Be Active on Twitter & Automate It

When I meet with writers at a conference or on the phone, they will often tell me,“No one knows me or my writing." Maybe they have written a few magazine articles but never published a book. Or maybe they haven't published anything but want to get published. Other people have written for magazines or newspapers but never written a book (nonfiction or fiction).

First a reminder: I know of no overnight successes in the publishing business. If you have someone who appears to become an overnight success, then look closer at the journey of that person. I've often found they have been in the trenches for years before they achieved their dream of success. OK, with this reality check, now what can you do to begin building your visibility in the community? There is not a singular answer to this question. There are many answers.

One answer is to become active on Twitter. According to Twitter's site, as of September 14, 2010, there are 175 million users who tweet 95 million times a day. Those numbers are right--a million. What are you waiting for? Let's get started.

1. Who is your target audience? Who do you want to reach and with what message? It is important from the beginning to select one or two "themes" to your tweets because this consistency will attract your audience and help you.

2. Create your Twitter profile and add your photo and bio. Get more details in my free Ebook, Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or Less.

3. Add a distinctive twitter background to your twitter profile. Here's a free tool to create it.

4. Use a free tool like Hootsuite to send out your tweets and also to schedule them.

5. Locate Twitter Leaders in your area at Twellow. Follow those leaders and learn from their tweets.

6. Use a tool like TweetAdder to automate your twitter process of gaining followers. It is excellent and adding about 100 to 150 followers a day to my Twitter account. You can get 15% off TweetAdder by using code NICHE15.

If you don't like to tweet, then automate your content on Twitter using Google Alerts. Select several key words and pull in content to your twitter account. Follow these ten steps: 1. Do you have a Gmail account? If not create one. While you are signed on to that Gmail account… 2. Go to Google Alerts 3. Select several phrases that you want to turn on alerts 4. Leave the Type as “comprehensive” or from anywhere on the web 5. Change How Often to “as-it-happens” because you want it throughout the day and fresh 6. Change Deliver to: and select “feed.” 7. When you save it, you will see the feed in Google. Notice the orange icon or the word “feed.” Right click on that and copy out the feed URL because you will need it for the next step. 8. Go to Twitterfeed and log on to this free application using your twitter username and password. 9. After you log on to Twitterfeed, you are creating a new Feed. Give your feed a title and paste the RSS feed URL from Google alerts into the feed spot. 10. Click the Advanced Settings. Change “Update Frequency” to every 30 minutes and post up to “3” new updates at a time.

This ten step system will automatically pull content into your twitter account. I have this system set up for some twitter accounts that I do not monitor as closely as I do for my main twitter account.

It is critical to provide content, point to articles, give free resources and not to engage in hard selling (buy me, buy me). It’s a soft sell approach that works on Twitter. With millions of people on Twitter and using some (or all) of these techniques, every writer can increase their presence and activity on Twitter.

Expand Your Reach With Twitter

I hear it a lot from other writers. They say, "I understand Facebook but I don't get Twitter. Why should I fool with it?" There are many good reasons.

1. There are over 100 million people on Twitter and more people join every day. I've got a free Ebook about Twitter called Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or Less. If you are starting a Twitter account or revising an older account, I would encourage you to use free tools to set up the appearance of your account. For example, add a background using twitrounds. In a few clicks your site can look attractive, branded and professional. Also add your photo and some information about you in the profile settings section.

2. You can brand yourself as an expert in your topic and connect people to your information--if you handle twitter wisely. No one cares that you are eating tacos or mowing your grass. One key is controlling your message. Are you on message with each tweet?

If you think about my twitter, I only talk about writing, publishing, internet marketing and new resources for those purposes. I link to new things I've read or discovered. My tweets are focused--and you can do likewise to attract an audience. Also I encourage you to read this excellent article from Jeff Herring called Three Little Known Twitter Tips.

If you look at my twitter account, I have over 21,000 followers. How did that happen? It did not happen overnight but I've been on twitter for a long time. You gradually increase your followers--if you work at it. I work at constantly increasing my followers.

I turn on the email notifications in my profile. It is in the notices section of Twitter's settings. If someone begins to follow me, I get an email about it. Now you may be thinking that's a lot of email--and it is--but I have several reasons why I review it. Yes it takes a few seconds but I check out each follower to see if I want to be connected to that person. Some people are tweeting in a foreign language (not English). If they are tweeting in another language, then I block them and remove them from my twitter stream. Next I glance at their recent tweets, their photo and their profile. Some people are cursing or promoting something dark and adult-oriented. I block those people as well. In this sense, my followers are "qualified" or the type of people that I want to relate to and reach.

In addition, I send each follower a direct message which lands in their email box that says: "Thanks for following me, ______ (and I insert their name in the blank)! As my gift, please download a free Ebook at: http://www.straighttalkeditor.com" I add their name into this message so they know it came from a real person--not a machine. I offer them a quality gift--if they give me their first name and email address. Through this simple process, every day I'm adding people to my mailing list.

Also you would be surprised at the people I'm able to dialogue with through the little 140 character messages. I'm paying attention to Twitter and it continues to grow and expand.

Finally my tweets are automatically put on Facebook and LinkedIN. If you are not doing this, then look around for the application to add your tweets into these other social networks. You have to make a one-time action to turn on this application and get it working, then of course also you check it from time to time.

I don't want to overwhelm you with the material in this entry. Hopefully you can see that Twitter is a valuable tool for any author in their work to build a brand and a platform. In my next entry, I'm going to show you how to find more followers. Stay tuned.