10 Useful Twitter Tips #Writers #Writing #BloggingGals

Useful Twitter Tips

Photo Credit: StockSnaps.

The Blondewritemore team were over the moon when the news came through that Your Blog Coach a.k.a. Alice de Sturler had agreed to do a Guest Post. She is such a legend in the blogging world!

Let me hand you over to the amazing Alice de Sturler who will divulge her Top 10 Useful Twitter Tips!

My Top 10 Useful Twitter Tips

Twitter is a wonderful social media platform. I started using it several years ago and do not regret it. It is super simple to open a Twitter account yet using it to the fullest is another matter. So here are my Top 10 Twitter tips:

1: Select your username wisely

Your username (the name after the @ sign) cannot be changed. Think about it before you use that cute nickname because if you intend to also use Twitter with work colleagues, you may not want them to know that name. Make is as short as possible so you are easy to remember.

2: Keep contact books separate

You will see the feature to check “who you already know on Twitter.” Just go past this. Be selective with who you follow. I have a great dislike of any feature that “connects it all.” If I add people, I do so manually.

3: Don’t be an egg-head

Please use the option to create a nice avatar and do not leave the standard egg in place. People tend to think those are fake accounts and many third party applications place “no profile picture” in the same category with spam e.g. accounts to avoid. Think before you use a picture that includes other people especially their children. Ask permission first.

4: Don’t be a link dumper

Posting directly to other social media platforms may seem handy but unless you do it right, you look like a spammer. If you share from FB to Twitter without adding something such as the title of the post or why you share something, your Twitter followers only see the link that starts with fb and guess what… they may ignore it as they fear spam or porn. Just tweeting links is seen as dubious.

5: It isn’t private unless you have a closed account.

Just because you send a tweet to only one person e.g. “@JohnSmith I really hate mom’s casseroles” does not mean that the tweet is private or can only be seen by John Smith. In fact, everyone can see it, search it, retweet it, favourite it, comment on it, etc. So, if you do not want mom to find out what you said about her cooking consider sending a DM (direct message) to @JohnSmith. Those are for his eyes only. Make sure that you tweet to John that you will send a DM so he actually looks at it. Many users have it in their bio: no DMs please. There is too much spam going around in DMs as you can send a DM to anyone and too many people use DMs right after following to promote themselves, their books, etc. If you want to be as private as can be, use a closed account. The downside is that everyone must have your approval to follow which usually means less followers as they cannot scan your tweets first (to see if it peaks their interest).

6: Beware of the “reply to all” button.

It seems practical to include people in the discussion but to some this is irritating as a long discussion can clutter or dominate their stream. If they have notifications on their mobile devices they are continuously alerted to another tweet only to see that it relates to that one same discussion.

7: Use #hashtags

A hashtag is simply the number symbol # plus a keyword. It helps people who wish to follow certain groups of Twitter users. For example, people who tweet about science fictions books use #SF. If you type “#SF” in the search box all tweets show up that use that hashtag. It also makes it easier to find like-minded people. Some have a hashtag in their profile as they want to be found when you search for “#indieauthors” or for “#yoginis.”

Hashtags also indicate groups of people on Twitter how regularly get online to tweet about a certain topic e.g. Twitter chats. Others use a special hashtag when they live-tweet a conference, concert, or a movie.

If you are ready to publish your blog post, look in the WordPress Publicize section in the upper right hand corner. That is the box where you can schedule posts, etc. Now check the custom link. Add keywords there about the post using a hashtag like #bookreview or #painting. Your post is now easier to find because you made it better searchable.

8: Fake Followers are empty numbers

You will get followers who have in their bio “Get 1000 followers instantly for just $5.” Avoid them like the plague. You don’t want to buy followers as other people on Twitter see them as spammers and it reflects badly on you. You are not building up your following organically, naturally. So this impatience or “need for numbers” makes you look bad. These accounts are often fake and can disappear bringing down your follower count. Number s are not what matters. The old saying of “quality of quantity” applies here as well.

9: Auto-follow back issues

Some Twitter users have it in their profile: “follow-for-follow” or “team follow back.” Your choice if you automatically follow back. There are apps for that but here’s the rub: they are just number builders. Yes, they will unfollow if you do not return the favor. There are apps for that too. But it tells you that they were not interested in you or your blog. There is no rule in Twitter’s Terms of Service (TOS) that you must follow back.

10: There are three places in your Twitter profile to insert a link.

Twitter allows for two links in your profile. Use a link shortener. The third spot is already designated. Use that one for your most important blog or website. The others go in your profile. When people read profiles they do tend to click on links that are in the designated spot.

I hope this helps those new to Twitter. If you have any questions please leave them in the comment section and Blondeusk will alert me.

If you are on Twitter, say “Hi!” to me here: @vidocq_cc. If you want to read more tips about blogging or my creative writing, visit “Your Blog Coach” and if true crime is your passion, come see me at “Defrosting Cold Cases.”

Cheers, Alice de Sturler

Amazing Guest Post Alice, a lot of my Twitter queries like ‘why use hastags?’ have been cleared up – many thanks and drop by the Blondwritemore offices again soon 🙂

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/39513725@N02/9327161106″>iPhone</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;

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I am a blonde writer of romantic comedy fiction.

48 thoughts on “10 Useful Twitter Tips #Writers #Writing #BloggingGals

  1. Most informative and most of my questions about hashtags answered. I just want to ask one more thing and this is related to their use on WordPress. Is it overkill, re the search engine, if you hashtag a subject in your post heading and then use that same word as a tag at the bottom of the post. i.e. #haiku in my header and haiku as a tag?

    1. Hi Sarah, a hashtag should not be needed in a post’s title if you make sure you use it in the first paragraph. Opinions may be divided on this. I do not use hashtags in titles, add them in the text, and as a tag. If you feel that is too much too, consider opening a category for each main blogging topic and add that category to each post. That gets picked up by SEO too.

    1. Jacqui, nice to meet you. I am glad it is useful. If you know others new to Twitter, please share so we can help others enjoy the experience.

  2. Nice post for Twitter newbies! Before I entered the world of Twitter I didn’t even know what hashtags were. Then suddenly, bam! a whole new world of social media was opened to me. 🙂

  3. Hi Lucy,
    I love seeing my article here. Thank you.
    I wanted to thank you so much for turning me on to Sue Coletta. She is amazing! Thank you for the connection.
    Janice

  4. Thanks for ones marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you happen to be a great author.I will make certain to bookmark your blog and may come back at some point. I want to encourage yourself to continue your great writing, have a nice evening!

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