I'm New to Twitter - What Should I Tweet?

Okay, so you created your Twitter account. Now what? Social media is for sharing information and building relationships. But what should I tweet about?

Tweet about the things you’re doing (e.g. things you’ve seen, movies you’ve watched, or books you’ve read). Include pictures to build interest.

Include appropriate hashtags (#) (e.g. #writingtips, #dogs #writingjourney), so others searching for that hashtag can see your post. Search hashtags of things you’re interested in. When you type a hashtag in your tweet, you’ll see a drop-down list of related ones.

Retweet others’ posts to share with your followers. You can just retweet or you can comment on it. (If you’re sharing news or pop culture information, I’d make sure the source is reliable.)

Share others’ celebrations. Retweet about your friends’ good news.

If you attend a book signing, conference, or workshop, take a picture and tweet it. Many events will have their own hashtag and that will promote your tweet to other attendees.

If you attend events with others, add a short video or a picture and tag them. (Type the @ sign and their Twitter handle e.g. @HeatherWeidner1 to tag someone.) People like to be recognized.

Twitter is a great platform for research, connecting with others, and building relationships. The number of followers you have almost never translates into direct book sales. Use the site to promote your books and events, but don’t make that the only thing you tweet about. Remember the 80/20 rule. Only about 20% of your posts should be “buy my book.”

If you blog, tweet a link to your blog post and add the appropriate hashtags. This will drive Twitter traffic to your blog/website.

Twitter has a direct message (DM) feature. This is a conversation between the two parties, and it’s not a tweet that everyone can see. I would use this feature sparingly with people I need to communicate with. Some people set up an automatic direct message to new followers with an ad or promotional information. This is often annoying if it’s unsolicited.

The goal is to get your tweet noticed (liked, retweeted, or commented on). Each interaction spreads your reach on the site. Look at your past tweets. If they’re not getting attention, I’d change my content. Certain tweets will generate more interaction than others.

You can mute or block others if you need to. Sometimes, there are unpleasant folks or bots that troll others. A block keeps them from contacting you or commenting on your posts. Mute removes them from your feed. You can also report accounts to Twitter.

Have fun with the site. I do a lot of research on Twitter. Sometimes, I’ll have a specific question, and there are so many kind people who will share their knowledge and experiences. For example, I ruptured my Achilles a while back, and so many people where helpful with advice about recovery and physical therapy. I also got an InstantPot recently, and Twitter has been great for sharing recipes.

If you want to start a conversation, ask a question and include hashtags. You’ll be surprised at the responses you’ll get.

Remember the social part. You need to reply to others’ conversations promptly. It looks weird if you comment on something months later.

What else would you add to my list? See you on Twitter!

@HeatherWeidner1

Making a List - Keeping Your Social Media Feeds Organized

After a while, your newsfeeds in Facebook and Twitter become jam-packed with updates from friends, pages you've liked, and promotions. And the social media sites are always tweaking their algorithms to adjust what you see.

There are groups of people that I like to keep up with so, I create lists in Facebook and Twitter to organize my newsfeeds. I like to see what members in my writing groups, critique groups, and anthologies are talking about. I group them in lists, and when I select to view it, I get all their latest posts in one place. My instructions for creating lists are from the web version of each of the social media sites. If you're using the application version, the links may be in different places.

For Facebook, open your personal site.  Look on the far left list of links and locate "Explore." Move down the list and click on Friend Lists. Click the Create List button. When the dialog box appears, name your list and add people. Save your list. The new list will appear under your "Friend Lists." Click it to see a newsfeed filled with posts from people you added.

To create a list in Twitter, click your photo in the upper right corner. When the drop-down appears, click Lists. The Lists page appears with all the lists that you're a part of. Click Create New List in the top right corner. Name your list and provide a description. Save it. You can add people to your list. Note, if you add someone to a list in Twitter, it appears on their updates page.

Twitter lists are fun. Others have added me to quite a few lists. I'm in one for redheads. Someone else created a Twitter list of "Heathers." It's neat to see what's out there. You do have the option to remove yourself from a list if you choose.

This is one way that I organize my social media time, so I can see the items that I'm looking for instead of wading through lots of other posts. Let's connect on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites. Drop me a line or add me to a list. I look forward to hearing from you.

My Primary Social Media Sites and How I Use Them as an Author

There are so many social media sites, and it can be overwhelming. I heard some good advice at a conference a while back -- "You can't do it all." Authors feel they need to be everywhere -- all the time. And sometimes, that takes me away from writing and editing.

