Twitter for Authors

The first analysis I did was to know when is the best time to tweet. This is very vital to any serious person who Twitters.

You need to know when your tweets are most effective. This means the times when you get the most ReTweets (RTs) and when you get responses to your Tweets that are posted.

Now there are general times to tweet and lots of articles that tell you about those times. You also have to be cognizant of time zones and the east coast/west coast factors, plus global factors as  well. (US isn't the only time zone out there people.) Responses and Retweets are vital to an author because people are sharing your handle on their timeline to their followers. (Your handle meaning your screen name.)

The most asked question I get about Twitter from authors is, "How do I get people to follow me?"

There's two ways:

1) Outright ask for a follow back. I know people say that's rude, but the worst that could happen is that they don't right? 

2) We're going to assume you've already followed friends, industry leaders, people and organizations with the same interests or niches as you. After that, you're going to "promote your twitter page." When you're on Facebook or even on your own website, authors forget to tell people to come to twitter to follow them. 

To continue to keep people and grow an audience remember to be an asset to the Twitter community. Once you find your niche and share your expertise, your followers will share your tweets with others, which will prompt others to come follow you. 

On 3/7/11 morning, I decided to take a look at my tweets to see how good they were. This didn't include any RTs or replies and this wasn't a whole day - Just a couple of hours.

I like how I promoted upcoming events that I would be at. My literary schedule was over the top that month and I still woke up with letting people know exactly what I'd be doing.

I like also that I was very inspirational this morning. Maybe because of my bout with the Secret Millionaire, but it helped me create some straight from the heart tweets that later on was re-tweeted.

I also had my blog posts coming straight to my tweets as well. I also included hashtags with them for recognition on Google.

Most importantly, I threw in books for sale. Not just a buy my book kinda thing, but as you see I was in the middle of promoting Ebook Week and wanted people to know about books available on discount.

Lastly, I tweeted quotes. A lot of people tweet quotes and it may seem boring to say something someone else is saying, but I try to focus my quotes on a topic or a theme that's going on.

When I get stuck and don't know what to tweet, I use my blogging sheet to give me a guide on what to concentrate on that day.

I usually tweet Monday and Friday. Here are my daily themes that help me out when I'm stuck: