Don’t you sometimes think that authors should earn the right to use Twitter properly? God knows, I do. If I get one more ‘TrueTwit validation’ (a bot to confirm I’m not a bot? Just no.) or autoDM ‘BUY MY BOOK!’ with link, I may start pulling out my red hair — which is okay, I have a lot of hair. But what does properly mean? And who am I to tell someone what’s ‘proper,’ anyway? Someone on  my author stream told me that I’m too bossy and people can use Twitter however they want. Which is absolutely true. My goal is to point out how people can be using it more effectively. Remember, Twitter is not a selling tool in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s a marketing tool, a way to inform, provide, connect with people on a personal level. When people like you, they are more inclined to buy your book. So let’s discuss it a little more in-depth — what does properly mean for authors specifically? 1) Attract. The entire point of social media, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, whatever, is to attract readers to you, the author. We say ‘brand the author, not the book,’ because most people have an innate interest in writers as people. We may write (insert genre here), but that doesn’t mean we are one-note. We are people, with many varied interests. If all you do is shove your book links at people, what does that tell them about you? Not much, except that you’re quite self-involved and could give a flying kitten about them. Basically, by only talking about yourself and your books all the time, you’re basically now ‘that guy’ at the party we all avoid. Do you want to be ‘that guy?’ So, how do we attract followers? Think about the Rule of Thirds (and it’s not really a rule so don’t get all rebellious. It’s more of a guideline. Breath.): one-third self-promotion, one-third promotion of others, one-third providing information, resources, and other content. And it’s not random content: you should know very specifically what keywords or phrases you are using in your branding and create/share content based on that. 2) Retain. Lori talks quite a bit about email lists. Despite advances in social media tech, email is still the most popular way to connect with readers (beside word of mouth).