Here are the sites that I'm more active with and how I use them.

Facebook - I have a personal page, an author page, and a group page for superfans. My personal page has information that I share with friends and family. I share book things on my author page, and my fan group is for previews and early review requests.

I like to use Facebook to keep up with people, learn about new events, and see what everybody's reading or writing. I probably post more to my author page than I do my personal one. I also occasionally boost posts about look launches and sales on the author page. I also create events for meetings or signings that I like to invite people to.

Make sure to tag people that appear in your photos or posts. 

Twitter - I use Twitter to keep up with the book world and all my mystery reader and writer friends. I like to share others' information and celebrations. 

I use Tweepi to manage my Twitter followers. Often there are accounts that follow you, and then they drop you shortly after. I use TweetDeck to schedule posts. I also make lists to keep up with different groups of people. The lists help me organize groups of folks that I'm interested in, so I can see their tweets.

I tweet links to my blog posts and announcements about my books. I also try to share good content from others. If you tweet about events or post pictures, make sure to tag those who are with you.

Instagram - I love looking at and taking pictures. I can spend hours flipping through Instagram. I post pictures of what I'm doing. My dogs get a lot of face time on my account. I always try to take pictures at all the events I go to. Make sure to tag anyone with you in your photos. 

Pinterest - Did I mention that I love looking at pictures? I have Pinterest boards for all kinds of things that I want to see again. I create boards for all my books and stories. I save pictures of what my characters and settings look like. I also have a board of blog posts. I also have boards for crafts and recipes that I want to try.

LinkedIn - This is my "professional" social media site that has my key jobs and skills. I use this for business networking. I have also started to post links to my blog here. 

My recommendation is to find the sites that you like to interact with and try to focus your time on those. You should have a presence on the others, but I would concentrate on a few. I try to schedule my social media time throughout the day. I catch up at breakfast. (Yes, I tweet at 5:30 AM.) I try to check on my sites at lunch, and then I scroll through my sites after dinner.

Let's Be Social:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Goodreads

Amazon Authors

Pinterest

LinkedIn

BookBub

GooglePlus

AllAuthor

YouTube

Twitter 101 for Writers

I am grateful for my writer friends who helped me get started with Twitter many years ago. (Thank you, Krista Davis!)  In the beginning it was a bit confusing, and frankly, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Here are my Twitter 101 notes for people who are thinking about venturing out into the Twittersphere.

1. This is a social media platform, and conversations are encouraged. The goal isn't to post a few things and leave. Interaction is key. If you can't stay glued to it for hours, check back in occasionally and respond to conversations.

2. Tweets with pictures tend to get more attention that those that are just text.

3. Make sure to include a link to other content (e.g. websites, Facebook, blogs, etc.) to publicize your content or events. Use sites like Bitly or Ow.ly to shorten long URLs before you post them. (Sites like these allow you to post a large URL or path, and it will shorten it for you, so it won't take up all your space in a tweet.)

4. Use meaningful hashtags (e.g. #, pound sign, number sign). This allows people to follow specific hashtags to find your content. If I have a blog post on writing tips, I look for hashtags that would apply. Type # and then word, and Twitter will provide a list of commonly used ones. Make sure that you don't space between words (e.g. #WriterWednesday, #WritingTips #BookMarketing).

5. Remember the 80/20 rule when you do your book publicity. Twenty percent or fewer of your tweets should be "buy my book." Twitter is a social media platform for information sharing and conversations.

6. Celebrate others' successes and promote others with "likes" and "retweets." Retweets help spread the word.

7. Comment (reply) to others' tweets. This increases the engagement.

8. If you tweet about someone, tag them in a tweet. Type @ and their Twitter name. Type the @ and their name (no spaces), and Twitter will provide a list for you to choose from. For example, I'm @HeatherWeidner1. They will get a notification that you tagged them in a tweet. This provides them an easy way to reply or retweet.

9. If you see tweets with "Q" or "A" at the beginning, this is a Twitter party or Twitter chat. The moderator posts a question that's usually numbered (e.g. Q1, Q2, etc.). Then those who reply, type A and the corresponding number to keep the conversations organized. For example: Q1: What kind of dog to you have? A1: Two crazy Jack Russell Terriers. #dogs #JackRussells.

10. If you have an event that you're marketing, you may want to create your own hashtag. For example, I'm part of the Virginia is for Mysteries anthology series, and we use #VIFM in our tweets. When I want to see related tweets, I search for #VIFM, and I see anything that uses that hashtag. Note: You're not the only one using these hashtags. I always search for a hashtag before I use it to see what kind of posts are already there.

