A Crash Course in Twitterdom, from an Admitted Twitterphobe.

Twitterdom and Twitterphobe?  They’re real words.  Promise.

Now I’ll admit, I’m not that young.  But then again, I’m not that old, either.  I treasured my LiveJournal community (and still do, to be honest.  I miss it something fierce!), and only crawled over to MySpace and then on to Facebook after much kicking and screaming.  After that traumatic ordeal, I refused Twitter and later Tumblr.  I only very recently gave in to Pinterest, life-sucking machine that it is.  After learning how to wrangle Pinterest (and honestly loving the amazingness that could be found upon it), I still refused Twitter and Tumblr.

For seven years I avoided being a Twitterling.  With pride.

Unfortunately, some battles you just can’t win.

An increasing number of authors I loved and idolized began flocking to Twitter.  Then literary agents.  Then writing coaches.  Then literary magazines and writerly organizations.  Sure, all these people generally had websites and Facebook pages too, but I still got the impression I was being left out of this massive flow of information.

So, alas, as of 9.11.2013, I joined Twitter.

It was purely a career move, in the end.  Today’s author must be social media savvy, not to mention social media friendly.  Why not start now, I thought, much in the same manner I threw together this website and even an Author Page on Facebook.  Might as well begin finding out what all those other authors and coaches and agents and magazines and organizations had to say on the matter!  Well, I joined Twitter convinced it would help destroy my life as I knew it, adding just one more thing to my already overwhelming list of things that must be kept track of, updated, and done.

However, I have been pleasantly surprised.  So, for any others of you out there balking at the sight of that little blue bird, here are a few pointers I’ve picked up as a brand-spanking-new citizen of Twitterdom.  Hopefully these will make you, too, feel a little better about finally becoming one of us, and if you are already one of us, or do decide to join at some point in the near future, look me up @Lightning_Bug_!  I’d love to see what you contribute to the vast Tweeting universe!  So, without further ado….

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Twitterverse (that’s a word, too):

1) Know your reason for joining Twitter in the first place (preferably before you actually sign up), and then stick to it! Self-promotion? Product or business promotion? Purely social? Celebrity obsession? Pure boredom?  Whatever your reason, view Twitter as a tool.  Then, follow ONLY those people who relate DIRECTLY to your reason for using that tool in the first place.  If you are really so incredibly bored you have nothing else to do but scroll through thousands of Tweets from anyone and everyone every day, well, (you need to get yourself a hobby! er, I mean…) so be it.  But for the rest of us, not following every single familiar person you see helps keep your Following list at least manageable enough that you don’t feel like you’re drowning in blah blah every time you decide to check your Twitter feed. (In fact, consider separate Twitter handles for separate purposes… one for your business, say, and one for celebrity junk – if you are so inclined, etc.)

2) Know what you hope to accomplish with your own Twitter Feed.  This relates to your reason for joining in the first place.  But for this aspect of Twitter, think about how you want to present yourself, and then Tweet and/or Retweet ONLY things that contribute to this desired image.  Do you want to offer a slightly more personal side of yourself that Followers don’t get on your Facebook and website?  Do you prefer to use it only for archiving handy informational articles on the subject of your choice?  Would you like to advertise your own projects and successes?  What is the impression you want to get across through your Twitter tool?  Work toward that image, and just so “no” to any other random thoughts that might urge you to put them on Twitter.  Decide what you want on your website, what you want on your Facebook, and what you want on Twitter, and then keep everything in its proper place.

3) SKIM SKIM SKIM!  You still want to have a life, too, right?  My Following list is only at 62, and I could already spend many hours reading every word of every Tweet.  But not every Tweet is really all that important, even if it comes from one of my vetted and purposeful Follows.  So skim.  Very quickly.  Stop only on your very favorite people, or those who most often have the best Tweets, or on anything else that jumps out at you.  Then exit stage left.

4) Watch the clock!  You still want to have a life, too, right?  Retweet relevant posts right then, as you see them.  Determine from the beginning (or starting now, at least) roughly how often you would like to Tweet your own stuff, and how much time you will devote to reading Followed tweets each day.  I aim for three Tweets a day of my own, morning, afternoon, and evening.  If I have more or less, no big deal, but I refuse to spend any more than one half hour on Twitter per day, for reading or Tweeting.  While I’m looking at my Followed people’s tweets, if I see something I particularly like, fits my Twitter purpose, or could be helpful to my own meager collection of Followers, I retweet it.  I have no limits on my retweets, but I try not to be obnoxious about it, either.

5) Speaking of, don’t be a spammer.  For reals.  No one likes those people who crowd our email inboxes, Facebook News Feeds, or Twitter Feeds with content every damn hour of every day.  Remember that other people actually do have lives (even though sometimes it sure doesn’t seem like it!), and while they may genuinely care about what you have to say, if you overload them with mostly useless blather on a regular basis, they will stop caring, and then probably miss it when you actually say something awesome.  There is just no reason to post anywhere more than a few times a day.  If you really have a ton of cool stuff to share, save it to post later during an awesomesauce-dryspell, or spread it around over all your social media so that no one feed is bogged down.

6) Be friendly and personable!  If someone Follows you, thank them personally via Direct Message.  That’s just nice, and shows you are awesome.  Then, Follow them back.  (Unless, of course, they are way outside your Twitter Purpose, in which case they are probably just Follower-fishing, and it’s okay to not Follow them back.)  Engage in some conversations with fellow like-minded folks.  Let them know every now and then that you are actually Following them and reading their Tweets… it will give them warm fuzzies and they will likely do the same for you at some point!

7) LINK YOUR ACCOUNTS!  You want to still have your wits about you at the end of all of this, right?  I now have four Facebook pages (two personal, two official Pages), four email addresses to check on a regular basis, three websites/blogs, and a Twitter account.  To keep myself sane, I linked this blog to both my Twitter and two of the Facebook pages.  I linked the Facebook pages to Twitter, and Twitter to one of the Facebook pages.  Are you confused yet?  This sounds more complicated than it really is.  You can use Headliner and/or Hootsuite to do this, and this will allow your update of one social media thing to then be shared on ALL of them, thus cutting your updating time in half!  Or thirds, or fourths, or whatevers.  In addition, Facebook Pages have the option in the Admin toolbar to link to your Twitter, and WordPress has the Publicize option for posts which will share them on your pages automatically once posted.  WordPress also has a Twitter widget to share your Tweets on your blog (see my sidebar over there —->).

 

And there you have it.  My Top Seven Tips for Surviving the Wrath of the Little Blue Bird.  Not as bad as I feared, by far.  I’m actually having quite a lot of fun with it.

So, come join me in Twitterdom, won’t you??

Check out my brand new “official” Facebook page, too!!

 

What about you, fellow Twitterlings?  Share your methods of coping in the comments!!