I currently utilize four social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. In my opinion, Twitter is the most useful for writers if you know how to use it to your advantage. Today, I have some tips for you on how to use Twitter!
- Remember that Twitter is a social media platform, meaning a place to be social not just a place for you to send out endless Tweets about your stuff, or even other people’s stuff. They key, on Twitter, is interaction.
- Utilize the ‘List’ options! If you click on your Avatar/Profile Picture in the upper righthand corner, a menu will pop up. The second selection says ‘Lists’, and will bring up the list menu. If people have added you to their lists, they may show up here. You can also start creating your own lists, as well! Try creating lists of authors from different genres, or from different networking groups. I have several different lists for news sources, peace organizations, and even one simply titled ‘These People Rock’, filled with some of my favorite Tweeters.
- Use a scheduling program to make your Tweeting easier! I personally use HootSuite and Edgar. Edgar is $49 a month and is really for bloggers and small business types who have a lot of content. It allows you to build a ‘library’ of tweets linking to your content and then cycles through it. HootSuite doesn’t auto-cycle a library, but you can save Tweet templates so you don’t have to write the same tweets over and over. I can schedule a full week’s worth of tweets for myself or clients in under an hour!
- If you schedule the tweets of your own content several days at a time, all you have to do is pop onto Twitter for 5-15 minutes a day. I personally spend about 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. During this time, you can interact with other people’s Tweets - favoriting, responding (responding is important!), and even scheduling retweets for later. Remember those lists? Instead of scrolling down your entire Twitter feed, head over to the lists and interact with a much smaller, subject-specific group. It makes things much easier!
Twitter can come across as intimidating, or sometimes so cluttered and quick-paced that you can’t keep up. However, if you break Twitter down into small tasks and groups, it can become a great resource for you to network, help others, meet others, and grow your business!!
Grab a copy of Shai's book, Rock Your Shop: A Guide to Building, Branding, and Rocking Etsy right here!Shai Ford is a 29-year-old mom, social media campaign manager, and Etsy veteran. She currently runs her own Etsy shop as well as ShaiFord.com, and offers one-on-one business coaching for Etsians and other small business folks, targeting everything from product creation to social media marketing. As an artist, and a peace and social justice rights activist, Shai loves helping and watching 'the little man' succeed and reach their dreams. |