11. If you look at your Twitter analytics, you'll see numbers of impressions for weeks and months. Impressions are engagements on tweets that you send. This includes all interactions and replies. It's showing you how effective you are at reaching others.

12. Use Twitter analytics to see what kinds of interactions your tweets are generating. This shows number of likes, retweets, interactions, and link clicks within a certain amount of time. If you look at this periodically, you can see what types of tweets are getting the most attention.

13. Find accounts for people with interesting tweets. See who they follow and who follow them. You can follow their followers to add their tweets to your newsfeed.

14. I use TweetDeck (free version) to schedule tweets throughout the day. There are lots of schedulers. If you tweet regularly, see what works for you. I schedule things during the day and in the early morning hours. This helps me reach folks in different time zones.

15. I use Tweepi (paid version) to help me manage my followers. Sometimes, people follow you, and then they drop you after you've followed them back. Tweepi allows me to see accounts that aren't active and other metrics. It also suggests people to follow based on my interactions.

16. You can block others from your account if there's a need. You can also report issues to Twitter. 

17. You can send direct messages to others. These are private messages that don't appear on newsfeeds publicly. If needed, you can delete these messages. A lot of accounts send direct messages when you follow them. I don't send automated messages because I tend to ignore them unless it's someone trying to get in touch with me.

18. Some accounts use tools like TrueTwit to validate followers. If you follow them, you may get a direct message from the application. If you don't validate, then you're not following that person. 

19. Accounts with a tiny blue circle/checkmark by the name are Twitter validated accounts. It tells readers that they have the real account. There are a lot of fan and made up accounts out there. So unless there's this symbol by the account name, chances are the royal family really isn't following you.

20. You will get a lot of comments (replys) to what you post (good, bad, and ugly). Here's my two cents. You, as an author, are your brand. And posts on the Internet live forever (even if you delete them). If I find myself getting agitated or angry, I step back and take a minute or two to reread my response before I fire it off. I've always been told by social media experts to remind yourself, "Are you okay if this post is read in court?" and "Would you be okay to see this post on the front page of the paper?"

21. My newsfeed is cluttered with so many posts, that I don't always see folks that I'm interested in. I make Lists. When you add someone to your list, he/she gets a notification. (You can elect to remove yourself from a list if you' don't like the content.) You can make lists private or public. When I want to see posts from those people, I click on the list. You can also join others' public lists. I have different lists of authors who I follow.

22. When you go to classes or conferences, they often have a hashtag for the event for live tweeting, sharing of ideas, and pictures. This is a great way to meet speakers and other attendees. (Live tweeting is tweeting during an event. Sometimes, someone is assigned this task to tweet about the event as it's going on.)

23. I use Twitter for research (a lot). I'll post a question with some relevant hashtags, and you'd be surprised at all the help you get. Writers, this is a great way to find experts in certain areas. People are usually very willing to help and to answer questions.

24. Be polite. Thank and recognize people who help you or retweet you. 

What else would you add to the list? What was foreign to you when you started tweeting?

9 Things I Learned about Hosting a Twitter Party

My author pal, Kristin Kisska, was my partner in crime when we organized and planned a Twitter party for our mystery anthology, 50 Shades of Cabernet. She provided great ideas and insights. I had never attended one before. Here's what I learned...

1. Agree on a hashtag for your event and include it in all your marketing. Ours was #50SoC. Participants searched for that hashtag and followed along with all our tweets and contests.
2. You may want to search your hashtag choice to see what others are using it for. Will it fit your brand? Chances are, you won't get a hashtag that's yours alone, but you could get lucky.
3. For contests, assign everyone who's hosting the party a number. When they ask a question for their give-away, they need to preface their tweet with Q and their number. (Example: If I am number 1, my question tweet would be Q1: What is your favorite....) Anyone who wants to participate in the give-away, tweets A and the correct number. This helps the hosts easily identify the participants.
4. Choose a couple of hours for your party. Long timespans are hard unless you have lots of folks hosting and tweeting. Make sure to keep time zones in mind when scheduling. We had multiple authors sign up for 30-minute hosting timeslots. It made it easier. And some hung around for the entire event.
5. Make sure that you have some topics planned for discussion. You'll want to keep the conversation going, and you'll want to have material to fill in the lulls. We were promoting our mystery anthology that was wine-themed. We talked about mysteries, sleuths, wines, and our stories.
6. Start publicizing your event early. Include the time, time zone, and hashtag. Make sure you market it on multiple social media sites (multiple times).
7. Be social. Make sure to include as many folks as possible in the conversation.
8. If you're doing give-aways, decide on the rules up front (e.g. who picks the winner? how do you pick a winner?) We let each author who gave away a gift decide how he/she wanted to choose the lucky person.
9. If you're doing give-aways, choose prizes that are easy (and inexpensive) to mail. I get a lot of my give-away on Etsy.  I've found cute bookish wine charms, stickers, and buttons there.

