Read This Before You Violate The Twitter Rules! (Yes, There Are Rules) - Rachel Thompson

Rachel Thompson

Author • Poet • Advocate

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Read This Before You Violate The Twitter Rules! (Yes, There Are Rules)

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There’s no question that Twitter is an integral part of any author platform — it is for me, as it should be for you. For the most part, I focus on connecting with teeshirt who caresreaders, bloggers, and reviewers, as well as other writers.

So when I shared a tweet the other day about Broken Pieces winning an award, I figured what the heck? My followers will want to know about this, right? Not exactly. I know. What was I thinking? So a guy (sigh. it’s always a guy) tweets this to me in reply: So what? No one cares.

I wasn’t upset or even offended. I get criticism from men all the time. But this was different because I get it. Authors seem to be spamming links constantly and even though I maybe share a link every other day or so — just one — about my own books, I see thousands of authors self-promoting…so I get where he was coming from. I’m not saying I don’t ever promo my own stuff because I do. Just not in every frickenfracken tweet.

Let’s deconstruct.

TWITTER’S DEFINITION OF SPAM Twitter has rules. These are not guidelines. These are the rules that you agreed to when you signed up (not that you realized it). Here are just a few of the rules about spam:

  • If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
  • If you post multiple duplicate updates on one account;
  • If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #, trending or popular topic, or promoted trend;
  • If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies or mentions;
  • If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies or mentions in an aggressive attempt to bring attention to a service or link.

If you occasionally share a tweet or two about your book (it’s free, won an award, book signing), great! That’s an excellent use of of Twitter. However, if that’s ALL you do — like we see far too many authors do — then you’re actually violating the guidelines you agreed to and they can ban you. I’ve personally seen many an account suspended for tweeting too many links or duplicate links. What does this mean? It’s when someone sends the same message to hundreds or thousands of people, usually with a link to purchase something. Annoying, right?

 

AUTOMATED REPLIES I’ve discussed the automated DMs ad nauseam so all I’ll say here is for god’s sake, don’t do it. 

 

AUTO-FOLLOWBACKS Do you use a service that follows people for you (not something I advocate, by the way)? Happily, this annoying practice will now end. Twitter sued many of the third-party applications like TweetAdder and SocialOomph, prohibiting them from continuing this practice. According to SmallBizTrends.com: if someone voluntarily follows your Twitter account first, you cannot use an app to automatically follow them back.  You must manually press a button if you want to follow them back. Why is this a good thing? It will hopefully help cut down on spam.

 

SO, NOW WHAT? I’m still going to promote others, share blog posts (mine and others), news articles, resources, and quotes. This rude guy won’t change what I do (believe me, I get a lot of these guys telling me what I should do. As if.). Adding my Amazon and website links to my bio and Twitter background is one of the ways I’ve made it easy for people to find me. And if I have a promo or an award-thingy, I’m gonna share. These are achievements authors work damn hard for. It doesn’t mean, however, that I’m going to send the same message to hundreds of people or start putting links in every tweet because I know better. We should all by now know better!

Want to sample eight bestselling authors’ books before buying? Check out this free sampler from #HerBooks. If you like, you buy the individual books — if not, it’s a free download! book club picks

I’m thrilled to announce that my latest release, Broken Pieces, made the finals of the eFestival of Words Awards. If you’d like to vote, here’s the link (note: you do have to create an account with an email and password only, then click on Awards Hall for Nonfiction). Thank you!

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Comments

  3. I have a dear friend who is doing this and I blame her publisher for it. He scolded her for not promoting her book enough on social media. The book wasn’t selling and apparently that was her fault WTH?!? The last time I checked, the publisher was supposed to help with that and when I asked her what they were doing, she had no answer. Nonetheless, her Twitter and FB feed now look like spam accounts. *Face Palm*

    Reply

    • Actually, you’d be mistaken. Publishers rarely help with social media (why do you think Anne Rice and Margaret Atwood are on it?) but that doesn’t mean that your author friend has to spam. Send her over here, recommend HOW TO MARKET A BOOK by Lori Culwell and Katherine Sears, have her read any number of book marketing sites which will share ideas on creating content.

