Yesterday guest Nina Badzin walked us through the science of Twitter–basics and tricks that can help you make the most of Twitter from a technical standpoint. (Missed the post? Click HERE.) Today she’s back with us to discuss some of the finer points of being a Twitter-user. How to use it wisely, and have fun with it at the same time. Enjoy!
The Art of Cultivating an Authentic Following on Twitter
Writers love using Twitter to market their work because Twitter is free. Using Twitter as an easy, one-way marketing tool, however, is an enormous mistake. And if you’re not going to get it right on Twitter, then why put your energy there at all? The truth is, Twitter is not free. You’ll pay for Twitter with a precious commodity: your time.
So why are writers willing to spend precious time on Twitter? Because Twitter is word-of-mouth-maximus for people who understand the art of cultivating an authentic following. Without leaving your house, you can connect with book bloggers, librarians, fellow writers, and people who even share your non-literary interests.
The trick to connecting with others on Twitter (beyond the “I follow you, you follow me” game) is to keep the marketing (hateful word) to a minimum and focus on engaging. In other words, you want authentic followers, not just numbers.
What is an “authentic following?” Simply stated, your authentic following consists of the people who read your tweets. The actual number you see next to “followers” on your profile means nothing. A significant percentage of those people rarely see your tweets and perhaps never will. If you’re already a Twitter user who follows over 300 people, then you know what I’m talking about. There’s no way you pay attention to all of those tweets. If you do, I suspect you’re behind on your writing goals.
Think about the tweets you do read, or the tweets you want to read if you’re new to Twitter. I’m guessing your answer is not, “I want to see constant updates about author X’s upcoming release on Kindle.”
An “authentic following” comes down to this: Twitter doesn’t work without followers who actually read your tweets. The good news? The steps below will help you avoid talking to yourself on Twitter and wasting your time. Let’s get to work.
FIVE STEPS TO AN AUTHENTIC FOLLOWING:
1. Follow People: This is not as obvious as it sounds. I don’t mean you should merely press the “follow” button, although that’s the place to start. I mean, read the tweets other people write. Like I said in “The Science of Twitter,” you should create lists to make the influx of tweets more manageable, but you shouldn’t forget to look at those lists. Twitter doesn’t exist solely for you and your tweets. The key to engagement over marketing is to notice what other people have to say and interact with those people. How? Go on to step 2.
2. Retweet and Reply: Make your presence known by retweeting others’ posts, or replying to their tweets. This is probably the best way to ensure you’re engaging and not marketing. But please note: only retweeting what people say about you, or only replying to tweets with your name in it (those are called @mentions) does not count as engaging. But DO respond to your @mentions if possible. It’s considered rude to ignore people who talk to you on Twitter.
TIP: When you scroll through your Twitter lists, you can use the “favorite” function (click the little star under a tweet) to bookmark tweets that look interesting. You might not get the opportunity to check out your “favorites” page and click those links for over a week or more, but if you find the article worthy of sharing, you can retweet it at that time. No matter how long after a tweet originally appeared, the writer of the tweet will appreciate the retweet.
3. Provide Good Content and Value: Yes, you get to tweet about yourself. It’s all about balance. If you’re actively retweeting others’ links and replying to tweets, then tweeting about you will fit nicely into your timeline. But don’t limit your original (non-retweeted) tweets to posts about your work. When you find an article you liked, read a great book, or simply have an observation worth noting, go ahead and share it with your followers.
TIP: The sites Hootsuite and Social Oomph are excellent for scheduling tweets, which allows you to vary the hours and days your tweets appear in the Twitter feed. Scheduling also helps you avoid overwhelming your followers with too many tweets in a row and gives you a way to stay present on Twitter without killing your writing sessions.
4. Don’t be a Numbers Snob: Unless you’re a celebrity-level author (think Neil Gaiman or Margaret Atwood) you’ll have to follow many people back. Otherwise you appear uninterested in engaging with others and perhaps you’ll genuinely miss out on the opportunity to connect with someone new. Over time you’ll get a sense of who has the potential to become an authentic follower and who treats Twitter like an email blast. You should avoid following anyone who falls into the latter category. (A quick glance at someone’s timeline will give you a sense.) Remember, others will unfollow you for the same reason so always keep steps 2 and 3 in mind.
