Wednesday Wing brings you GREAT Tips and Notes
Today we bring you #TwitterTips part 4 – Tweeting with Style by @TerryTyler4
Twitter Tips
Part 4: Tweeting With Style
With millions of tweets floating about cyberspace every minute, how do you make yours worth a look, a smile, a retweet, a link click or a follow?
This is a huge subject with lots of sub-topics, but I’m keeping it brief here (I’m trying, Rosie!) with a few basic dos and don’ts to improve your Twittering.
DO:
- Make it interesting ~ for instance, if you’re tweeting a book review, try giving more information than just ‘Review of Another Book by A.N. Author’ and the link. Say something like ‘I loved this book!’, or ‘Recommended for a light beach read’. Indicate the genre, or add a couple of hashtags: #NewYork #Murder, or whatever. With thousands and thousands of book reviews being tweeted every day, titles by unknown authors can so easily be passed by, unnoticed.
- Add a photo ~ you can add up to 4. Illustrations catch the eye! You need to leave 24 characters to add a photo to a tweet—do so by clicking the camera at the bottom left hand corner. For a tweet about a book, you could use the book’s cover, then another picture to show the subject matter; for instance, a devastated landscape for a post apocalyptic thriller.
- Go to town promoting your own book! See those 280 characters as a mini advert, and use them well – include a picture or two, maybe a review quote (not ‘I couldn’t put it down’, please!), or a brief, catchy phrase. I discovered a favourite author (Joel Hames) by a great tweeted tagline: ‘Not everyone will make it to drinks on Friday’. Or you can hashtag relevant words ~ I discovered another new favourite (Ann Swinfen) by her hashtags #Fenland #history #17thCentury. Just tweeting ‘Check out my book’ will guarantee that no one will.
- ….but don’t waste those 280 characters on pointless hashtags: ‘#FiveStarReviews’ or ‘#FiveStarRead’ mean very little; there’s scarcely a book on Amazon that doesn’t have five star reviews, even if it’s just a couple from the author’s pals. On the other hand, if it’s got 40 of them, that IS something to tweet about!
- Be bold but don’t get cheesy/make daft claims. No, the latest part of your vampire series is NOT ‘the sequel everyone’s been waiting for’, or ‘the book everyone’s talking about’, unless you’re a genuine best selling author (and by ‘best selling’ I don’t mean ‘reached #1 in an obscure genre chart two years ago!’).
- Make sure your grammar and spelling are correct—and, if you’re a writer, your punctuation, too. Yes, even in a tweet.
- If something funny or particularly profound/relevant pops into your head, tweet it! It’s good to tweet without links, sometimes…
- Think up a great headline for your blog posts. Anything that starts off with ‘How to’ or ’10 tips for’ or asks a question is guaranteed to make people click the link.
- Give credit ~ If you’re tweeting something via someone else (ie, reposting a particularly good blog post), don’t forget to add their @username.
- Comment! If you like a picture that you see tweeted, if something makes you laugh, say so ~ everyone likes to know they’ve provoked a reaction.
And a few DON’TS…
- Don’t only tweet promotional stuff about your own work. Twitter is a social networking site, not a free advertising forum.
- Don’t get into public arguments. Yeah, I know, we’ve all done it sometimes….
- Don’t start a tweet with a @username, unless it’s a reply or you only want that person and a few others to see it. If it’s a general tweet (something like ‘@rosieamber1 reviews Another Book by A. N. Author’), rephrase it so that the username isn’t at the beginning, or simply put a full stop before the username—that way, it will be included in the general feed for all to see.
- Don’t confuse Twitter with Facebook. They’re very different sites; most of your Twitter followers don’t know you and it’s likely they won’t have seen the stuff you were talking about yesterday, or even half an hour before. Tweeting something like ‘Done it right this time! Here’s the second part’ will mean absolutely nothing to 99% of the people who see it.
- Don’t be too cryptic. It’s good to tweet something that will make fellow tweeps think ‘I wonder what that’s about?’, but there’s a fine line between ‘intriguing’ and ‘incomprehensible’. Before you click the tweet button, make sure you haven’t crossed it.
Now go forth into the Twittersphere and tweet with style!
TwitterTips Part 1 – Getting more followers http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-90C
TwitterTips Part 2 – Expanding Your Reach http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-936
TwitterTips Part 3 -Retweeting and Post Sharing http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-93V
Reblogged this on meatdoesntgrowinmygarden and commented:
Part 4, as valuable (and GOOD) as parts 1 to 3
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Excellent…..sadly, I think as far as your audience here is concerned, you are preaching to the choir…. most/all of us do this. It’s ”them out there’ who need this guidance. Hopefully they will read, mark and take notes!
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Carol, I know, I know….!!! But we don’t know who else reads Rosie’s blog posts, or who gets to see them via #wwwblogs, #amwriting, #writetip, etc (see previous posts!), so hopefully it will help others too, especially people who are new to this.
Thanks, ausone2910!
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Brilliant post ladies! I’ve always loved your book tweets with the cover art and a relevant image, Terry, but I thought you had them professionally done! I shall be exploring this for my books. I’ve also committed the cardinal sin of tweeting with a @username at the start, oops.
Loving this series of Wednesday Wing. 🙂
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Hell no, Shelley! I have never paid a penny for promotion, and never intend to – it just means spending five minutes on a tweet instead of two, that’s all. As for the @username at the start thing, yes, we all do that, too 🙂
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ps, you can find good pictures for your tweets by looking them up on sites like pixabay, that do pictures that don’t have copyrights. Or Flickr, I believe; I think Rachel Thompson of Monday Blogs fame did a post about sites with pictures you can download, I can’t remember all the names of them. I just save a load at a time in my various folders, and vary them 🙂
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Fab, I think I’ve saved Rachel’s post on that. I also use freedigitalphotos.net (they only ask for a note of credit on your post). 🙂
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Fabulous post – thank you 🙂
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Cheers! x
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Lots more great tips 🙂 Thanks ladies.
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Tips every author should read– tweeting!
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Thank you.
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Many thanks! And Alison and Cathy 🙂
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Great post, Terry. Must check the name tag thing (I normally include them in the body of the tweet but…) Unsplash is quite good for images too
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Love these tips. Keep ’em coming!
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Thank you Sue and Olga, and thanks for the tip about Unsplash, will look it up 🙂
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Your tips are much appreciated! I know I added about 50 followers since I’ve been following your advice. 🙂
@dino0726 from
FictionZeal – Impartial, Straightforward Fiction Book Reviews
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Fantastic Diane.
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Oh, thanks, Diane – nice to know I’m not blathering on to thin air!! 🙂
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Am saving Part 4 as well, Terry. Pinned & shared. Thanks! 🙂
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Many Thanks.
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Thanks, Linda – I do appreciate this! So glad the series has been helpful 🙂
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Another wonderful post on Twitter tips.
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Thank you Michelle.
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Thanks Rosie and Terry – these will be very useful .. cheers Hilary
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Wonderful Hilary.
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Fab tips and a great reminder. Have bookmarked 😀
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Thanks Sacha.
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Great post! I love this Twitter tips series.
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Thank you.
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