Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Do's and Don'ts of Tweeting for Authors



Many new authors shy away from Twitter, because they find it confusing, yet they know they have to post on Twitter daily if they want to find an audience for their books.



The feed you set up so carefully, the followers you found to read your promotional material, it all swims by at an alarming speed. Can anyone see how you used exactly 140 characters to describe your book? Did they even notice that you added in a couple of tags to get others to retweet your post, or those adorable hashtags in plain view? Your tweet will soon be lost in the endless twitterstream!



Fear not, here's a few tips to make using Twitter easier.



Twitter Jail: Breaking these rules will land you in Twitter jail faster than you can say "Peep!"

  • Less than 2,000 followers? Make sure you don't follow more than 10% over the number of followers you have. (i.e. 2,000 followers means the maximum number of tweeps you can follow is 2,200.) 

  • Don't add more than 2,000 people per day to the list of people you follow. 
  • If you have a lot of people to retweet for, be sure it’s not more than 2,400. I’m proud to say that I’ve been in Twitter jail 3 times in the last month, all for trying to do too many tweets. No worries, it’s only for a few hours, then you can jump back on the Tweet horse!

Tweet Schedulers: The most popular two are HootSuite and TweetDeck. These programs allow you to schedule your tweets ahead of time, freeing you to continue working on your next book. Just remember to set up a schedule so you don’t forget to schedule your next round of tweets.



Notifications: This is where you’ll see a list of those who have retweeted your work, followed you, clicked on favorite for something you’ve tweeted, or are conversing with you. Be sure to visit this section at some point during the day to retweet those who have done the same for you, tweet things people have tweeted about you, or get into conversations with your followers.



A few hints about the care and feeding of followers.


1.    Always thank people for retweeting your tweets. Some may say you’re welcome, some will ignore this. Experience has taught me this simple kindness garners more followers and more retweeting of my tweets.


2.     Say you’re welcome if someone thanks you.


3.    Always retweet someone who has done the same for you.


4.    Thank your new followers and then follow them back, after retweeting one of their tweets.



Finally, don’t just tweet about your books. Add tidbits about your day—what you’re having for dinner, the game you just watched, even the weather will get people talking and tweeting. And don’t never get into a fight on Twitter. One of the things authors need to learn from the start—our public face must always be nice, no matter how nasty the other person is. 
 ©2014 K.C. Sprayberry



Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in Northwest Georgia. She and her husband of more than twenty years are empty nesters which leaves her plenty of time to figure out new ways to torment her characters and come up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
A multi-genre author she gets her ideas from the strangest sources. Some of her short stories have appeared in anthologies, others in magazines. Three of her books: Softly Say Goodbye, Who Am I?, and Mama’s Advice, are Amazon best sellers. Her other books are: Take Chances, Where U @, The Wrong One, Pony Dreams, Evil Eyes, Inits, Canoples Investigations Tackles Space Pirates, The Call Chronicles 1: The Griswold Gang, and Starlight. Additionally, she has shorts available on Amazon: Grace, Secret From the Flames, Family Curse … Times Two, and The Ghost Catcher.

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We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of our #WW Writer Wednesday Series! Thanks to K.C for taking time out of a busy schedule to share these twitter tips with you. Stay tuned: Next week we will host author, Faye Rapoport Des Pres as she talks about allowing discovery in the writing process. Don't miss a single issue of this series - follow us! 
Cheers!
~ The Black Cat



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