When you see an interesting Twitter party, stop in and visit. The conversation is good, and you may even win a prize. Happy Tweeting!

100 Writerly Bookish Types You Need to Follow on Twitter

Twitter is an amazing site for research and building relationships. And there are so many great writers, editors, agents, and book bloggers out there. Here is my list of 100 tweeters that you need to check out. Happy tweeting!

1. Alan Orloff
2. Ally Shields
3. Annie Acorn
4. Art Taylor
5. Barb Goffman
6. Bill Crider
7. Bits About Books
8. BOLO Books
9. Book Blogger April
10. Book Bloggers Intn.
11. Book Celebration
12. Book Reviews Geek
13. Book Swag
14. Books and Spoons
15. Carole Colbert
16. Celebrate with a Book
17. Colleen
18. Cozy Chicks
19. Creatures 'n Crooks
20. Cynthia Kuhn
21. Cyrus Webb
22. Deborah Coonts
23. Diane Vallere
24. Dru
25. Edith Maxwell
26. Elaine Viets
27. Eleanor Cawood Jones
28. Ellen Byron
29. Ellery Adams
30. Enrique Gonzales
31. Fiona Quinn
32. G. M. Malliet
33. Gigi Pandian
34. Halli Ephron
35. Hank Phillipi Ryan
36. James River Writers
37. Jeanne Adams
38. Jenny Milchman
39. Jim Jackson
40. Judging More Than the Cover
41. Julie Valerie
42. Jungle Reds
43. Kait Carson
44. Kat Stiles
45. Kris Spisak
46. Krista Davis
47. Kristi Tuck Austin
48. Kristin Kisska
49. Kristin Wright
50. Larissa Reinhart
51. Leah St. James
52. Lelia G
53. Linda Hill
54. Lisa Haselton
55. Liz Gavin
56. Lori Caswell
57. Lori Rader-Day
58. Lyn Brittan
59. LynDee Walker
60. Maggie King
61. Mary Behre
62. Mary Burton
63. Mary Feliz
64. Mary Miley
65. Midsummer Reads
66. Mollie Cox Bryan
67. Mrs. Blogg's Books
68. Mysteristas
69. Nancy Cohen
70. Nancy Naigle
71. Pat Concodora
72. Pizzazz Book Promo
73. Promocave
74. Rachel Thompson
75. Rachelle Gardner
76. Read Your Writes
77. Readers Gazette
78. Reading Sanctuary
79. Rhys Bowen
80. Rosemary Shomaker
81. Rosemary Stevens
82. Sacha Black
83. Shawna C
84. Sherry Harris
85. Sisters in Crime
86. Sparkle Abbey
87. Stacy Juba
88. Stephen Bentley
89. Susan M. Boyer
90. Suze Lavender
91. Suzie81Blog
92. Terry Tyler
93. The Bookshelf Café
94. The Wicked Cozy
95. Thrill Writing
96. Tina Glasneck
97. Truth about Books
98. Vivian Lawry
99. Whispering Stories
100. And me... (Heather Weidner) I'd love to see what you're tweeting...

25 Book Bloggers You Should Follow on Twitter

Twitter is an amazing site for research and building relationships. And there are so many great Book bloggers out there. Here is my list that you need to check out. They are in no particular order. I numbered the list to keep it organized. Happy tweeting!

1. Book Blogger April
2. Celebrate with a Book
3. Creatures 'n Crooks
4. Book Bloggers Intn.
5. Colleen
6. Pizzazz Book Promo
7. Suze Lavender
8. Books and Spoons
9. Book Reviews Geek
10. Readers Gazette
11. Truth about Books
12. Judging More Than the Cover
13. Lori Caswell
14. Stephen Bentley
15. Read Your Writes
16. Lisa Haselton
17. Liz Gavin
18. Whispering Stories
19. Reading Sanctuary
20. Midsummer Reads
21. Linda Hill
22. Bits About Books
23. Mrs. Blogg's Books
24. Carole Colbert
25. YAPs

67 Accounts You Should Follow on Twitter

Here are 67 accounts (people and organizations) you should check out. I enjoy reading their posts. They're not in any order. I just numbered the list to keep a running total. Happy tweeting!

