Expand Your Territory

I began yesterday's entry pointing to a USA Today story about Guy Kawasaki.

Repeatedly in these entries, I've encouraged writers to expand their influence or build their platform or influence in the public. It's one of the key elements that editors and agents are looking for when they open your proposals or pitches. Why? People who have followers or a ready-made audience are better candidates for their books or their magazine articles. Editors for magazines are looking for stories which they can highlight on the cover and sell more copies of their publication. It's a simple common sense fact but in the creative process, many writers lose track of these details.

In several recent entries, I've mentioned the social marketing called Twitter where you write something in 140 characters. As a writer you learn how to tell interesting things in short bursts. It's a great skill for any writer to enhance and develop.

I don't know if you've looked at Guy Kawasaki's Twitter profile but as of this writing he has 25, 898 followers. This number fluxuates constantly but that's a lot of individuals who receive his "tweets."

This week, Guy posted a detailed article about how to increase your followers on Twitter. If you want to gain a following, it's something worth considering in your array of various ways to touch an audience. Following some of the advice in Guy's article, I set up TweetLater to automatically follow and automatically welcome people. This system allows you to send a message to welcome your followers. I've created one that is distinct for me. What are you doing to create one which will be personal for you? (If you are even using this system). If you need some basics about Twitter, then download this simple Ebook called Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or Less.

More than anything for this aspect of the business, make it fun and your own personality. It's part of our constant search for the audience and balance in our lives.