I tweet a couple of times a day. I pass on links to my blog posts and RT other links that I find interesting. Sometimes I post something about my home life, but I mostly use it to tweet about writing.
It's good for promoting books. A great blurb with a link can attract a lot of attention. It's easy for others to RT (re-tweet) your blurbs too and for you to do the same for them.
I have nearly 1000 followers. I'm amazed at how fast I've gained them. I almost always follow back. I check out the person before I follow. Sometimes they're scammers or spammers. Or they could be something I have zero interest in. I get a lot of women's health people wanting me to follow them, and entertainment people I don't like. The strangest one I had was a coffin company. It was legitimate. Did they target me because I write about the paranormal, or because they're saying I'm getting old and better plan ahead?
I don't read many tweets. I just don't have the time. There's too much going on on there. I might read the top twenty on the list when I tweet. I more often read tweets by people I know if they have the little widgets on their sidebars on their blogs. I'd rather read blog posts than tweets.
Was it worth it joining Twitter? Yes. It's effective for what it does and easy to use. A better social media tool than Facebook.
If you have a Twitter account, what has your experience been like? What's the strangest individual to ever follow you?
I'm new to Twitter too, but I have over 400 followers already. It's amazing how quickly they can flock to you. I don't read many tweets either, but I find it's useful for promoting my writing. It's definitely worth the time I put into it.
ReplyDeleteI love Twitter! I try to keep up with it as best I can during the day, because I love reading what my fellow tweeters have to say! (Totally didn't mean for that to rhyme LOL!)
ReplyDeleteTwitter rocks! I echo your words on using Twitter...I've also hooked up with many writers in my genre, and in some cases we have met up at conferences etc
ReplyDeleteI have a saying, 'Never underestimate the power if Twitter' if you want to get something out there, its the fastest way.
I do get annoyed by folk I do not know asking me to buy their book, review their work etc and I don't think it can be avoided.
Hell yea, Twitter is great!
@mariaAsmith
Twitter is great! It does get overwhelming sometimes with so much information, though. But, I love how I can connect with people through it.
ReplyDeleteI've been on twitter for a while but I think I'm still getting to grips with it. I find the newsstream a bit overwhelming so I've started dividing people up into lists and I tend to look at those. I've still to work out a lot of the etiquette mind!
ReplyDeletebah, one more timesuck, i dont need. i need a time creator! not a drain!
ReplyDeleteGetting old and better plan ahead - funny!
ReplyDeleteI get some odd ones as well. I always check them out before following. And twice a month I check whounfollowedme.com to see who was just fishing for followers.
I don't hang out there much, so still not sure what I'm doing.
I'm like you when it comes to reading general tweets. I mostly just check out the top twenty or so scrolling through the reader when I go on there. But I keep a private list with the people I know on it, and check out what they're saying most days. I really do hate when I follow someone back (basically a stranger) and then they send me direct messages to buy their books or follow them on Facebook. I don't think that's a very good marketing strategy, because they just made me not like them very much. :(
ReplyDeleteI've been on Twitter for awhile, but for me, it hasn't been good. It reads like one big infomercial. Or maybe I'm following a bunch of pushy writers!
ReplyDeleteI keep my Twitter feed open during the day, but it's impossible to keep up with them all.
ReplyDeleteMe and Tara, are we the only ones not on Twitter? Maybe we should form an anti-twitter twitter. Anyone one got a clever name?
ReplyDeleteI love Twitter and check on it at least a few times during the day.
ReplyDeleteI'm a very occasional Twitter user, but I do have bursts of social activity when I go on it. I tried making myself use it every day, to try and keep on top of things, but it's too demanding and sucked the fun out of interacting with the other writers (which is why I use it, personally).
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at the Coffin Company following you!
Twitter can be crazy! I've got to set up some lists that I can follow better on Tweetdeck, which makes it so much easier to keep track of.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days . . .
Thank you all for sharing your experiences with Twitter with me. I still wonder why the coffin company nabbed me. I got an adult site trying to do that to me yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI like Twitter, but I sometimes still forget about it, even though I have over 2000 followers.
ReplyDeleteI really like Twitter. I have over a thousand followers, too. There's just so much information that you can find on that site!
ReplyDeleteTwitter intimidates me--things seem to move a LOT faster there than they do on blogs and I like the ability to pause and take time to think about what people post.
ReplyDeleteI love twitter for discovering what's going on and latest news, contests, and anything else going on in the industry:)
ReplyDeleteI love Twitter for all the fun random things that pop into my head between blog posts. I don't spend too much time on there, but I like it a lot.
ReplyDeleteSee, you say you don't read a lot of tweets, and that's the exact problem I have with Twitter. It's a lot of people shouting into the void and only a few actually listening. (I'll admit I'm the same way; I scroll past most things and don't read even a quarter of my feed because I only look a couple times a day anyway, so who can keep up?) I will agree it's helped with promoting my books. I think. Hard to tell, really.
ReplyDeleteWeirdest entity to follow me is a hotel in St. Louis. I've never been there, never tweeted about it, have no idea why they are following me, but whatever!