Article ideas are ephemeral in nature. They pop into ones mind when they are least expected. Take the idea for this article as a prime example. My wife’s a crossword puzzle fanatic and does every one she can find, well all except the New York Times crosswords because they are too hard for her, or at least so she tells me. Anyway, earlier today she walked into my home office and asked me if I knew a five-letter word for a Twitter message. Simple enough, it was “tweet,” but it gave me the idea for this article.
Twitter, like most social networking sites can be a powerful tool to promote oneself and ones writing but one has to invest some time in the site to make it work. Tweeting is an art because with a limit of 140 characters per tweet, one has to make every character work. Twitter is a great tool for teaching a verbose writer how to cut out the fat. It teaches us to use words like verbose in place of two words like “long winded.” I just want to point out a few things that I have learned about using Twitter effectively.
The first thing to know is to know why you are tweeting. If you are on Twitter simply for the social interaction that it offers, it really doesn’t matter who you follow. If you are on Twitter to promote yourself and your business, then you want to follow people and companies that have something to offer you.
The second thing is that you have to follow other folks on Twitter if you expect them to follow your Tweets. It’s an unwritten rule of human nature and of the Twitter community that if you follow someone they in turn, as a rule, will follow you back. It’s like I’m always telling my wife who doesn’t know more than two or three people up here on Walch’s Mountain, if you want friends you have to show people that you are friendly. Up here on my mountain my wife has to get out of the house and talk to the neighbors, on Twitter you have to become a follower of others if you expect others to follow you and your tweets. It won’t take long after you start following other tweeters that others on Twitter will take the initiative to follow you first. My followers grow daily now.
Tweet about your work and include links as to where your work can be seen or read. Whatever you do don’t let your tweets resound with a capital “I.” A good tweet shouldn’t sound like it’s all about “ME,” “ME,” “ME!” Show your interest in those that you are following by sending them direct messages about what they are tweeting about if those tweet genuinely interest you. Don’t fake interests though because you will be caught. Faked interest is just plain lying and once you’re caught and you will be caught, you will lose all credibility.
Original article: Promoting yourself on Twitter – written by Jerry Walch on Factoidz