Twitter… Tweeps… Tweeties… Oh My!!!

Ok, let me first say that the creation of Twitter was a godsend to me because I am so random at times, and this social media site let’s me be just that, and others actually want to follow my randomness.

What is Twitter you ask? Well, according to PC Magazine it is –> A very popular instant messaging system that lets a person send brief text messages up to 140 characters in length to a list of followers. Launched in 2006, Twitter was designed as a social network to keep friends and colleagues informed throughout the day. However, it became widely used for commercial and political purposes to keep customers, voters and fans up-to-date as well as to encourage feedback.

After establishing a Twitter account at www.twitter.com/, individuals can import their e-mail addresses as well as use the Twitter search to locate and invite people. Twitter messages (“tweets”) can be made public and sent to anyone requesting the feed, or they can be sent only to approved followers.

Messages can be sent and received via cellphone text messaging (SMS), the Twitter website or a third-party Twitter application. To follow a Twitter feed, the Twitter site and feed name become the URL; for example, Microsoft’s Twitter feed is www.twitter.com/microsoft and for an actual person the twitter feed would be www.twitter.com/kishagreen

What does all of this technical twitter stuff mean to you? Well it means that you can tell the whole world wide web what you ate, plan on eating or don’t want to eat. The beauty is that even though you think this is useless information it is actual relevant to your followers since they find you interesting.

Commonly Used Twitter Lingo

Followers
These are the people who “follow” your tweets. Every time you tweet, these people automatically see it on their timeline, whereas someone else would have to search and find you on Twitter. The same goes for the people you follow; their updates will appear on your timeline

Retweet (RT)
Twitter became a viral conduit when users initiated “retweeting,” which forwards tweets they get to their followers. People retweet to pass on worthwhile information, and the ease of retweeting can quickly build large audiences. This is the same as sharing on Facebook

Direct Messages (DMs)
Initially a one-way broadcast from writer to follower, this is not seen on your timeline this goes to one person’s inbox. Writers can send followers a “direct message” (DM), and followers can do likewise. Followers can also delete the DMs they sent, making them disappear from the writer’s inbox. Please note: You cannot send DM’s to people who are not following you.

@ Signs
When someone replies to a Twitter posting, they use their Twitter account name preceded by an @ sign; for example, “@KishaGreen” This is how you know someone is talking directly to you.

# Hashtags
A hashtag is a # prefix used to group tweets together. For example, people commenting about a Twitter about my online radio show would use #WritersLifeChats in their postings (tweets) and all those messages could be viewed as a group by searching for #WritersLifeChats

Why should you tweet? Because it’s fun! LOL… Seriously, because it is a way to reach any and everyone all at once as opposed to just saying it to the same people on Facebook. Meaning if you have 1700 friends on Facebook and you want to advertise or promote something you are limiting yourself to just those 1700 whereas Twitter let’s you tell the whole world wide web, well all of those with a Twitter account.

How do you tweet? Easy just say what is on your mind, good or bad, but the trick is to keep it under 140 characters, so this requires you to be clever yet creative. You can tweet from a computer, iPads (tablets) and cellphone

Is Tweeting effective? According to Twitter, there are over 200 million registered users, but how many are active users that we don’t know yet. According to Business Insider, there were 119 million Twitter accounts following one or more other accounts. Either way, if you have a business to promote or a product to sell or in my case books to sell, Twitter is where we need to be to connect with a bunch of people for FREE! Yes, I said free. I don’t know about you, but that’s a good enough reason for me.

I promote my radio show, author promo services and my books all on Twitter, and have been more successful with it than on Facebook. How do I do this? Simply, by tweeting all relevant info to them all. If there is someone I want to interview, I tweet them and begin a rapport with them, and then we exchange contact information and from there I arrange my interviews. For selling books, I post pictures (twitpics) of my book cover along with purchasing URL’s. I then tweet about the most random things that to a complete stranger it is interesting and makes them want to follow me and eventually purchase my books. As for my Author Promo Services, I am constantly tweeting pertinent literary information, and those in the industry are interested, and then later on utilize my services. I cannot lie, it does require time and effort, but it is well worth it.

Examples

Book Tweet–> A Write Way to Love by @KishaGreen on Kindle for $2.99. One Click today! #ReadingIsSexy #GoodBook #Ebook

Author Promo Tweet –> Authors: Do you need help promoting your book? Let DivaBooksInc help YOU today. www.divabooksinconline.com #Promo #Books #Marketing

Radio Show Promo Tweet –> Writer’s Life Chats with @KishaGreen Mondays at 7pm www.writerslifechats.com #literaryjewels #authorinterviews #writerslifechats

See how the hashtags are all relevant to all of my tweets BUT most importantly less than 140 characters.

Kisha Green

If you found this article helpful, please use the share buttons to spread the word.

Kisha Green is no stranger to the literary world. She is the well-informed, knowledgeable publisher of DivaBooksInc.(www.divabooksinconline.com). Green is a senior writer and founder of the Writer’s Vibe (www.writers-vibe.com) a literary site to help promote artists.

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4 thoughts on “Twitter… Tweeps… Tweeties… Oh My!!!

  1. Raynetta Manees

    I’ve been a novelist for many years, but I am a real newbie to Twitter. I’m trying to use Twitter to help publicize my new eBook Follow Your Heart and this article has been extremely helpful.

    I have a question. In the example above:
    “Book Tweet–> A Write Way to Love by @KishaGreen on Kindle for $2.99. One Click today! #ReadingIsSexy #GoodBook #Ebook”

    I get it except for the “One Click Today!” Could you clarify why that phase is in the post? I’m probably missing something a more Twitter savvy person would already know.

    Thanks,
    Raynetta Manees

  2. Kisha Green

    @Raymetta- Thanks for reading my article and to answer your question, the term 1 Click is a term used on Amazon for Kindle purchases so that why I worded it that way.

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