Twitter helps to keep me sane and keep me connected. I
follow a lot of writers and a lot of writers follow me. I also follow a couple
of choirs, some teachers, one or two Holocaust organisations, a couple of
language students, one or two news organizations, the Greater Manchester Police
(I started doing that during the riots in August 2011), a few publishers and a
favourite seaside resort in Spain.
How I use
Twitter
As soon as I switch on my computer each day, I check my
Twitter account for mentions, retweets and new followers. Then, I take a look
at the latest posts after I’ve finished certain chunks of work. It gives me a five to ten minute break every
so often. It’s a mental getting up from your desk and stretching your legs. When
you’re working in such an isolated way it’s good to know there are other folk
out there.
Why Twitter and not
Facebook?
I’m not so keen on Facebook and I guess I might walk away
from that sooner or later. I’m there because I feel that I should be. It constantly
confuses me. At least Twitter is easy to follow. Even when they change it, it’s
easy to get used to the new format. I love how it is organic – even if that can
be funny at times. I mentioned the word
SEO recently and suddenly had all these bright young things approaching me and
my multiple identities trying to sell me search engine optimisation. (No guys,
can’t afford it and that’s why I went on the course- to find out how to do it.)
You can guess what happened when I blogged about a girl in my latest novel
having a puncture. But on the whole it
works very well and I’m quite chuffed that the Wiener Library found me before I
found them.
Follow Friday
I guess within this system, we all have our likes and
dislikes. For instance, I’m not too keen on #ff (people you think are worth following you
mention on Fridays). Everybody I follow
is recommended- or – durh - I wouldn’t
be following them. And of course, all those people who follow me are very wise.
So they’re worth a look. Of course, I’m really pleased when somebody mentions
me. Every time I do it though I feel very bad about the people I’ve not
mentioned. So, I tend to duck out of that one.
Sample Sunday
On the other hand, I find #SampleSunday underused. I seem to
be one of the few that use it. The idea
is you put up a sample of your writing on a blog every Sunday and then past a
link to that blog in a Tweet. I’ve had quite a few hits on the samples I’ve
posted and I’ve certainly read others’ samples.
To promote or not to
promote
Some say you should, some say you shouldn’t. Some say your
tweeting should be 80% about other things, 20%
about self-promotion. I tend to agree with the latter. I tend to
unfollow anyone who only self-promotes. However, I have one writing friend who
only uses Twitter for self-promotion. She does it charmingly and her Tweets are
a joy to read. Several of her books / stories are on my reading list now. In
her case it’s working. And I will unashamedly promote other people’s work if I
like it.
Tweets as headlines
I’m following over 1,000 tweeps. (people who use Twitter). I
can’t possibly hope to read every single one and especially not all the links
that people have included. You have to learn to read tweets a little like the
way you read the newspaper: cherry-pick what really interests you.
Cheating on the 140
characters by including links?
This was a point made by someone new to Twitter – and I
notice that this person is now putting links into her tweets. No, not really.
Twitter is also an extremely fast way of letting people know you’ve said
something in more detail. They can choose whether to read the whole or not. I
often click through on to a link and then find it not so interesting after all.
On the other hand, I also find I haven’t got time to read an interesting post.
Well, in that case I’ve saved the link and read the post later.
Do as you would be
done by
I’ve shuddered a little when I’ve heard some people say they
only spend a few minutes a day on it. But they accept 500 or more followers,
scatter their worldly wisdom in front of them in the form of two or three
posts, expecting 1500 viewings, and aren’t prepared to listen to what their
followers have to say? Is that fair? It’s really a matter of finding a way of
keeping time spent reasonable but also not missing out on what could be
important and / or interesting. You
actually stand more chance with 140 characters than you do on Facebook and
various newsgroups and forums.
How I’ve benefitted
·
I’ve found out about competitions and calls for
submission for me and my students
·
I’ve found out about the activities of other writers
·
I’ve put out my own calls for submission.
·
I’ve found out about other books and events
·
I’ve told people about my books and events
·
I’ve laughed, joked and commiserated with friends
·
I’ve got news out real fast
·
I’ve found out news real fast
·
I’ve made lots of new friends
·
I’ve learnt to get my message across in 140
characters
·
I’ve had a good giggle
·
I’ve communicated to Richard Branson, Stephen
Fry, Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney and one or two others. (Of course, I have
no idea whether they’ve ever read my message, but that would also be true if I’d
communicated with them any other way except face to face. At least this way there
is a chance.)
·
I’ve read some really good tweet-length stories
·
I’ve shown my approval of others’ words very
quickly and easily: I’ve retweeted them.
A real joy
Yes, indeed. Twitter is a real
joy to me. For me personally it’s the best the Net has brought yet. It even improves
other platforms by the way it interacts with them. So, here’s to more tweeting.
