6 Things Guaranteed to Keep You from getting New Twitter Followers

Twitter doesn't have to be hard!

After an intense few days of learning about copyright issues, I thought we’d tackle something a little easier. Today I want to give you a short list about Twitter—specifically things you’ll want to avoid if you want new Twitter followers.

Number 1—always talk about yourself. With the 140 character limit, Tweets that are always, Me, Me, Me, are guaranteed to not only keep you from new Twitter followers, it will help you lose the ones you have.

Number 2—hyjacking the Twitter feed. This means posting three or more tweets in a row. Again, it’s that nausea inducing litany of Me, Me, Me.

Number 3—loading your Tweets with hashtags. Not sure what a hashtag is? Here’s my post on Twitter 101 to help you decipher the code. Multiple hashtags are sure signs of spammers, bots or newbies. All accounts no one wants to follow.

The Dreaded Twitter Egg

Number 4—the dreaded egg avatar instead of a picture. Again, only spammers, bots or newbies don’t change out the egg for a real picture. You only get the opportunity to communicate who you are in a 140 character bursts. Trust me, no picture does NOT inspire me to follow you.

Number 5—a locked twitter account. Twitter is all about being FOUND. A locked Twitter account is the ultimate oxymoron. Some people restrict who follows them because they mistakenly believe their followers' Tweets will end up in their Twitter stream. Not true. Only the people YOU follow show up in your twitter stream.

Number 6—a description that promises you'll be commenting on the random or inconsequential. Twitter is all about focused bursts of info and interaction. Keywords and hashtags help us follow specific topics. Random nothingness is NOT what I’m looking for on Twitter.

Now it's your turn. What are some of the things you don't like in the Twitter accounts you follow?

Don't forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

Thursday Review - ACFW Bound!

Instead of the usual Thursday review, I'll spend the next few days posting about my experiences at the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Indianapolis. I'm sitting at the Greenville, SC airport right now, excited and nervous about the conference.

I've been traveling to conferences for over 10 years and the butterflies never seem to disappear. I'm excited about what God has in store for the next few days and nervous about those growth experiences that are sure to come.

I've already had one - this morning my husband complained that my suitcase was too heavy to lift. I just rolled my eyes. It was his turn to roll his eyes when the person at the baggage counter charged me $50 for being 10 pounds over the weight limit. Note to self - pay attention to what those around me are trying to tell me!

I'll give you all an update tonight from Indianapolis. Also, you can follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/EdieMelson . I'll be using #ACFW to identify the conference tweets. You can just search for #ACFW on Twitter and catch them as they come in. There are bound to be lots of other attendees using the same code so you'll get lots of live and update info about the conference experience.

Don't forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

Twittering Your Time Away—Part Three

I hope Twitter is beginning to make more sense now. If you’re just joining the conversation you can visit Part One and Part Two and see what the buzz is about.

Twitter is a versatile medium, but because of its condensed format Tweets that are about me, me, me get really old—really fast! Sure we all want to increase our audience and reach more people, but that isn’t the way to accomplish that. The thing you want to be known for on Twitter is relevant content. You want to give those who follow you something worth following.

We need to learn to Tweet in a way that benefits others.

• Let someone else benefit from what you’ve found helpful
• Share about someone else’s success
• Pass along opportunities

Tweeting and retweeting is the perfect way to do this. Tweet—toot—someone else’s horn!

Another helpful tool is something I mentioned last week—Lists. This is simply pulling together tweets of one particular subject and allowing others—those who have joined your list—to follow them as well. One list I particularly like is put out by Alton Gansky.

To make up your own list, click on list on your Twitter homepage and follow the directions. It’s very simple—even I can figure it out!

With this we come to the end of our Twitter Tutorial. I’d love to know if this has been helpful. So leave me a comment—
And don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

Twittering Your Time Away—Part Two

Stay with me—this week and next is when it gets good!

Last Monday I gave you the basic course in TWITTER. To be totally honest this probably left most of you still in the dark, but willing to at least explore the possibilities. Now that we’re all on the same page, I want to share some of the benefits to becoming a regular Twitter user.

A Marketing Dream

Think of TWITTER like a short commercial spot during the Super Bowl—the place with the most viewers at one time. (See where I’m going here!) During those spots, some people are in the kitchen refilling their plate, others are chatting about the game, but a few are watching. Something in that particular commercial caught their attention. Those few spread the word and POOF a few become millions.

Twitter has this ability because it comes to us in short, 140 character bursts. These bursts are easy to share and reproduce. Remember our definition of RETWEET last week? Retweeting can cause a viral reaction—and that’s a good thing. Having a tweet that goes viral means your message is being seen by millions.

