You’ve probably heard that John McCain is using Twitter to let his constituents know about earmark spending. And this from a man who few months ago said that he didn’t know how to send an email!
So what’s Twitter and why should you use it? Twitter.com is a social networking site where you communicate online to a group of friends (your followers*) in 140 characters or less. Like blogging or other forms of social media, it’s all about the conversation. Yes, you can tweet* about mundane things like, “Eating lunch. Boy I like butternut squash soup.” But it’s also a way to connect with like minds, get feedback, and keep up with trending topics.
The basics
Signing up for Twitter is easy. Just go to twitter.com, click on the “Get Started – Join” button and fill in your name. Then pick a user name and a password, and enter your email address. Enter the CAPTCHA words to verify that you’re human, click on the Create My Account button, and you’re done!
Note: Give thought to your user name. You can use your name, your book’s name, or the name of your business or blog. As a professional writer, using your full name is wise. (Mine is amnichols because my full name is a bit long.) But if you’re known by a nom de plume like “GeekWriter” or “FictionFan” then use it. Remember, once you’ve established a username in Twitter, you don’t want to change it.
After setting up your account, go into Profile and download a picture of yourself. (You can also use a logo or book cover artwork.) Then choose a basic background, save and start tweeting and following!
Connecting and following
Want to connect with other writers or agents and publishers on Twitter? You can find them by going to Twitter search and typing in keywords like “books,” “writing,” or “editor.” Or use a Twitter application like Twellow to search by category. Good people/organizations for writers to follow are mass media outlets, freelance writers, publishing houses, and authors.
To follow someone, go to their profile page and click on the Follow button under their picture.
Get help from others
Looking for advice on approaching an editor? Or maybe you need to interview someone who makes custom wedding bands. Twitter is a great place to find advice, leads, and even jobs. Just today I saw @themamasphere* tweeting “Any Press Release experts out there? Ack~ writers block!” This could have been an opportunity to offer some advice and maybe get writing work out of it.
Trawling for news items
Recently I took a Twitter for Journalists class through Poynter’s News University. Journalists are using Twitter to find stories – and so should you! They say that news breaks on Twitter hours before it hits mainstream media outlets like CNN.
More info: books and websites
If you are interested in learning more about how to use Twitter to market yourself and your book, check out Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
The jargon*
- Tweeting – verb: to use Twitter, to send out a message.
- Tweet – noun: your message is called a tweet.
- Twittering – verb: the act of using Twitter.
- @username – another way of referencing someone’s Twitter address or a way to reply to them on Twitter.
- Following – verb: the act of signing up to get someone’s tweets
(Originally written for the Northern Colorado Writers newsletter.)