      It’s no longer up to the publisher to publicize. It’s up to us.

      Reply

      • “It’s no longer up to the publisher to publicize. It’s up to us.”

        Aye, there’s the rub! To self-publicize… to break the rules.

        Is any gesture ever self-sacrificing and all that? Without getting too philosophical, I think the best way to go about things is to promote other writers as much as possible… and mean it. I do mean it, and have met some lovely people in the process. Although I’m sure that I, too, ‘break the rules’ occasionally…

        What can you do!

        Thanks for the reminder, Rachel xx

        Reply

        • There are ways to ‘self-promo’ without sacrificing our souls. For example, adding book links to your bio (instead of linking to your book, say ‘link on bio’ which A LOT less annoying). Advertising is effective also — it does the work for us.

          And yes, generously promoting other authors and focusing on what readers want is really what social media is all about.

          Reply

          • Another thing with me too, Rachel, is that, yes, I’ll do a fair bit of self-promo, but it’s rarely to tweet info on my book. I write a new – fairly long – blogpost every week and so push that a bit. In doing so, I hope people will come along and read the book synopsis and extract as well.
            But I feel more justified in pushing blogposts because it’s something fresh every week and I’m trying to get people to come back. It can feel a bit soul destroying at times though…

          • I know. It’s difficult for many authors. I think (but I’m not sure) if you’re sharing posts on Mondays for #MondayBlogs? That’s a great way to connect with other bloggers on a weekly basis and develop relationships from there. I suggest people remember to generously RT others that day in addition to posting our own stuff. Karma and all 🙂

  4. I agree with your main point here, but that’s a very interesting example you chose. Even before things like Twitter, one of my real-life friends had pointed out that if you announce something nice happened and it made you joyful, you risked being called a braggart or a bore. If someone does it all the time… okay, either they’re Pollyanna or they really are a braggart or a bore. But one tweet?

    Twitter used to prompt you with “what’s happening?” (now it just says “Compose new tweet”). Mentioning the winning of one award, once, certainly counts as reporting on what’s happening.

    Reply

    • It is interesting, isn’t it? I know that I really respond to people who are authentic. I like hearing about their accomplishments or down days — that is what makes us real.

      thanks for reading and commenting, Katherine!

      Reply

  5. Promoting your books or awards in Twitter shouldn’t have got you that kind of reaction. As you say, so long as you don’t over do it’s part of the “personal updates” of anyone in Twitter. I don’t see any problem in people promoting their books or work in Twitter so long as it’s not something that it’s done every 15 minutes. I don’t see any problems with Twitter updates being repeated: tweeting something a couple of times will rarely be seen by the same person twice. You were doing nothing against Twitter or Social Media etiquette. If that man was not interested in that kind of update, which is the kind of update you will be getting from an book author, why exactly was he following you? It makes no sense that he finds that annoying.

    I agree with most of what you say about the kind of things you do or share in Twitter. I do not completely agree with the one about sharing mostly links. My reasoning for that is that I don’t particular think I have something in my personal life I would like to share so publicly, but the links I share in Twitter are personal for me. When I share a link in Twitter is a link to an article or feature I have read and found interesting and I share because a I think other people might find it interesting. It’s a personal thing I am sharing even though it might look to other people that it’s very impersonal. I try not to overload anyone following with a bunch of links, even if I think they might be interesting for other people I want to connect to in Twitter.

    I think it’s a different way of seeing things from a different personality. But as I said before it’s a minor “disagreement” with the general etiquette rules you talked about.

    Reply

    • I understand your assertion about links and while I don’t disagree, the Twitter Rules are very clear: a link in every tweet is considered spamming. I don’t make the rules :))

      Another way to create content tweets (no links) is to share quotes by your favorite writers, musicians, artists, actors — whomever. I also like sharing info about things I find helpful (i.e., relating to Twitter or social media). Neither touches on my personal life and still provides interesting content.

