Welcome to the fifteenth installment of Twitter Tuesday. In the spirit of Twitter, this blog will be short and sweet and to the point. The tips offered here are all based off my best-selling book We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. If our goal is to build an author platform in the thousands to tens of thousands, then we will have to approach Twitter differently than a faceless corporation or even the regular person who does not possess a goal of becoming a brandwill help you rule the Twitterverse without devolving into a spam bot.
This Week’s Fail Whale–The Long-Winded Tweeter
Okay, the entire point of Twitter is brevity, so we are treading into iffy waters when we take advantage of those gizmos that allow us to wax on rhapsodic. I think all of us—okay females—are tempted to be long-winded tweeters. We just get so excited that we rattle out a message and then it turns red…and that is the point where we have to make a choice.
Cut out some superfluous words and maybe use some symbols.
Um…restate in a briefer sentence with fewer modifiers.
Or find the person’s Facebook page and leave 200 word comment there.
Use the Long Tweet option, otherwise known as the Other People will Ignore Us function.
Hey, I feel your pain. Everything I say is pure gold too. But I have to be blunt that when I see stuff go floating by in my All Friends stream, I have NEVER clicked the … to see what the rest of the sentence was.
If we are chatting with a friend, okay. Being a long-winded tweeter is okay, but don’t get crazy. If every tweet we post is a half-thought with … at the end, most people will just think we lack the communication skills to understand that less can be more.
One of the things I always try to keep in mind is that many people are viewing my tweets on a phone or PDA. If I keep tweeting in ways that make them have to hit a link to see the rest of what I have to say, I am creating an unnecessary hurdle that can make time with me…cumbersome.
The great part about Twitter, is, with practice, it will make you a more precise and concise writer.
This Week’s Twitter Tip–The Cross-Pollinating Tweeter
Twitter is an AMAZING tool, if we understand how to use it’s power. Twitter is the tool that ties all our social media efforts together and the thread that stitches OUR network to the network of OTHERS.
If we have a blog, then tweet about it. Tweet about other people’s blogs. Have something fun happen on Facebook? Mention it on Twitter. Direct traffic where you desire it to go. Those tweets are like little birds flitting from your blog flower or Facebook Page flower and dropping visitors (social media pollen).
A blog and a Twitter account are not two separate entities. They need each other; much like the bee needs the flower and the flower needs the bee. When we set up a system, everything starts to work together, one site fueling the other. After we gain some momentum, growing our author platform takes steadily less and less time.
In fact, the more cross-Pollinating Tweeters come together, the stronger their collective platforms will grow…because you are working as a TEAM.
For example: When I post this blog, I will also announce it on my Twitter and Facebook (cross-pollinating). Then, there are people in my network who will RT this link and then post on their Facebook page too. And guess what I do for them? I RT their link and then post that link on my Facebook page, too.
Not only does this give my Twitter followers a steady diet of great content, but my Facebook peeps get great links too. And, since we are all in this habit of taking 2 minutes to post in two places, it is easy to see how small efforts can grow exponentially when we all work together.
Tweet ya later!
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Just tweeted to my Sweet Tweets your Twitter Tuesday titillating tips…hope they don’t get “T’ed” off. *ducking*
Author
Nice alliteration :D.
Love these twitter posts!
As always, your posts enlighten us! 🙂 I’m fairly new to Twitter, I suppose because I never knew what to write that would catch someone’s eye. So I just avoided going there. You’ve given me some ideas. Even so my followers are growing slowly and that is exciting to me. Thanks again.
I love that analogy with the cross-pollination. It’s so true. I don’t know how a blog can stand a chance without Twitter support. Thanks for the great advice.
haha, I’m guilty of always ending my sentances with “…” on Facebook and twitter (if I have enough room). And I do need to get in the habit of cross posting links I find in twitter – I’ve run across some pretty cool stuff no twitter that I don’t see popping up on Facebook. Thanks for the reminder, Kristen!
Well said, Kristen. I too don’t see the need for tweets longer than 140 characters. I have, on occasion, said, “Let’s move to email or IM.” But this is always with friends.
And your cross-pollination analogy is right on. I’m going to email this link to a friend who blogs but isn’t on Twitter.
To help move the informal survey along, I too have never clicked on a continuation of a long tweet. I have, however, ended a tweet with “…” But only to be mysterious… (clearly, to nobody but myself!)
There is still far too much about twitter that I don’t know. So I’m loving these posts! Now if you could do one for finding hashtags that fit my work, I’ll be your slave forever, lol!
Kristen, great post. My pet peeve is people who use external tools to monitor a tool. Like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. It’s a bit like using pliers to use a hammer. You’re missing the point of social media if you’re distancing yourself from the platform.
You can click on those little …’s?
Love your brevity and hitting important targets.
I think your Twitter Tuesday tips are great, they really help a newbie like myself learn how to use social media more efficiently. Thanks!
Cool stuff. I find myself too short of time to add much Tweetery of my own, but it doesn’t take much to smile at someone else’s Tweet and retweet it. Thus i get the benefit of their brilliance for my followers, plus the chance that they’ll retweet anything I may eventually say myself. Currently my mood is on a downswing, and I feel like I’m both blogging a dead horse and doing Tweet F.A. about it…..
I don’t click the …’s either. Now, that being said, I tend to be a … girl on occassion. Not because I prattle on with no end in sight when Tweeting, but the …’s sandwiched in between words here and there makes it feel more like I’m speaking out loud. I’m one of those people who goes, “Umm, uhhh, ummm,” in between phrases. I suppose I inherited the annoying habit from my father who can take fifteen minutes to tell a 60 second story.
So I guess the …’s are a nice way of paying homage to dear old dad…and, um,…being myself in Tweets:)
Love Twitter Tuesday!!!
Have a great week,
Tamara
Good advice, and yep, I use twitter to announce blog and sometimes facebook posts- as set up by my phone. But this is the problem I have. I can’t “follow” a conversation on twitter. I dumped a bunch of extraneous people/ groups so I could – maybe- follow a conversation, but the new twitter set up is odd. I have to post a reply. wait, refreash, open the @mentions section, scroll thru, to see if they have replied- and all of this is boringly time consuming. I tend to visit twitter 3 times a week for this reason. Argh. Any suggestions?
Author
If you are using Twitter to build a platform you simply MUST have Tweet Deck.
I read your Wed. blog and took it to heart. So here is my Tweeted comment.
KGaruti Kathy Garuti
Good advice for wordy non-witers . hope u feel better RT @KristenLambTX: Twitter Tuesday. http://bit.ly/dSmkP4 #pubtip #amwriting #indie
26 Apr Favorite Reply Delete
It took me forever to get on Twitter, but it didn’t take me long to see the power of the retweet. I’ve so many great articles off of retweets that I can barely keep up, which is an incredibly awesome feeling! Tweetdeck is a must, with a few specialized columns it can be used to manage content for us!
Great post Kristen 🙂
Hmmm… Turned off the long updates so I don’t have to worry about the long tweets. Cross pollinating I’ll start soon.
I had fun at a writers conference not long ago tweeting quotes from the panels. A group of us did this and it was fun! Short tweets are the best.
Twitter has helped me become a more concise writer. I didn’t realize it at first, but constantly having to remove superfluous words from my Tweets makes me look for those words in my WIP too!
Thanks for this series – I’m learning a lot! (and now I need to change my name from SNS…)
Great post, and you’re absolutely correct! If we are not doing this, we are missing out on the traffic it will drive, as well as the relationships it will build. Thank you for sharing your excellent tips on maximizing social media marketing. 🙂