1. Sisters in Crime - Where I go to  keep up with all that's new in mystery and suspense
2. Annie Acorn - Great writing advice
3. Rachelle Gardner - Enjoy her insights into the world of literary agents
4. Tina Glasneck - Love that she promotes other writers
5. Mollie Cox Bryan -Great daily tweets about her writing journey
6. Book Celebration - Great writer promotions - Stop in to see what's new
7. Ellery Adams - Fun tweets about her writing journey
8. Mary Burton - Love reading about her adventures and her 3 cute doxies
9. James River Writers - Great information about writing
10. Thrill Writing - Good source information for thriller or suspense writers
11. Rachel Thompson - Great source for book marketing and social media tips
12. Hank Phillipi Ryan - Fun tweets about mysteries
13. Halli Ephron - Check out her mysteries
14. Jungle Reds - A sassy blog by 8 mystery writers
15. Mary Feliz - Fun mystery tweets
16. Lelia G - Great tweets about her writing journey and #RVA photos
17. Elaine Viets - Fun tweets about her mystery series
18. Mary Miley - Great blog posts about myths in history
19. G. M. Malliet - Lots of good writing, book, and Great Britain tweets
20. Sparkle Abbey - Love their animal mysteries and dog tweets
21. Jeanne Adams - Love her great, wicked sense of humor and she supports authors
22. Rosemary Stevens - Fun tweets about nostalgia from the 60s and 70s
23. Kristin Kisska - Great fan girl and funny tweets
24. Kait Carson - Lots of tweets about mystery writing
25. Shawna C - Fun tweets and she's a great promoter of writers
26. Kristin Wright -Enjoy her BookBub lists and fun tweets
27. Kat Stiles - Lots of tweets about books and writing and she promotes writers
28. Julie Valerie - Great writing advice. Keep writing!
29. The Bookshelf Café - A neat place to keep up with what's new in books
30. Lyn Brittan - Fun tweets and she's a great supporter of writers
31. Book Swag - Fun book and bookish tweets
32. Suzie81Blog - Love the #SundayBlogShare tweets
33. Promocave - Lots of author and book promotions
34. Dru - Great book blog posts
35. Art Taylor - Fun tweets about his writing journey
36. Nancy Cohen - Light, fun mysteries
37. Jenny Milchman - Great writing and publishing advice
38. Nancy Naigle - Lots of homespun humor and fun tweets
39. Edith Maxwell - Lots of good New England mysteries
40. Rhys Bowen - Enjoy her royal mysteries
41. Cyrus Webb - Lots of great author promotion with his podcasts
42. Kristi Tuck Austin - Great tweets about writing and author promotion
43. Mary Behre - Enjoy her tweets about her writing journey
44. The Wicked Cozy - A interest blog with a New England accent
45. Sherry Harris - Love her yard sale mysteries and her great adventures
46. Krista Davis - Lots of fun mysteries with pets and great social media advice
47. Alan Orloff - Love his great sense of humor
48. BOLO Books - Wonderful book reviews
49. Kris Spisak - Great tweets about writing and books
50. LynDee Walker - Like reading about her adventures and her mysteries set in #RVA
51. Maggie King - Great posts about "where are they now" mystery writers
52. Fiona Quinn - Helping writers get it right
53. Jim Jackson - Good advice about writing, publishing, and editing
54. Leah St. James - Lots of good book promotion and fun tweets about Hampton Roads
55. Ally Shields - Great writing tips
56. Deborah Coonts - Love her funny Las Vegas mysteries
57. Eleanor Cawood Jones - Love her mystery writing posts
58. Stacy Juba - Lots of great tweets about books and writing
59. Barb Goffman - Good writing tweets and fun posts about Jingle dog
60. Larissa Reinhart - Lots of great tweets about mysteries
61. Bill Crider -Love his mysteries and posts about the VBKs (Very Bad Kitties)
62. Vivian Lawry - Lots of fun writing prompts
63. Sacha Black - Great writing and book promotion tweets
64. Terry Tyler - Lots of good tweets about writing
65. Lori Caswell - See what's new in the cozy mystery world
66. Diane Vallere - Fun fashion mysteries
67. And me...I'd love to see what you're tweeting...