      In the end, Twitter is what we make it, and sharing or curating cool content is every individual’s preference — there are many ways to go about it and do what works for you!

      Reply

      • I agree with the part about Twitter being what we make it. And I know about the rules, but I don’t think Twitter enforces them so long as you don’t abuse them.

        I have two accounts in Twitter and they kind of overlap a bit right now. My most personal account was created in 2009 and I tweet about things there that I would tweet about in my writing/selfpub account. The main problem I had since I started in Twitter is that 140 characters are not enough if you are trying to get to know other people. But tweeting a link to an interesting link tells more about you and the kind of things you are interested. A quote is nice but to be honest with you there are only a few quotes I truly like, and that would give material for half a dozen tweets only. After that I would be repeating them all the time.

        What I’m trying to say, and please don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to annoy anyone, is that I think Twitter realises which ones are the limitations of the service and so long as you don’t abuse the rules they will not enforce it. If you tweet links only but they are diverse and interesting they will not do anything. If you are tweeting constantly the same links to the same content and trying to get some kind of artificial traffic to them they might ban you.

        As you, I’m also a reader and follower of Dan Zarrella and I believe he says that so long as you space properly your links you might get results, get people interested and avoid annoying them.

        But as with everything the rules are so general that there might be a lot of room for interpretation.

        In any case I stand on what I said in my first comment when you tweet about the award you shouldn’t have received that kind of answer. I do expect to hear that kind of updates for any author I follow and I’m not annoyed by them.

        Congratulations on getting the award and best of luck with any other ones. 🙂

        Reply

        • Thanks so much!

          I do agree, creating original material for tweets IS a challenge. I typically will pull lines from blog posts — mine or others (always with attribution). That way you can recycle, if you will, and a new audience sees it each time.

          I find wonderful quotes daily on Goodreads — so many terrific writers and artists. I’ve never been a quote fan myself, but sprinkled here and there, I’ve received a TON of retweets.

          thanks for reading and your kind words.

          Reply

  6. Everyone has an option, enjoy the good, and positive{don’t stop, follow your heart and switch off!!}in this case agreeing with [christopherinhr] anyone is capable! .thank you for posting the info, safely check {Rules} feeling better for it!

    Reply

    • Thanks for commenting, Trish. Yea, it’s worth at least knowing which rules you want to break LOL.

      In all seriousness, what I enjoy about social media in general, not only Twitter, is that content curation. Those are visible and visibly interactive and connected come across as friendly. As authors, if we make friends, we make sales (barring other factors).

      Worth keeping the ‘rules’ in mind, anyway. When I wrote this, one gal told me to bugger off — that there are no rules for Twitter. I laughed. Okay, girlfriend. *shrug*

      enjoy the day!

      Reply

  7. Do you know what pisses me off? People, like that guy, who criticise what you tweet about. It’s like the people who moan about authors tweeting about their books. I want to say, well I don’t moan at you for having boring conversations up and down my news feed, do I? Conversations they could be having by text or email. I don’t moan at people for posting articles that don’t interest me, or updates about their daily lives. Your account is just that, YOUR ACCOUNT, and you can post what you damn well like – if people don’t like it, they have the option to unfollow.

    I suspect that guy had all sorts of other issues, too…. I’ve seen people actually writing BLOG POSTS about why writers shouldn’t promote their books. I remember one woman complaining about it, in quite a rude way, saying that she wanted to have interesting conversations, not see their promotional posts. Whereas I saw her point, I pointed out that she was not likely to get people talking to her by telling them off in blog posts. I suggested she start off some of these interesting conversations. She said she tried, but no-one responded. I don’t have that problem, do you???

