Twitter Is A Stupid Waste Of Time...Not!

Rachel Thompson

Author • Poet • Advocate

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Twitter Is A Stupid Waste Of Time…Not!

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Don't MAKE Me Get Out My Dictionary (ManCode Post #6)

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Someone brought me into a Facebook author thread the other day. Their assertion: Twitter is stupid, a waste of time, hashtags make no sense, it’s just for teenagers. Not worth any author’s time.

That’s like, so thirty seconds ago.

I LOVE Twitter. I have since the moment I started with the channel in 2009. Not because it’s fun and cool (which it is), but because it’s my favorite kind of ‘selling’ —  the kind where you build relationships with people. So making these types of comments seems, to an advocate, to be somewhat (dare I say it?) ignorant and out of touch. I get that my parents in their seventies don’t understand it (though I have many followers who are even older who do!), but for any author who is developing their author platform, it’s indispensable. IF USED CORRECTLY.

Let’s deconstruct.

HOW TO USE TWITTER INCORRECTLY

Many newbie authors come to Twitter and use it like a megaphone, spamming links to their books, website, blog posts, etc. Their mistake is that they’ve completely missed the point of it: that it’s a social platform, not an all about me platform.  The one way broadcast model doesn’t work in real life, why would it work on Twitter? It’s as if people lose all common sense.

That OR they don’t know what to do, so they jump in talking only about themselves and end up alienating potential readers without realizing it.

When I talk about this with authors, they argue: but I’m too busy writing! Who has the time to waste on this teenage stuff? Again, this isn’t 2008. Twitter has evolved in a breaking news source (think Arab Spring, Turkey, Egypt, even China — places where other communications have been sanctioned or lost), sporting event updates as they happen (that can be good or bad), the athlete arrest of the day, or even tragic events, like the recent #SFO crash, where we read and saw first-hand pix from people ON the plane. It’s insane to have this level of coverage, and it’s all because of Twitter. It’s also a wonderful way to connect with readers.

Twitter is also the great equalizer. I have had conversations with famous writers (Susan Orlean, Anne Rice) and others I admire, as well as readers, book bloggers, and book reviewers.

Would you only ever talk about yourself with a new friend? Hopefully not! Instead of spamming links or only talking about yourself, ask questions, provide info/resources about your interests, promote others.

WHERE TO START

Are you hopelessly confused by Twitter and not sure where to start? Start with their HELP section. It’s chockfull of helpful tips, lingo, and how-to’s. People worry about what to talk about so they talk about what they know: themselves. Sorry, but that’s gets old quickly. We’re hardwired to spot self-interest and to avoid it at all costs. So be yourself but don’t talk only about yourself. Ask people for their opinion. Offer your blog to other authors or even run a contest for readers! Be generous.

Honestly, much of what I’ve learned about Twitter has come from using it (as adults we learn best by doing), reading their extensive HELP section, as well as constantly perusing articles about it and trying out different techniques.

What interests you the most? Pick four or five keywords that excite you and then look up those topics online. Share what you find. Visuals are always popular: space, pets, nature, faces, food.

Centralize your social media. Use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to gather all accounts in one place. It’s not hard and it’s free.

LOSE THE NEGATIVITY

As authors, we owe it to our readers to be easy to find. We owe it to ourselves to increase our visibility. The point of writing a book is so people will read it, yes? But to get people to know about it, social media is one of several critical channels of your platform.

So get over yourself and your preconceived notions about what Twitter is and what it’s not. The onus is on YOU to learn how to use it and to use it properly. And if you can’t, hire someone who does.

WHERE ARE YOUR READERS?

You may not want to enter the Twitterscape, but your readers are there. They are looking you up to see if you are on Twitter and if they can connect with you there. You need to go where your readers are, and by ignoring the potential of Twitter, you’re ignoring your own potential.

An added bonus: I’ve met amazing people on Twitter in real life — other writing colleagues at conferences primarily, but also clients, readers, fans and friends.

Bottom line: Twitter may not be your favorite platform and you may never love it like I do. And that’s okay. Don’t kill yourself trying to understand it if your brain just doesn’t work that way. But you owe it to yourself and your readers to at least give it a shot. Twitter is what you make it. I encourage you not to discount the value of the channel as a marketing tool.

 

Questions? Comments? Please talk to me below.

 

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

  1. Great post! The pundits claim “Web 3.0”, on the horizon, will make Twitter, Facebook, etc. outdated. The technology always reminds me of the promises of “Artificial Intelligence” (it’s a similar concept, at least in layman’s terms, I think—but then again, who are “they” and what qualifications do they have to tell us where the bear shits in the buckwheat, right? Tweet away. Sans megaphone, of course.

    I think all authors should tweet for other authors, at a minimum, 2:1…I’ve tried to promote other more than myself, but recently I found I had neglected my AI and it had become rather egomaniacal, do I pruned down my tweet list. I think it’s made a positive difference for other authors, and if that’s what it’s good for, God bless Twitter, smart women, foolish men, and these United States of America, goddammit.

