Use Twitter Without Wasting Time

One of my writer friends emailed me this week about his twitter account. He was concerned about losing followers and not increasing his followers without spending lots of time on twitter. I reached out to help him and recommended Tweet Adder. 

Another friend and literary agent, Wendy Lawton wrote her end of the year report card. When it came to twitter, she wrote, “SOCIAL NETWORK: D I have to admit to Twitter fail. I just can’t find the time to do it all. Aaarrrgggh! And I tried Pinterest and Goodreads—so I’d know how they worked—but I had to cry “uncle.” I can’t do my job and keep up with all these opportunities.”

I empathize with this busy literary agent. Each of us have our own daily challenges. Maybe you are trying to create daily time to write and can't seem to find moments to move forward. Maybe you are sending out your latest nonfiction or fiction book and getting regularly rejected. Or maybe you have crafted your materials but can't seem to get them into the hands of agents or editors because of constraints on your time. 

I'm several months into a new job as an acquisitions editor. I'm enjoying it and appreciate the work with authors but it leaves little time for writing—or social media. Yet I must be doing something in this area. If you look at my twitter account, my followers continue to grow and I regularly send out information on twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, I'm about to go over 42,000 twitter followers.

I'm going to show you how to use twitter without wasting lots of time on it. First, let's cover some basics about twitter. Do you have your profile set up properly with your photo and your profile? Do you have a background on your twitter page to make an attractive place for others to visit? These steps are simple and something you accomplish one time—yet important. Please look at some of the details that I give in this area through this free handout on social media (on page 2).

For several years I've been using a program called Tweet Adder 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. It is constantly turned on and working. Tweet Adder is designed around the rules of Twitter and will slowly follow people that you have selected to follow (using keywords geared to your particular target audience). If the new follower does not follow you in return, then the program will unfollow these people. This simple process keeps your numbers increasing on twitter.

Also I like that Tweet Adder is not a monthly fee program but has a one-time fee with lifetime updates. On a regular basis, Twitter changes how they operate and Tweet Adder will make the adjustment to their program and issue a new version of it. Then the next time you start the program, it will notice you don't have the latest version and ask if you want to download and update your program (which I do).

You can get a 20% discount on the fee for Tweet Adder if you use this discount code disCouNt20 (yes it is case sensitive) when you check out. 

Other than a tiny bit of time to set up the program and regularly use it, Tweet Adder allows you to use twitter and increase your followers and does not require much of your precious time. I highly recommend this program to everyone who wants to build a presence on twitter.3

Also there are some other tools that you need to use on a consistent basis. It does you little good to be using Tweet Adder on twitter if you aren't posting tweets on a regular basis. I post tweets at least three to seven times scattered throughout the day. You can use a free program like Hootsuite to set up these tweets and they can post during the day. You take 10 to 15 minutes (or less) and set up these posts.

In addition, I recommend you keep a running list of different programs you want to promote on twitter. I have a number of free teleseminars and resources that I've created. I have a little file with these resources and various tweets that I use on a regular basis. I don't have to recreate them but can simply cut and paste and post the tweets. It allows me to use the tools but not spend a great deal of time in the process.

Consistently using twitter doesn't have to consume your life—but like your writing, if you want to grow your presence on twitter, you need to use it on a regular basis.

I hope I've helped you see the value of such tools like Tweet Adder. If you have doubts, I recommend you download the trial version and use it for a few days to see if it will work for your needs.

Away From Your Computer

Often it happens in a shopping center parking lot or in the mall. These people will be walking with a glance every other step at a phone they carry so they can easily see the screen at all times. I assume they have their smart phone on Facebook or Twitter or some instant message where they don't want to miss anything on their computer. These individuals have elevated the computer to become a critical part of their every minute.

For many years, one of the best places to disconnect and get away from your computer was at 30,000 feet in an airplane. Yet even in the plane some people are connected to their computer. While I was waiting for a recent flight, a fellow traveler was telling me how he booked is flights on the basis of whether the flight had an online Internet connection so he could continue to be connected throughout the flight.

This coming week, I'm headed to Dallas for another conference and I love that time on the plane to write and read—generally to be disconnected from email and my phone. I understand it is a choice and a matter of focus. In the phone area, I've chosen not to have a smart phone and be connected to my email 24 hours a day. I believe it adds some balance to my life.

When I'm away from my computer as I will be for a couple of days this week, I do take some proactive actions when it comes to social media—Twitter and Facebook. I want to continually feed information about publishing and great products to my followers and friends.

Hootsuite is the free tool I use to schedule these tweets. My twitter account is hooked to my Facebook and LinkedIn. It was a one-time action to set up on Facebook and LinkedIn so my tweets are replicated on these other social mediums—automatically. I don't have to do anything for the tweets to show up on these sites.