5. But You Don’t Have to Follow Everyone: You’re not obligated to return every follow. We all need to maintain some kind of standard for Twitter sanity. Personally, I unfollow people, or do not return the follow of those who engage in the following Twitter disturbances: overtweeting; filling the Twitter feed with endless and meaningless #WW/#FF lists; filling the Twitter feed with constant public “thank yous” that could easily be written as @replies; and over-promoting a book release, blog, or anything.
Your ability to engage with others on Twitter makes an impression. A good impression will translate into authentic followers who look forward to reading your tweets, retweet you often, and hopefully seek out your books, short stories, blog posts, or whatever else you’re hoping to promote.
Good luck, writers!
Thanks for this great set up posts, Nina!
Readers, do yourselves a favor and add Nina’s blog to your list of daily visits, and–of course–follow her on Twitter (@NinaBadzin). Write on!
Photo courtesy Flickr’s Rosaura Ochoa
About Nina Badzin
Nina Badzin is a writer and blogger who lives in Minneapolis with her husband and four children. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines, as well as the Huffington Post's books, parenting, religion, and technology pages. In a strange turn of events, Nina has become the go-to gal for Twitter advice. This confuses her parents and her husband to no end. She tweets at @NinaBadzin and blogs regularly at http://ninabadzin.com. You can find her on Facebook, too.
I’m constantly amazed by how much more effective Twitter can be in comparison to a search engine – assuming you are following a lot of and the right people for your thing. The links shared are diverse and can be obscure/new things Google might not bring up.
I don’t know how I’d keep up without that favorite button. Great stuff comes up so fast! Weekday mornings I usually favorite about 20 things I don’t have time to look at right then. Some of those links I don’t get to until over a month later but I’m always glad I had them bookmarked!
Your posts are so helpful as I continue to find my way on my follow/unfollow and balance of content philosophies. It’s a pretty ongoing challenge and question in my mind as everyone does it a little differently and with 140 character limits there’s a lot of second guessing going on — on all our parts! So glad you’re providing ongoing support and suggestions, Nina!
Thank you for this series! I admit, I’m more comfortable on Facebook than Twitter, mostly because of how I use my computer. I generally pop on for a few minutes, here and there. If I have a chunk of time, it’s dedicated to either writing or work. Facebook lets me act like a bulletin board, commenting on others’ posts and putting up my own for readers to get to. It seems like you need to “hang out” for a longer period of time on Twitter to get the interaction. Does this feel true to you? Any suggestions?
Hi Cathy,
For me, the biggest difference between Twitter and Facebook is the audience. Facebook feels a bit like “preaching to the choir.” You’re talking to people who already know you as friends and family, and if you’re a published writer, then fans might find you on FB, too. Though, I find over time, pure readers just move on to the next book. They’re not necessarily interested in continuing to hear from the same author. An Twitter you’d probably connect with other writers at varying stages of their careers. Writers are avid readers. So it’s nice to have a sense of having colleagues, and you get the added bonus that they could become fans, too.
But to answer your main question, yes–I think Twitter takes a bit more time. First, it moves so fast. Second, you don’t really know the people there so you have to take the time to get to know people and for people to know. They reach of your posts, etc, has more potential on Twitter, I think. But I can’t prove that.
Let me know if you have other questions!
Thanks very helpful. I do need to learn how to use lists on Twitter and maybe checkout Hootsuite and Social Oomph. I have only been on Twitter a couple of months but find it’s a very different interaction than on FB and I really like both.
It’s proved a great way to follow friends’ safety through Irene in the US.
Great advice. I’m pretty selective about who I follow back — mostly only people I know well, or else people who establish a dialogue with me — but I definitely prefer my authentic connections over having impressive numbers.