    Now where’s my flask of legal 150 proof alcohol? The DEA just swooped in and, against (allegedly) the President of the United States WRITTEN DIRECTIVE, raided and closed my nearest medical marijuana clinic, saying it will make me unsafe to drive, poison my insides, and turn me into an abusive asshole. Thank the Good Lord I still have this gallon of purely legalized Bacardi 151 and these filterless Camels to drown my sorrows. Now where’s my modified AK-47? Sounds like the neighborhood kids are bumping against my fence again. If they step over that property line… (Sorry, I just watched the first in Morgan Spurlock’s new series on CNN and it got me fired up!) Great blog, Red. As always. 🙂

    Reply

    • Rob you kill me. I adore you. and thank you!

      People say that I tell it like it is, but I can’t hold a candle to you, handsome — and that’s a compliment, BTW.

      Being generous is one of my favorite benefits of being on Twitter. How else could I have met you? Authors rock, and I love promoting your amazing books and those of my writer colleagues but that’s not ALL we should be focused on. It’s a balance. And you’ve never come across and egomaniacal about your promotion. You’re very giving to your fellow authors.

      hugs to you, fella. 😉

      Reply

  2. THANK YOU!!! Nope not bashful at this I am screaming thank you because you have validated for me what I have thought and shared with others. I am so new to social media I am a baby beginning to roll over but I am learning and the one thing I have noted is the constant bombardment of “BUY ME”. Personally I want to get to know folks, to expand my professional network, to expand a fan base for my coming books, to reach out and touch and be touched by folks that I would never have the chance to do otherwise. I love Twitter and see soooooo many benefits. And tonight as I am struggling along with several ‘media’ projects to have this post brought to my attention was perfect!

    I now feel better that Twitter is a wise choice, I see what I need to do and I feel inspired to be the best at Twitter I can be…talking about things that interest others, engaging folks to participate and meeting new friends that are waiting for discovery!

    Hi Ho Hi Ho…now off to Twitter I shall go!!!!

    Reply

  3. Twitter is my favorite social media channel as well. I think promotion vs. information can be a difficult balance for some writers to reach. The old rule was 80/20: 80% of the time you post about others, promote others, provide helpful information and 20% of the time you can promote your books and blog. But I agree more with Guy Kawasaki’s new formula: 90/10 meaning no more than 10% of the time should be promote ourselves. I find that in the majority of cases my Tweeps are retweeting great nuggets of information that I’ve found in the blogosphere — posts that I didn’t write. And that’s fine with me. If they like what I tweet, then maybe they’ll check out my website. Anyway, I don’t feel comfortable over-promoting myself and it’s the first item on my PowerPoint whenever I’m teaching a session on social media.

    Reply

    • Excellent! The 80/20 works (or 90/10) quite well. I also look at my ratio of content tweets (no links) to promo tweets (w/ links) of my content and others.

      A final guidelines is the rule of thirds: 1/3 self, 1/3 others, and 1/3 info/tips/humor. I like to think that 1/4s works better tho — I don’t want to be promoting myself 30% of the time — that seems like a lot!

      That’s part of why I started #MondayBlogs — so people could share their own blog posts and RT others, in addition to connecting to writers and readers.

      xx

      Reply

  4. Twitter has for me so far been the most social platform out there. Everything from exchanging jokes, learning how to blog (#blogchat on Sunday nights is excellent by the way), being offered books to review…making new friends…checking the Wichita Weather and sharing posts, and having them shared. Getting to grips with 140 characters takes a bit of getting used to, once you do as Lissa Rankin MD says ‘Twitter is the Law of Attraction in action.’

    You do have to get your nerd head on a little bit to work Twitter well, I think it’s worth it!

    Cheers
    Sarah
    A Mom On A Spiritual Journey

    Reply

    • I agree, Sarah. It’s the most social for me also — FB is great, but I like the faster pace and quick exchanges on Twitter better. I think it makes us better writers also — you communicate only what is truly needed!

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Reply

  5. I am a blogger and am relatively new to Twitter, but the last 14 books I have bought to review have all been as result of authors talking about the books of fellow authors on Twitter. It works for me.

    Reply

    • That’s great! I know there’s a lot of self-promotion on there, but that can be said of any social media channel. As an avid reader, I enjoy learning about authors and new books myself. It’s the new ‘word of mouth,’ truly.

      thanks for reading and commenting!

      Reply

  6. Agree, agree, agree – I love Twitter, not only because it gets my books and blog OUT THERE but because it’s found me lots of interesting people who’ve become friends, and loads of interesting stuff generally. If I want to find something out (like on Monday when a TV programme I wanted to watch was delayed and I wanted to know when it would be on), I look on Twitter for the answer – it’s always there! I think the people who don’t like it and just use it to publicise their books because they’ve heard they should are the ones for whom it doesn’t ‘work’; a bit like going to a party when you’d rather be at home.

