TWITTER 101

Introduction to Twitter

Home page when you log into Twitter

Twitter Dictionary •  @: The symbol that goes in front of every Twitter handle (username). If you

tweet someone’s handle with the @ symbol, then they will receive a notification that you tweeted at them"

•  DM (direct message) – the function of the Twitter service that allows you to send a private message to a person you follow"

•  FollowFriday (FF or #followfriday): a recommendation of a user. By tweeting FF and then some of your favorite users handles, you are recommending them to the general Twitter population as cool people to follow"

•  Hashtag: Way of organizing your updates for Twitter search engines. Use a trending hashtag to enable others to discover relevant posts. "

•  RT: Retweet. To repost someone else’s tweet because you agree with it or find it interesting/relevant"

Interactions

Click on the @Connect tab in the upper left hand corner to see your Interactions Interactions are defined as people following you, people favorite-ing your tweets, people retweeting you, people tweeting at you, and people adding you to lists

#Discover

Click the #Discover tab in the upper left hand corner to see trending tweets customized to you.

Who To Follow The “Who to Follow” box on the left side of your home page gives suggestions on who to follow, based on your existing followers. Twitter knows you are interested in books and authors based on previous followers, so will generally recommend people who also are interested in those subjects.

Activity

Clicking on the Activity tab in the left side panel will show you what various users you follow are doing on Twitter currently

Find friends

Find friends is a convenient way to gain more followers. Twitter will search your email contact lists, find those people on Twitter, and give you the option to follow them.

Popular Accounts

The Popular accounts tab will show you popular people on Twitter in different categories. For instance, you can go to “Books,” to find famous authors, publications, and publishers.

Trends The Trends box shows you trending tweets. You can click “Change” to adjust whether you see trending tweets from the US, the world, or nearby locations. The first trend is “Promoted” – meaning that the advertisers for the brand promoting it paid to have it featured prominently. The other hashtags may relate to current events, holidays, etc.

Direct Messages Click the small envelope to the upper right hand side of the home page to see your Direct Messages. Oftentimes these are messages from people you recently followed thanking you for following them. Conversations on here are private and thus, it is appropriate for more personal conversations

Compose new tweet

This button in the top right corner allows you to compose a new tweet quickly

View interactions

See activity/find new users View your

profile Direct

Messages

Send tweet

Your tweets

# of people you follow

# of people who follow you

Overview of your homepage

Your Profile

What everyone sees when they search you. Improvement suggestion: •  Incorporate a separate image instead of the black background to make the page

more appealing – the same image as your cover photo on Facebook

Twitter Tools & Apps

HootSuite • What is it?

•  Platform for managing multiple social media accounts •  Hootsuite.com

• What does it do? •  Allows you to schedule tweets as far in advance as you would like •  Allows you to view your Twitter and Facebook interactions easily •  Allows you to easily view analytics from all your social media

accounts in various report styles •  Allows you to unfollow users, view their Klout scores and their # of

followers

HootSuite continued

This is a screenshot of your dashboard. The three columns are called “streams” and represent, from left to right, your @ mentions, your new followers, and your scheduled tweets.

Step-by-Step Scheduling Tweets

•  Create a new tweet at the top of the screen. •  Click the dropdown arrow to choose an account (in this case, your Twitter

account, but you could also schedule a Facebook post). •  Then compose the message where it indicates •  Click the calendar to schedule a tweet. The screen will look like this:

HootSuite even gives you the option of AutoScheduling – they schedule the tweet for you so it sends at an optimal time

HootSuite

•  If you are tweeting a link, paste the link here, and then click “Shorten link” – HootSuite will shorten the link for you so it does not look long

•  Click to schedule the tweet! Then repeat process for as many tweets as you want. You can schedule for a week, month, etc.

ManageFlitter •  What is it?

•  Twitter tool that helps you unfollow those users who do not follow you back, as well as spam accounts, foreign accounts, and robots

•  Manageflitter.com •  What does it do?

•  Links to your Twitter account and lets you choose who to unfollow based on different criteria

•  Lets you search bios to find relevant users to follow (ex. Search those with “author” in bio)

•  What is your account? •  You can just login with your Twitter account – no special account

needed •  Why does it matter?

•  You want the ratio of people you follow v. those who follow you to be right – you appear like a more desirable brand if more people follow you than you follow

Twellow • What is it?

•  A directory of Twitter users categorized by activity/hobby and location

•  Twellow.com

• What does it do? •  Allows you to gain followers who care about what you care about or

who live near you

• Example: •  There are 211,631 users listed under the Authors & Writers

category •  263 users in Harrisonburg area

Best Practices on Twitter for Authors

General Twitter Tips •  Taken from SteamFeed

•  1. Share timely news •  Be trendy, use trending hashtags

•  2. Share useful information •  3. Tell followers what to do

•  “Click here to read about___” “Read about___here” “Watch this vid on ____”

•  4. Pictures speak 1000 words •  5. Share your passion

•  Share content about writing, authors, being an author, radio, etc!

General Twitter Tips •  6. Be strategic with hashtags

•  Capitalize individual words within a hashtag so it is legible •  No more than 2 or 3 per post

•  7. Retweet others who tweet about you •  8. Thank your fans/followers •  9. Go behind the scenes

•  Show pictures or insight into your writing process that your fans may be curious about

•  10. Let us relate to you •  Show humor & vulnerability, be genuine & authentic •  Ask questions and show people you’re listening to theirs by

responding

Best time of the day to tweet •  Twitter gets the most traffic at these times Monday-Friday:

•  8:30AM-9:30AM •  Noon-1PM •  4-5PM •  9PM-10PM

• Best time to get retweets is between 8:45-9:30AM

• Basic rule: tweet between 3-5 times per day

Marketing your book •  Twitter is primarily a platform for connecting and building

relationships, not marketing • Promote yourself by promoting others

•  You will gain followers if you retweet or add commentary to other insightful people

• Use soft selling, not hard selling •  Don’t say “Buy my book!” •  Rather, direct people to your website/blog when you can – and

have that be the main selling space for your book

Twitter Tips for Authors •  Share your process

•  Take a photo out your window or of your work space •  Engage with your readers

•  Hold a Twitter Q&A – ex. Tell them a time frame and day that you will be accepting questions, and then answer them as they come up

•  Find influencers •  Send tweets to your favorite authors

•  Treat it like a conversation •  Share information and advice

•  Use proper grammar, spelling, etc. •  You are selling yourself as a writer, so make sure your writing is on

point •  Recommend others (#FF)

•  And they will start to recommend you

Author Bio

Tips for improvement: •  Instead of what Jane calls “laundry list” of hobbies and interest, pare them

down to short phrases •  Twitter bios are searchable, so you want most of the terms relevant to

your industry (writing) •  Insert additional links/Twitter accounts

•  ie “Public radio host at WMRA” or “@NPR contributor” or a link to http://wmra.org/people/martha-woodroof

•  This will tie you to WMRA & NPR –> get you more followers, make you seem more reputable