I’m somewhat less selective, but still choosy. Meaning, I don’t require the person establish a dialogue with me because that’s a little one-sided, but I DO take the time to scan through the most recent tweets. If I see 8 tweets in a row such as “Thanks for the follow @_____, @_____, @_____” or “Thanks for RTing my post about X @_____, @_____” You get the idea. Since I know FOR SURE those kinds of tweets will drive me bonkers over time, I don’t follow back from the get-go.
Hey Nina!
I’ve been on Twitter for years, so, quite often, you’ll see a feed of mine with thanks for the RTs and/or mentions. That doesn’t signify by any means a lack of authenticity – it just means there happen to be a lot of folks who liked a particular tweet.
For a lot of folks – especially writers – it’s quite hard to put ourselves out there on Twitter. I remember those days, too. But now, I LOVE Twitter. Truly. I joined Twitter after my first book was published and I haven’t looked back. When Forbes named me one of the top 30 women to follow, my numbers exploded – but my message has remained the same.
My advice: if you’re going to be there. Be there. It’s like any other social media vehicle. Pick your preferred venue. Some folks love Facebook and spend most of their time there. Others are more comfortable on LinkedIn or simply blogging.
The key to social media is consistency and content. If you spend your time being suspicious or questioning those who follow you – instead of building your voice – you aren’t embracing that channel, whatever it is.
Thanks for your post – and happy Tweeting! Oh, and on Twitter, I’m @KairaRouda :)
Thanks!
Hey Nina!
I’ve been on Twitter for years, so, quite often, you’ll see a feed of mine with thanks for the RTs and/or mentions. That doesn’t signify by any means a lack of authenticity – it just means there happen to be a lot of folks who liked a particular tweet.
For a lot of folks – especially writers – it’s quite hard to put ourselves out there on Twitter. I remember those days, too. But now, I LOVE Twitter. Truly. I joined Twitter after my first book was published and I haven’t looked back. When Forbes named me one of the top 30 women to follow, my numbers exploded – but my message has remained the same.
My advice: if you’re going to be there. Be there. It’s like any other social media vehicle. Pick your preferred venue. Some folks love Facebook and spend most of their time there. Others are more comfortable on LinkedIn or simply blogging.
The key to social media is consistency and content. If you spend your time being suspicious or questioning those who follow you – instead of building your voice – you aren’t embracing that channel, whatever it is.
Thanks for your post – and happy Tweeting! Oh, and I’d love it if you followed me!
Hi Kaira! Totally agree with your comment. As for the thanking issue, my “thing” is that they can and should be written as @replies rather than regular tweets. I’m not advocating we never say thank you, but 3000 don’t always need to see us thank a few people. When everyone’s writing those as regular tweets, the stream reads pretty foggy and it’s hard to find the real content.
How cool on the Forbes honor! :)
If I might add to #5. Over the years, one of the things I have noticed is the more active one gets with posting tweets and adding users, the more less than optimal followers one trends to get. Many folks simply ignore those spammy accounts and never follow them back. That’s probably fine, however, there its a reason for all that activity and since I’m not a spammer, I don’t know exactly why they do what they do (though I’m confident it has something to do with Somalia pirating ;) )
Anyway point here is that when you spot one of these rascals following your account (you’ll notice them. Few, if any followers; limited number of posts; weird user names that look as if they were computer generated, because they probably are), take a moment to block them.
I use Hootsuite, and can not find the block user feature there, so I just go to the Twitter.com pages where to the right of the nefarious user in question (well, all users for that matter ;)) is a little drop down arrow. Click that, choose block this user, and now they won’t have access to you twitter steam.
Somehow that just feels like the right thing to do.
Cheers!
I 100% agree! Lots of people ignore those spammers because, I suspect, they’re happy to have the elevated numbers. It’s not worth it, people! I always block them. I do it via the regular twitter site, too as Hootsuite isn’t as effective for managing the follower list as the real Twitter site. Actually, managing followers and making lists is about the ONLY thing the real Twitter is good for. For reading tweets and retweeting, I like Hootsuite for my computer and UberSocial for my Blackberry.
