Lots of authors find Twitter to be incredibly beneficial for connecting with readers, authors, publishing industry specialists (editors, publishers, agents), and really any type of specialized interest. I find that both veteran Twitter users and newbie authors can still be confused by whom they should follow. Just today someone asked: how do I connect to readers?
It can be confusing because when you open your account and fill out your bio, Twitter makes recommendations based on the words you have entered. So if you enter ‘writer,’ ‘blogger,’ or ‘author,’ they will connect you with other authors or bloggers — when really, you want to connect with readers! Or maybe agents or publishers. Or hey, maybe you’re a gourmet chef in your spare time (it’s possible — not for me; I burn everything), and you want to find others with similar interests.
Let’s deconstruct.
1) SEARCH ON TWITTER ITSELF
Pretty basic stuff. Type in a word or phrase in the Search box at the top of the page. How does this help you connect with others you’re interested in?
- Hashtags. By using a hashtag in Search, it will pull all instances of that hashtag. So let’s say, for example, you put in #bookclub (an excellent term for finding readers, by the way), all uses of that term come up. You can then see who is using that term and follow them, retweet them, read their bios, list them, whatever. For a great explanation of hashtags, check out this article by Susan Orlean in The New Yorker of all places!
- Advanced Search. I’ve mentioned this a few times and I think it’s a great tool. Can’t find exactly what you’re looking for in regular Search? Try this. You can enter a term, or use their ‘search operators,’ which helps you focus your query. Twitter provides examples in their Advanced Search area of help that explains what that means (here’s one: Contains ‘love’ OR ‘hate’ or both). I find Advanced Search a great timesaver when it comes to looking for specific followers or topics.
- Discover: Twitter introduced the Discover tab last year and it’s great! It’s like a little cheat sheet for our interests. Discover is broken down into five categories: Tweets, Activity, Who to Follow, Find Friends, and Browse Categories. Search among them to find targeted followers.
2) THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS
Daily I use ManageFlitter, Hootsuite, and Pluggio. How does this help me find targeted followers and connect with readers? Here’s how:
- ManageFlitter. I use the Pro version because I manage so many accounts and because it offers one key option: following accounts and/or tweets using keywords; however, the free version is effective for unfollowing. Additionally, you can follow up to 100 people at once — yay! No more going through cherry-picking individual accounts on Twitter itself, which is time-consuming anyway. Sure, you’ll follow some people that won’t work out, but so what? You’d do that anyway if you simply worked with Twitter only. I can manage and grow multiple accounts easily, it gives analytics, and I can even schedule form there (though I don’t).
Tip: Many people start on Twitter and think they’re stuck at following 2,000 accounts. Not so, if you use ManageFlitter to delete inactives, eggs (usually bot accounts anyway), non-followbacks, and others. You can also import your Lists as well as white list people.
Finally, if you have participated in a Twitter chat, enter the name of the chat in your ‘tweet search’ and follow other participants. Easy!
- Hootsuite. I love Hootsuite because I can schedule in tweets or posts for days or weeks in advance, while still live tweeting from there. (Tweetdeck is very similar, but I’ve found it to be glitchy at times.) You can manage all your accounts in one place: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ page, YouTube, Instagram, and tens of others.They also have a Chrome extension that allows me to automatically share or schedule an article or blog post from the web– it shortens the link for me, pulls the headline, and makes it ready to go. Super convenient. And they’ve now updated it with an auto-scheduler feature (a la BufferApp). Plus, it’s free for up to five accounts. It’s laid out in columns which makes it easier to see activity and follow people.
- Pluggio. I read an article about this wonder tool and tried it out for myself (free for limited accounts). You can follow/unfollow which helps you target readers, etc. You can schedule. You can live tweet. Best of all is their drip feed feature — set it up to find news searches or blog posts on a particular keyword (i.e., bookclubs) and it pulls articles for you, which you then approve and it ‘drips’ them out at whatever time interval you set. Best of all, it’s free (with limited options). I use the Pro version and LOVE it.
What I love most about Twitter is how easy it is to interact with all kinds of people and curate wonderful content. If you’re still thinking that Twitter (or any social media) is your personal ‘BUY MY BOOK!’ link dumping ground, think again. Selling and marketing requires finesse — not simply spamming links.