    I tweet my books more often that you do (about 8 tweets about my book per day), but I also do about 120 RTs, have lots of conversations, help to promote others (though not by those daily churned out scheduled tweets, which I hate) & post other bits and bobs, too. So I reckon 8-10 out of about 170-200 tweets per day isn’t too bad. And anyone who doesn’t like it can bugger off!!!! 🙂

    Reply

    • I do love your attitude Terry! and you’re clearly doing well, so again, do what’s right for you.

      I love to think of social media as content curation (which it IS), because then it makes us more aware of what we send out. I’m sure I was more promotional when I first published (2011) and if I have a low price or free promo, you’ll see more action at those times. Otherwise, I track clicks from Twitter to Amazon (using a customized free bit.ly link) so at least I get an idea of effectiveness (and RTs of course).

      Ultimately, we do what works for us. If those people who post NOTHING but self-promotion are selling tons, I’m fine with being wrong. Likely though, it’s a combo of many other factors (ads, the articles or posts, interviews, or word of mouth exposure by an influencer). Ya know.

      xx

      Reply

      • Yeah, I hear ya! Oh, I will say, that on Mondays I don’t tweet about my books at all – on Mondays it’s all about the blogs! And yes, some days I get fed up with the sight of myself and post a less… and then I have a short period of ‘no twitter’ for about 5 days every two months (when I go and stay with the folks!)… so it probably averages out less, and I always reply to everyone, chat to people, etc – I keep an eye on my RATIO! Yes, of course, book sales are not all about the tweeting. I reckon those who do nothing but books tweets but do sell a lot are the ones who would even if they never tweeted. I think the ones who DO do it way, way too much are mostly those people who do it by scheduled tweet, and so never go on Twitter, so never see what it looks like – or read articles like this (and back to the auto DM we come….!)!!!

        btw, re the woman who wrote the blog post who was complaining about everyone’s content – in the end I suggested that perhaps Twitter wasn’t the right social networking site for her, if she objected to what so many people posted. I never heard from her again!

        Reply

  8. I’m curious, does that mean some of the trends like #FF are actually against twitter rules? Also, the shout-out campaigns I started on Fridays promoting other authors using hashtags would that be in violation? I try to post other content that contains no links as well, but I’m never sure how successful I am. It is not my intent to spam anyone, just to be helpful. I rarely promote my own content on twitter, that’s not really why I made my account. By the way I saw your tweet and I think a congratulations is in order not a slap in the face. That was rude. Maybe I’m a bit naive in my thinking but if you follow others because your interested in their content then shouldn’t you celebrate with them in an accomplishment rather than make rude comments?

    Reply

    • No, not at all (w/ regard to #FF). The ‘rule’ is that if you post the exact same content repeatedly — with #FF we’re adding different handles, so the only thing that’s the same is the #FF hashtag. No link, etc. It’s all good.

      As far as the comment, I appreciate your support S.R.. Honestly, he probably thought I’d was no different than any author hawking a book. I understood his reaction (personally I’d never do that, but that’s a different post).

      Thank you for commenting and sharing your views. You rock.

      Reply

  9. I so agree with your article. It is about time we address the overuse of Twitter to spam advertisement for books, services, or other websites. I certainly see the need to advertise your services, but to repeat the same tweet every hour is just horrid and unacceptable.

    I want to know about the person not about what they are trying to sell. I always try to add more personal insights than advertisements to my tweets. Sometimes I think I tweet too much about my hobbies, my feelings, and interesting facts of the day, but that is still far better than just regurgitating the same message every couple of hours, every day.

    Reply

    • Having spent 15 years being told I had to do the ‘hard sell’ (in Big Pharma — advice I ignored btw and did quite well anyway), I think at this point I’m allergic to that type of selling. I was successful then, and have had a fair amount of success, focusing on relationship-building and curating good content.

      Advertising is different than social media — that distinction is not clear to so many.

      Reply

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  1. […] including, Casey Ryan, @CuttingRoomMRB.  I found this incredible article by @Rachelintheoc, “Read this Before You Violate the Twitter Rules! (Yes, there are rules)” , on twitter.  I have a number of people on twitter encouraging me to keep writing my memoir and […]

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