts.
Let’s deconstruct some tips and tricks.
WHAT TO DO
1) Why are you there? To connect, engage, interact, learn stuff, support others and yes, promote your product/service. Those are the most successful tweeps – the people who are generously supporting others. This is especially important to remember when someone says something inflammatory — unless you’re on Twitter to incite a flame war, walk away. Block. Move on. Remember, it’s just Twitter.
2) Be active. I use Hootsuite to schedule my tweets (and Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn) in addition to actively interacting with everyone on my stream. I balance my own promotion (of my books and my services here) with an enormous amount of information regarding topics I write about or am interested in: social media, books, book publishing, marketing, and reviews.
In addition, I promote other authors multiple times throughout the day. Finally, I provide tons of tips and tricks I’ve learned about social media and book marketing, particularly branding and Amazon.
Besides, accounts marked as inactive (usually if you haven’t tweeted in 30 days or more) will show up as inactive on Twitter following/unfollowing services like ManageFlitter or Tweepi, and you’ll start losing followers. At the bare minimum, tweet at least once per day.
3) Targeting: I share my own experiences but also what I’ve learned from others, promote others, share info and resources, and funny quips. And of course, links to my own stuff (or at least mentions with or without links). By searching for, following, and interacting with people with similar experiences or interest, you form a common bond. For example, a friend just asked me to help her find people who tweet about autism. Using Search and Advanced Search are the best starting points.
It’s easy to get into that trap of constant promotion of your own work, since Twitter is a free platform (except for the amount of time you spend on it, of course). Think about it like karma: you get what you give, and you give what you get. And when it comes to targeting, who is seeing your message?
4) Keywords: What are your main topics of interest? Then tweet about those. Get Google Alerts on them. Add extensions to your toolbar to share articles from your favorite sites. This is how you attract different types of people, all of whom are potential readers. And most importantly, provide a consistent presence that’s not solid links to your own stuff. Or check out services like Sprout Social, Pluggio, or Buffer which helps in adding dripfeeds of relevant content.
5) Links: We can look at your profile and see your website link. Add in a second link in the 160 characters you have (to your book or service. I recommend using bitly to shorten, customize and track it). Twitter has made any link in your bio a hyperlink. That way there’s no need for you to always be linking to your own work.
WHAT NOT TO DO
1) Reciprocity: Don’t fall into the reciprocity trap. Lots of people will ask you for favors in return for something. The ‘good ole boy’ dictum. The issue here is that, just like in real life, you get more rewards by giving than by getting. Share because you want to, not because you’ll receive something in return.
Same goes with asking others. If you’re going to ask for a RT, do it privately in DM and don’t abuse the privilege.
2) Spam: Twitter defines spam as If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates; if you send large numbers of duplicate @replies or mentions; or if you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies or mentions in an attempt to spam a service or link.
In an informal Twitter poll on my author stream, 90% of respondents said they not only are annoyed by spam, but will also immediately unfollow. If you are one of those people who does the ‘Thank you for following me. Please go buy my book/like my Facebook page link link link’ autoDM, just stop now.
It’s important to point this out because many new authors or businesses start Twitter not sure what to tweet about, so they repeatedly spam people to read, review, buy their book. Don’t. People will report you for spam and you will be suspended. I’ve seen it happen.
Mix it up! It’s fine to promo your own blog posts (one reason why I started #MondayBlogs – promote your latest post, and retweet others for good karma), books, or service; just not all the time, in every tweet.
3) Long tweets. For the best results, meaning retweets (which count more with Google ranking than amount of followers do, by the way), keep characters to 120 total. I find it easier to pick a topic and then write it in the Hootsuite window – which counts the characters — and then schedule it. Longer tweets are rarely retweeted and only a very small percentage will click on the tweet to read the whole thing.
4) Incest: Obviously, I’m not talking about families, cause that would be icky and weird. No, what I mean here is don’t only follow people in the same industry or area of interest. Yes, include them but not at the exclusion of everyone else.
For example, many authors only follow other authors. But how about readers? Book bloggers? Reviewers? Book clubs? Use Twitter search or even their advanced search to find readers or users of your service.
My final point: Twitter is a community. Approach it as you would any new community you want to be a part of: respect the rules, find others you have something in common, and be polite.
That’s it for today. Hopefully I’ve taught you one or two things you may not have known. What else do you do that might be helpful for other folks learning Twitter? Please share below.
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Rachel Thompson
Rachel Thompson aka RachelintheOC is a published author and social media consultant. Her two books, A Walk In The Snark and The Mancode: Exposed are both #1 Kindle bestsellers! When not writing, she helps authors and other professionals with branding and social media for her company, BadRedhead Media. She hates walks in the rain, running out of coffee, and coconut. Buy Now : A Walk in the Snark * Mancode: Exposed
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Good article. Tweet length was an interesting one. A couple things I agree on, like the spam thing (well, I agree on everything). I laughed aloud at the incest one. It was damned funny. I am a list maker, and have lists of all the people in many categories.
Thanks, Dee! I kinda threw that in there cause it made me laugh. I never know if people will get my humor so thanks for that.
Lists are great. I tell people to crib from others and they think it’s sneaky somehow but if it’s public, why not? We’re all here to learn and share, right?
Thanks for reading and commenting, as always!
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Thank you for this informative article. I will investigate some of the links you have here. Very useful!
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I’m new to Twitter not quite a year yet. These are some really good tips, I wish I would have read your article before creating an account – better late than never. Thanks for sharing.
Jae Mac, I’m Just Sayin’…(Damn!)
Thanks for reading, Jae Mac
. Cool name BTW. Part of what’s cool about Twitter is it’s never really too late for changes or adaptations. I do suggest using your name tho (if you’re an author) if you plan on writing more books. Kind of like having a landing page if you will.
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Great post. You’re right – sharing content is fine, as long as it’s balanced with engagement, interaction, and the like.
I’ll be sharing this with my followers!
Ryan
Thank you, Ryan! I’m so glad it’s helpful. It is a balance, truly.
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I’m still very green at all this social media and twitter so my two cents are worth about less then 2 cents. but,, I’ve read people who like you know what their talking about saying I should not greet people who follow me. The Thanks for the follow, message is seen at best outre. But, it’s my way of starting to getting to know you. a hand shake if you will. Seems just polite. Some one takes the time to follow me, seems to me I should wave hello in return. I don’t use auto messages for hey di hows and I don’t do page after page of hellos, how dull would that be? I say hello, take at least a minute or two to check out their tweets, their blog or writing or interest. You don’t get to know people with a robot follow and at it’s heart all social media is about getting to know people.
Oh, let me correct myself then … I’m not saying don’t thank people at all. I’m saying don’t ONLY do a bunch in a row. Spread them out. DM someone. RT them. Follow their blog and make comments (like here!). There’s many way to thank people.
That’s all I meant!
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