by Joyce
I started writing this post about Twitter and realized that only the cool people who are on Twitter will know what the hell I'm talking about. But, you know what? I'm going to write about it anyway.
You may or may not be surprised to know that I have a few pet peeves. Regarding Twitter, that is. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Twitter. It's the things that certain tweeters do that bug the hell out of me.
One thing that annoys me is when people expect you to follow them back just because they follow you. I don't autofollow. When someone follows me, I check their tweetstream to see what they're tweeting about. If it's tweet after tweet of junk, profanity, or anything at all political, I don't follow back. I have unfollowed people for the same reason.
I've also unfollowed people with an overabundance of my next pet peeve: Too many #FF and/or #WW tweets. You non-Twitter people are really confused right now, aren't you? #FF is the hashtag for Follow Friday, #WW stands for Writer Wednesday. The idea is to use them in your tweet and list a few people to get others to follow them. The operative word here is FEW. I don't want my tweetstream filled with so many #FFs and #WWs that I have to scroll down for five minutes to get to something worthwhile. I have yet to follow anyone through an #FF or #WW. I recently unfollowed someone who had 30 separate #FF tweets (yes, I counted them) one right after the other. I couldn't help but wonder how long it took him to type all that.
Other than that, I love Twitter. I've met a lot of nice people there. It is, without a doubt, the place to be if you want to learn about anyone involved in the publishing industry. It's crucial for anyone looking for an agent. Many, many agents tweet. Twitter is the best place to get to know what they're like and see if he or she is someone you'd like to work with.
Call me a Twitter evangelist if you'd like. Get thee to Twitter. Immediately.
10 comments:
Mostly those #FF tweets make me feel guilty, Joyce. Like I should be doing the same thing. And I'm deathly afraid I'll leave someone out and hurt their feelings. So I don't do #FFs. Unless there's one person in particular I just discover is on Twitter or something, or someone with a fun blogpost that day, or a free book giveaway maybe; then I might send out an #FF just for that person. But thirty #FF posts with half the people in my tweetstream? No thanks. (At the same time it does feel good to be included, though...)
I don't autofollow either. And I block anyone who sends me an ad.
I'm guilty of not reading most #FF tweets, so if someone lists me, chance are I won't see it unless it's from a close friend.
If I think someone is follow-worthy by other tweeters, I'd rather retweet something they posted. I've found a lot of new people to follow through other's RTs.
The best way to be followed is to say something interesting, or post a good link.
Well, I got myself on Twitter a week ago and I am drawing a blank. I have no idea what you are talking about Joyce, because, like all things where you come on to in the middle, nothing makes sense. Is there an introductory (and I mean brand new) place to learn this? Is there Twitter for Dummies?
I barely have something to say much less adding all those # thingymabobs.
Patg
I can't believe it, my verification word is "crying".
Yes, Joyce, this topic makes me cry.
Patg
There should be some kind of help button on your Twitter page to explain some of the features. I learned just by following people and doing what they do.
I'm a trial and error kind of gal. That's pretty much how I learn most things.
Former Working Stiff, Tamara, taught a Twitter workshop at the PW conference. She had some good handouts that explained it very well. I don't have any copies, though. Now that I think of it, didn't someone post a tutorial on the SinC blog once?
Easy twitter things....
1) Search for people you know or respect - use the search bar at the top of the page. When you find someone, follow them.
2) Easy start - search for #workingstiffs - I've been putting some tweets out there pointing folks to our blog. From that list of tweets, you'll see people you know.
3) Since I'm so new, I practically autofollow, which means, I look to see who you are, what you tweet about, and if we have anything in common. If you follow me, I send you a polite, and unique "hey, thanks" tweet after I've followed you back.
4) I use it like a breaking news feed for writing and publishing. I've learned so much about the business by reading tweets with links. I click on the link and learn something new.
5) If there's a conference you want to attend, but are not, search #BEA for example, and you can find people tweeting live what's going on in specific break out sessions. I'm going to do this for ThrillerFest.
I've only been doing this since April 1 and I have eighty or so followers. I figure those folks might be reading working stiffs because that's about all I tweet about. Except migas. And cowboy boots.
And now, my brain is officially empty. :)
Thanks, Cindy! Good summary.
I keep forgetting to use #workingstiffs
PatG - there's a woman named Kristen Lamb who writes books on social media for writers. She has a blog I can't remember the name of, but if you Google her name, you'll find it. She has some blog posts on how to get along on Twitter. There's also a hashtag on Twitter - one of these: # - called #MyWANA: My We Are Not Alone, which is the name of her most recent book. If you search #MyWANA on Twitter, you can find her and a lot of her followers, who are also trying to get a handle on the whole social media thing.
Hope that helps.
I was wondering what #MYWANA stood for!
Actually, this lady has a tutorial for both FB and Twitter:
http://www.andreavahl.com/
Patg
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