    Another big social media mistake, I think, is thinking you can use Facebook like you do Twitter. Whereas you can get away with a certain amount of self-promo on Twitter, I don’t think it works at all for Facebook. I used FB a lot long before I self-published, and I would hide from my newsfeed anybody i thought was trying to sell me something. It’s not the place.

    Reply

    • Definitely agree on Facebook. That’s why FB created pages (different than accounts). If an author is promoting themselves/their books on FB, they require a page (where you get LIKES). The account is supposed to be for personal updates and conversations, not promo.

      With the addition of hashtags on both FB and G+, it’s possible to post similar info on all these sites but again, I prefer to tailor them.

      thanks for reading and commenting, Terry!

      Reply

      • You’re welcome, your posts are always worth reading 🙂 Yeah, that’s why I have an author page, but even on that I don’t do book promo much – only about special offers or new releases, but I mostly just post funny things, or links to new blog posts. I’m always getting friend requests from other authors and I keep saying, I don’t do book stuff (ANY book stuff!) on my personal page, but still they come – and usually from people who didn’t use FB before self-publishing, I find. Similarly, Goodreads was better before it became just promo, promo, promo. Used to be just a nice site about books!!! 🙂

        Reply

  7. Like you – I love Twitter. I love the way it can be such a pure and simple interaction with people. I can’t abide Farcebook – never did like it and now it is a corporate sales platform I like it even less. Twitter on the other hand is light years ahead – and I don’t have to *like* Coca Cola or *Riverview Realestate* to feel wanted!

    Reply

    • The one thing I think has been ignored is the fact that both Social Media platforms (as well as all the others) have been incorporated into businesses game plans and, more importantly, Twitter’s speed of timeline can severely impact the visibility of tweets. An example: if I post one marketing tweet per day, that chances of a large percentage of my 20K followers seeing it are extremely low. Something I need to take into consideration regardless of the message behind the tweet, if I want it to be seen (whereas FB’s timeline is slower, yet still becomes a challenge with many friends/connections, author pages being the better solution for business/author presence).

      People seem pretty negative toward using social media for self-promotion (and I inherently dislike promoting myself to begin with), but the reality is, there’s not a boo, white paper, or educated advice that says you can succeed without establishing your brand (i.e. YOU) as an author, and Twitter/FB becomes an integral part of that. I choose to promote other fine authors more than myself, but that’s me. I think you can be creative without literally pimping your product constantly for certain.
      (I think this is a first: a second comment on one blog, excluding replies—that’s how good you are, Red.)

      Reply

      • :)) Thanks again, Rob. I heart you, you know that right?

        There is truth to your assertion about what people see — when I share that Broken Pieces won some awards (rather than the typical BUY MY BOOK type tweets), I continually get kind words from folks (other than a recent fella who said, ‘So what? No one cares.’ LOL). That just proves your point — people aren’t always tuned in to our favorite authors — it’s just not possible.

        That’s a long way of saying that we do have to promo our work but certainly not all the time and absolutely not in every tweet.

        hugs, you!

        Reply

      • I think there’s alot of what I can only describe as inverted snobbery about authors promoting their books on Twitter. I get so fed up with seeing people complaining about it in tweets, or even writing blog posts about it. I feel like saying, I don’t complain about your posts saying “Yay, whoo-hoo, LOL 😀 :D” to all your pals, do I? – so don’t complain about my book tweets! There seems to be the attitude with some writers that they are somehow ‘above’ using social media to promote their books. Okay – fine, let’s see how many books you sell by not using it, then! The fact is that social networking sites are a huge part of many people’s lives, the internet EXISTS, and in order to sell anything these days you have to build up your online presence – like it or not. Whether you’re posting on Twitter, FB or Goodreads or anywhere else, though, I think the most important thing is to use them intelligently, not make the mistake of thinking they are free advertising and nothing else.

        Many of the people who ‘diss’ Twitter are the ones who don’t actually use it, and have no idea how it works, I find!

        Reply

    • Joski, I’ve never been a huge fan of Facebook. It’s practically impossible to understand all the rules and regs that constantly change anyway.

      Sure, Twitter has its own culture, but it’s not THAT hard to figure out. What I see authors on FB say frequently about Twitter simply shows their lack of experience. It takes effort to learn something new!

      thanks for the comment and reading my post.

      Reply

  8. Fantastic post, Rachel. You reminded me of how useful and enjoyable Twitter can be. And you’re right about the best ways to USE Twitter. Like you, I’ve met friends, discovered wonderful new books to read and review, been able to gracefully announce new blog posts and now and then promote my own titles. It is not going too far to say that my life is richer and more fun from time spent in the Twitterverse. It’s always exciting to learn from other indie authors and meet others in the online adoption community. That last part (the adoption community) has actually changed my life — for the better.

    Reply

    • thanks for reading and commenting, Elaine. I too enjoy that interaction and support. It’s crucial for indies to stick together because when one of us succeeds, it’s a step for all of us. and I do love Twitter for connection and sharing. no doubt!

      xx

      Reply

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