Tag Archives: tweet

Top Twitter Tips For Writers

Twitter for writingby Catherine L. Tully

OK–tell me true–have you embraced Twitter yet? Writers tend to fall into one of two camps–the “tekkies” and the “old-fashioned”. (Yes–I know I’m generalizing.) Today I’m going to share some Twitter tips for each.

Old Fashioned

If you haven’t set up a Twitter profile yet, there’s no time like the present. You can get yourself up and running in just a few minutes. It really is pretty simple.

Typing a tweet (or “update” as they are also called) is not difficult either. Once your account is set up, try it and see how it goes.

Be sure you know the rules and best practices before you get going full steam.

Learn how to follow people and how to promote your profile.

Once you do these things, you’ll start to get a feel for Twitter, and hopefully, begin to like using it!

Tekkies

I don’t need to convince you that Twitter is cool–but I can give you some really terrific tips for using it better that you may not know about already. For example, did you know that it is a good idea to keep your tweets under the 140 character limit (this post says 125) so that people can re-tweet you more easily?

Need to find an old tweet for some reason? Friendfeed enables you to do that.

Want to share media on Twitter in real time? Use TwitPic.

Try running a poll on Twitter for something different. PollDaddy is a good resource for that.

So there you go writers…Twitter tips for everyone. If you have something you can share that will make Tweeting more fun (or cool) please do!

Follow Friday?

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 by Catherine L. Tully

If you don’t know what the title of this post means…get ready to learn a great promotional strategy on Twitter. “Follow Fridays” is a way to figure out who to follow–and to share those you follow with others. To participate, simply tweet the words #followfriday (don’t forget the “hashtag” # before it) and then the username of the person you wish to share with the @ sign. For example, #followfriday @freelancezone @catherinetully.

It’s that simple. You can add as many people as characters allow (140) and if you run out of space, you can create another tweet. Try it–it’s fun!

Using Twitter With Purpose

twitter for writers

by Catherine L. Tully

Do you just get on Twitter and tweet away about whatever comes to mind? If so, you aren’t taking full advantage of the power of this social networking tool. Writers need to be thinking about how they are marketing themselves and their services when they post.

To that end, I’d like to point out a Twitter Guide that breaks a lot of the information out there down in a very palatable way. Mashable divides things up into three common sense categories… Continue reading Using Twitter With Purpose

Tweet Tweet Twitter

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Do you use twitter? If not, it might be worth looking into. I resisted at first, but have found that in some ways it is better for networking than facebook. (Although I must admit to liking facebook more.) On twitter you can find professionals that you might not normally have access to and link up with them. Plus, you can get the word out to a large number of people about what you are up to in your writing career.

That said, be nice too. It is considered “polite” to mix self-promotion with helpful advice, quotes and other fun stuff. And if someone follows you, it is always a good idea to thank them for it. Personally, I have my privacy settings on so that I have to accept someone who wants to follow me, but do what you are comfortable with.

The learning curve on twitter is a bit more steep than facebook in my opinion, but there is a help page that really does the job. Start there for the skinny on things such as finding people, following and direct messages. You don’t have to dive in and start tweeting away, but not having this social marketing site in your toolbag means you are one step behind as a writer. It’s worth a shot.

(And look me up! I’m catherinetully on twitter. Tell me you are a FZ reader so I know who you are…)