Using Hootsuite, I can schedule three or four or more tweets at different times to appear while I'm away from my computer. I will schedule these tweets at some point during the week ahead. I know it works and people read these tweets and take action from them. Earlier this year, an editor was going to call me. He and I follow each other on twitter and he noticed that I had just put out a tweet. His assumption was that I was sitting at my computer and had sent that information to twitter. Yet when he called me I was walking down the concourse in an airport on the other side of the country. I had just gotten off an early morning flight. You never know how people are using these types of tools to continue to touch their followers. I use them and will continue to use them.

Another tool that I will be using when I'm away from my computer is Tweet Adder. This program works around the clock to add targeted followers. If you haven't tried the free download, I recommend you try it and begin to actively use it. The program has a one-time fee and you can get a 15% discount by using the coupon NICHE15 when you check out.

How about you? Do you take action and schedule tweets which appear when you are traveling?

Start Now & (Eventually) Get Big

Last week I passed over 32,000 followers on Twitter. When people see those numbers, they wonder how they did it. I see many people who have less than 200 followers on Twitter. Other people haven't tweeted in months and have given up on their involvement—yet over 200 million people are active on twitter.

Others react strongly when they see that I have over 4300 friends on Facebook. The typical person on Facebook has a few hundred friends.

I can often hear the amazement in the voice of people when they learn that I've written over 60 books or that I've written for more than 50 printed publications. I do have a large body of work that I have been growing for many years. It did not happen instantly or overnight. Instead body of my work has been growing for years.

The same thing has happened with my Twitter following. It began slowly but I've been consistently growing that audience. It is not magical but happens in small incremental and consistent action.

I've often heard authors say they took years to become an overnight success. We live in an instant society where everyone wants to write the next bestseller. I hear these unrealistic ambitions from authors almost daily. These authors have published a book or two with modest success. Other authors have never published a book yet they believe they have the next bestseller. There is nothing wrong with ambition but it has to be followed up with a consistent plan of action.

I've spoken with a number of authors who believe they have the next bestseller—yet a year later when I speak with them these authors are in exactly the same unpublished spot. They are “talking” about getting their book published.

Here's my encouragement to you:

1. Take some time to plan your writing goals. What are you doing to consistently write for online publications or printed magazines? Are you working on your book proposal to show an agent or editor?

2. Take some time to plan your marketing goals. What are you doing to build your audience for your topic? Are you actively using Twitter and Facebook? I've encourage you to look into Tweet Adder for Twitter. Get the free download and try it. Use this program consistently to build your twitter audience. You can even get 15% off the one-time fee if you use the code: NICHE15

3. Take consistent action with your writing and marketing efforts. That constant action will pay off for you. It will not happen overnight but with regular action, you will get there.

You have to take action today to be able to eventually get big.

Twitter Tool or Gimmick?

One of my writer friends and I were talking about twitter. He suddenly said, "Terry, you use a program to automatically grow your following right?" I agreed that I'm using a program called Tweet Adder. I've been using Tweet Adder for about seven or eight months and yes it has dramatically increased my followers on twitter. I see Tweet Adder as an important tool and not a gimmick because it does automate a number of functions. Previously I was working each day at increasing my followers on Twitter and now Tweet Adder handles these functions.

From my experience with Twitter, one of the best ways to increase your followers is to first tweet excellent focused content and second to follow others who have an interest in that content. You have to follow others gradually and consistently. If you decided to follow 400 people in a single day, then that would appear to twitter like you are abusing the tool and they could suspend your twitter account and defeat your entire purpose for being on twitter.

You can invest the time and energy and follow people to grow your twitter following. Or you can use a focused tool like Tweet Adder to help you in this process.

The program runs 24 hours a day in the background of my computer and will gradually follow new people. They don't follow random people but individuals that I've selected through keywords. For example for my Terry Whalin twitter account, I'm looking for followers who are interested in writing, publishing, books or those types of words. Tweet Adder searches the profiles of people on twitter and you can select whether you want them to speak only English (my preference) or to be in a certain geographic area and other limitations. The program will search for new followers, eliminate any duplicates and follow more of these selected people each day.

After a period of time, if the person does not follow you in return, then Tweet Adder unfollows this person. It keeps the balance between people you are following and people who follow you on Twitter.

The program has a one-time fee and not something monthly (like some other Twitter programs). Also from time to time, Twitter will change how their program works. The folks at Tweet Adder keep up on these shifts and modify their program so it still keeps working--and send out an update to you without any additional expense. Other programs will charge you a fee for that update but it's not the case with Tweet Adder.

At this writing, I'm still learning how to use this tool but it is not a gimmick. It is a valuable tool for you to grow your twitter following without spending massive amounts of time and energy. If you are looking to increase your presence on Twitter, then I recommend you try the free download of Tweet Adder and eventually purchase this tool.