Today did not disappoint! I actually feel like I might be ready to jump into the Twitter stream. I’ll have to print off your posts, though, for reference. Thanks again for demystifying the whole process.
Lara, I’m so glad! If you’re a total newbie you might like the Twitter series on my blog, too. But my post here yesterday is a better place to start than what I have on the blog. Once you’ve been on a week or two, try my series there.
http://ninabadzin.com/twitter-tips/
Thanks! I’ll be checking it out soon!
Thank you. Interesting and informative. I learn so much from the blogs on this site.
Thanks, Nina. I read your last blog and eagerly awaited this one. Good stuff. I have held off ‘going Twitter’ but you have taken much of the fear factor out of it. By God, I’m gonna do it and, when I become even richer and more famous because of it, I will require a kindly reference to your sage advice inserted in my encomium.
Alex,
Glad to help! I’m going to tell you exactly what I told Lara above. If you’re a total newbie you might like the Twitter series on my blog, too. But my post here yesterday is a better place to start than what I have on the blog. Once you’ve been on a week or two, try my series there.
http://ninabadzin.com/twitter-tips/
I loved this. I have not made “lists” and I really do need to do this, and, as well, I didn’t know what the favorites thing was for (duh on me!) This is wonderful, thank you!
I’ve been organizing my life – here in the little log house and in my writing life, so these hints and tips come at the right time for me.
Lots of people don’t know about the favorites thing. Sometimes people thank me for “favoring” a tweet, and the truth is that pressing the favorite button just means I plan to get the link later, not that I’m giving it a thumbs up. But most of what I eventually RT DOES come from things I’ve “favorited” or bookmarked to read later.
Glad to help! :)
Thanks for this informative post. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by Twitter. I like Facebook better, but your post breaks Twitter down to where it might be more easier for me to use.
Hootsuite is on my to do list, because I tend to tweet in bursts. I recognize I have a problem – so that’s my first baby step. I love interacting with people on twitter and I use it often as a personalized newsfeed (follow people who tweet about topics I enjoy). I’ve met several writers in person at conferences using the conference hashtag. Just dropped my old twitter name for my real one. Made me feel like a grownup shedding a nickname. Now I’ve been struggling to figure out where my old Twitter DNA is …
Educational as always, “Twitter Queen!” Love the new handle and don’t hate me if I start to introduce you like that. It’s deserved. You know how to use social media better than anyone I know.
Thanks for this information, I don’t use Twitter as often as Facebook, so this will encourage me to tweet more…
Feel like I’m learning and I feel more confident about using twitter after reading your posts here and on your blog. Thanks again for making it easy to understand. Number 2 was especially helpful.
Again, excellent, Nina! Thanks.
I do think having a balance for tweets / and interactions on writing is so important. We need to show that we are not only writers, but that we are people, too. Interesting people make for interesting writing. It’s important to connect with people beyond the realm of writing to share things that aren’t only writing-related. Otherwise, Twitter can become like Linked In — only professional and not whole-person.
I imagine most people who feel like I do, will not bother to respond to this well-written and informative post, but here goes.
About two years ago, I took the Twitter plunge, but opted out of it by the next day, because I didn’t understand the appeal of writing in sound bites, or of reading them, either. Likewise, I opened a Facebook account under pressure from friends in far away places who did not know how to send their photos to me any other way. I like seeing their photos, but at what price? I always leave Facebook feeling a little letdown, questioning the whole experience, like “Did I really need to know that Sheila cleaned out her closet to make room for 22 new items?” Maybe I don’t clean my closet enough.
My brief Twitter experience, and my 3+ years with Facebook, have left me feeling like I don’t “get it”, at all. To do them well it seems, would take over your life. But even if you are knowledgeable enough to do them well, and don’t mind the time vacuum, I don’t see clearly how these activities enhance future book sales. Do authors really get book-buyers from Twitter and Facebook?
And no, sadly, I don’t have a last blog post to post, but eventually I’ll get there. Maybe after I clean out my closet!!
This was so helpful. As a Twitter newbie, I’ve been too embarrassed to ask questions when everyone else seems to know what they’re doing.
Thanks for the basics!