The Importance of Following

Some of you probably haven't started on Twitter. New people are learning about this tool every day. Catch my Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or Less if you haven't read this Ebook.

While Twitter lets you set a beautiful background to your page and add your photo and other such things. They have a rather ugly placeholder for your picture. It's often one of the first things that people remove when they set up their account.

Also people change that photo from time to time--like if you look at my page at the moment, I'm wearing a Santa hat for the holiday season.

One of my writer friends has kept that ugly placeholder in his Twitter account for months. I wrote and offered to change it out for him--something that I did in only a few minutes. When I changed it, I noticed he had over 5,000 followers. That means whenever he sends out anything on Twitter it reaches over 5,000 people.

I wrote and asked him how he gained such a following. He looked for others interested in his particular subject and began to follow them on Twitter. These people followed him back and his numbers steadily grew.

If you want to increase your presence on Twitter, here's how you can do it--and devote little time to it. In a spare moment, go to Twellow and register. For example, here's my profile on Twellow.

Use Twellow to search for different occupations or locations or whatever your interest. The search tool will return with different people. The people with the greatest number of followers will be listed on the first pages.

Check each person's twitter page. Is there a balance between the number of people they follow and the number of followers? Some people only have a few people that they follow--so they will be unlikely to follow you (that's what I have decided). In general, I do not follow those types of people.

Also scan their page to see if what they are saying and doing is compatible with your interests. Then if so, click the "follow" button underneath their photo.

You have taken a calculated risk to follow this person and hope they follow you in response. I've experienced a huge growth in my Twitter profile from this simple step.

Even if you aren't interested in Twitter, there is a basic principle here that you can apply to your writing life. It's important to follow the instructions. If you are going to write for the leading magazines, then you need to learn to write a riveting query letter. If you are going to capture the best possible book deal, then you need to learn to write a great book proposal. Following is important in many aspects of the publishing world.

If you have questions about how to get published or improve your publishing life for 2009, I'm providing a place for you to ask those questions and get my answer at: http://www.askterrywhalin.com/ If you can't attend the teleseminar, still register because you will receive an email with the replay information for the edited recording.