There are certain things that we can do to help others find our valuable TWEETS. Let’s go back to the Super Bowl analogy for a moment. During the game, some of us take watching these commercials a step further—we’re watching for certain ads—think of it as looking for keywords that pertain to our wants or needs. TWITTER is set up to accomplish the same thing, through the use of HASHTAGS # and the use of @.

• HASHTAGS or # denote a subject. People can search TWITTER for certain subjects, like writing or publishers. So if I want a certain TWEET to reach other writers who don’t yet follow me I can insert #write somewhere within my TWEET. I started using HASHTAGS in my TWEETS and within TWO HOURS added 26 new followers.

A word of caution, don’t overuse the HASHTAG. If you use it too often within one post it will seem like a hard sell and you still only have 140 characters to get your message out.

As a TWITTER user, I search for these subjects and have them arranged in LISTS (more about LISTS in a moment). When I find one that’s interesting I can click on it to investigate further and then FOLLOW that person.

• @ designates a person or a company. Just like I can search for a subject, I can search for a specific entity. I follow one geeky, technical blog called MASHABLE. I love their posts because I can understand them and apply them. Their TWEETS are even better, so I created a list that follows every mention of MASHABLE.

LISTS are a way of arranging information into usable knowledge. So how do you organize those lists? If you’ve spent some time on TWITTER you know your specific TWITTER page is just one long confusing column. I have the answer to that as well—TWEETDECK. TWEETDECK, like TWITTER, is free.

TWEETDECK is an ancillary program that organizes your TWITTER feeds into manageable groups through the use of columns. AND—get ready for it—it also interfaces with Facebook and other social media outlets! So I have ONE (count it, one!) window open in the background, giving me real time tweets and wall posts. I can chime in (post or TWEET) anytime I please.

I hope this has continued to whet your appetite for all things TWITTER. Next week we’ll continue on with managing lists and customizing your TWITTER page.

Now it’s your turn. Have you gotten your feet wet with TWITTER? Let me know your concerns, questions and triumphs.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

(Here are the links for part 1 and part 3 of this series)

Twittering Away Your Time—Part One

I’ve found Facebook useful, but Twitter has left me baffled—until now. I’ve spent today learning everything I can about Twitter and I have to confess. I’m a definite convert! Twitter has all the community building capabilities of Facebook—in 140 character bursts. I’m going to spend the next few weeks sharing all that I’ve learned and bringing you up to speed on this misunderstood tool.

Twitter 101

Twitter is easy to join. Just visit the Twitter homepage and click on Get Started—Join. Set up your user name and password. Click I Accept then Create My Account.

At this point Twitter will ask you if you want to find friends. Come back to this option later. Instead, I suggest the order I've outlined below.

Settings are VERY important on Twitter!
Click on the Settings Tab to ensure everything is ready for visitors.

• Enter your full name—only spammers and newbies hide their identities. You’re on Twitter to be found
• Make sure the Time Zone field is set correctly.
• Enter your location—again, you’re here to be found.
• Do NOT check Protect My Updates—this negates the whole point of Tweeting.

Say Cheese!
That’s right—it’s time to upload a photo. Photos are important, spammers are known for having no photo. Personally, if you don’t have a picture and I don’t know you well, I won’t follow you. (This is a common problem for those new to Twitter and can keep you from gaining followers)

• First click on the picture tab.
• Browse your files and select a photo.

At this point you can click on the Design tab and do a little customization. We’ll get into advanced custom backgrounds in a later post. But there are several attractive options on Twitter.

Now that you’ve got your homepage set up it’s time to find some people to follow. You can import contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. But I choose not to. I dislike invitations to follow someone and prefer to choose whom I follow.

I recommend you take your time here. Instead of inviting everyone you know, search for some close friends/associates that you’d like to follow. Start with about 20 to get used to the feeds.

A note on etiquette here—if someone follows you, it’s considered common courtesy to follow them back. This etiquette isn’t set in stone. If you’re really not interested, don’t bother. But unless there’s a good reason NOT to follow them you should.

Common Terms
I'll leave you with an introduction to Twitter Terminology.

• When you post something it’s called Updating Your Status or Tweeting. Michael Hyatt has the best explanation of the Twitter community I’ve ever read. He likens it to sitting in a roomful of people. Updating your status tells everyone in the room something.
• Replying to an update answers a specific person, but everyone can hear (all your followers can see your update). You do this with the @followed by the person’s name. Example @EdieMelson. This is actually a clickable link so others can click on @EdieMelson to get to her feed.
• A Direct Message is like whispering in someone’s ear. The message goes to them only.
• One other term that’s important to know is Retweet. This is when you repost something someone else has tweeted.

This should be more than enough info to get you started. Next week we’ll go more in depth with how to develop communities and follow conversations. There are lots of neat and easy applications that make Twitter a valuable tool for writers.

I invite you to visit my Twitter Homepage—I’d love to become one of your followers!

Don't forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

(Here's the link to part 2 and part 3 of this series)