Last week we talked about using Facebook for writers. This week, we’re going to dive into Twitter.
Full disclosure, I actually kind of love Twitter. I use it personally, not just professionally. I keep up with my friends, favorite celebrities, fellow writers and a few news resources. It’s amazing what can be shared in 144 characters. It’s built for haikus. I should post more haikus on Twitter.
Anyway, Twitter is a lot of fun is what I’m saying. It’s also a great way to stay on your reader’s radar. Twitter is the third highest referrer to Paper Beats World, if you were wondering.
Using Twitter
Twitter is pretty straightforward. Much like Facebook you can post whatever you want so long as it’s 144 characters. You can also post links to other media content like blog posts and Youtube posts. Can you post long insane paragraphs of your innermost thoughts? No, not at all. Honestly, that’s some of the appeal of Twitter for me. I can run right through a ton of information in a very small amount of time.
Hashtags
The big thing with Twitter is the hashtags. You can use them to search for different topics or keep track of a discussion. They’re exceptionally easy to use, if you’re nervous. You just type them into your post. For instance, if I write a tweet about writing, I’ll add #amwriting a the end of my post. Or if I post about something science fictiony, I’ll use #scifi. You can even make up your own hashtags. On the left hand side of the screen you can always see what the top trending hashtags are.
Tweeting at someone
You can tweet something directly at someone, really anyone. This pretty much guarantees that anyone can harass any celebrity at any time. But it’s also a big way that I communicate with people online. You can encourage your readers to tweet at you, and tweet back. All you need to do is take someone’s twitter name, and put an @ symbol in front of it.. Let’s say, for instance, you want to tweet me. Somewhere in your tweet, you type @NicoleCLuttrell and it will come right to me.
What to post
Like with Facebook, you can post links to your blog posts. Again, on WordPress, you can set it up to automatically post a link.
Beyond that, Twitter is mostly used for quick thoughts, jokes and comments. I love writing super short horror stories, and I’m actually not the only one who does that.
You can also retweet things that other people have been tweeted. The original tweeter gets credit, of course.
Honestly, though, the best way to learn about Twitter is to jump on and just read a bunch of tweets. The great thing is, it won’t take a lot of time.
If you have any questions about Twitter, feel free to ask in the comment section. Next week we’ll be talking about my favorite Social Media platform, Pintrest.
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