Are your Twitter tweets falling into a black hole? Or do you get 1 or 2 re-tweets and that's it?
You can help boost your re-tweets easily!
It took me a long time to get on Twitter. I didn't understand the point of trying to squish your thoughts into 140 characters. Facebook was so much easier.
But I finally joined about year ago, and I've met a lot of new people in my genre, seen great cover and advertising ideas, gotten links to excellent writing articles, and I've reached 14.6k followers.
Every week, I pin a tweet to the top of my feed that gets about 200 RTs (re-tweets) during the week before I change to a new one for the next week. Some people keep their pinned tweet there for months and get 3000 RTs.
Here's the simplest and easiest way to get RTs: Use Hashtags.
There are 'bots that scan the feed and RT anything with the hashtag they've been programmed to, like #horror. There are also people who want to be helpful or connect with new people who'll put a hashtag in their search box, go to the results and just RT everything that comes up.
The best hashtags for writers are:
#amwriting
#amediting
#writingtips
Your genre (#thriller, #SciFi, #romance, #PNR, #Comedy, etc.)
At @ tags work well too if you are tweeting a link to someone's book or blog. Any tweet with someone's Twitter handle in it (like @LXCain) will show up on their notifications, and then they can RT it too.
For instance, this tweet will get lost in the slush:
Tarantulas Loose on Plane! Go see Kim Lajevardi's surprising news stories here: https://kimlajevardi.com/2016/05/25/weekly-news-76/
Kim will never even know I plugged her page.
This tweet is better:
Tarantula #Horror on Plane! Surprising news stories from @KimLajevardi #amwriting #amediting https://kimlajevardi.com/2016/05/25/weekly-news-76/
Now, because I put her handle with the @ sign, she'll be notified I mentioned her, and can see the tweet and RT it. And the hashtag people can now find this and they'll RT it too.
So if you want your tweets to be seen by more people and get RTs, use hashtags and use the Twitter handle @ for the person you're tweeting about!
And don't forget to put your Twitter handle near the top of your blog so all your blogging buddies can follow you!
(Next month, I'll be writing about how to increase your Twitter following and grow steadfast re-tweeters!)
This is a post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It exists so the community of blogging writers can share and support each other, blog-hopping to cheerlead and commiserate. To find out more, visit:
Insecure Writer's Support Group. Plus, check out the IWSG Website for lots of helpful info and links.
39 comments:
Lexa, I'm still in the "lost" mode of Twitter...good points! I have nowhere to go but up, ha ha.
I have no clue about Twitter even though I feel, at times, I can be a twit. Does that count??:) actually I think this is good advice for people in any field where they are trying to get known.
I have not spent the time to really figure out twitter, but I have noticed you re-tweeting me, recently, which I appreciate. A lot.
I have a thing I'm going to be doing on there soonish, so, maybe, I'll hit you up for some ideas before I do.
Great post Lexa. You're the best RTer ever! Hashtags are indeed the answer! What's the question?
I agree, hashtags make it a lot easier for tweets to be found. I don't do it as much as I should, since my anxiety gets the best of me, a lot of the time, but I try to include them when I need to market my work...
You're definitely the Twitter queen… I tend to use it more to talk to groups of people than anything else.
I don't even know how to pin a tweet to the top of my feed… D'oh!
I've been on Twitter for years, but it's only in the past six months or so that I've cottoned onto hashtags etc. I haven't changed my pinned tweet in months though - great idea, I need to try that out!
Maybe I'm too literal, but wouldn't you use things like #amwriting or #amediting if you were actually doing one of those two things? In your example, shouldn't it be #amreading or #scaredshitless?
If I ever get on Twitter I'll keep these tips in mind.
You are so right Lexa. I use hashtags quite a bit and it is also good to take part in trending hashtags. I have even got some follows just because I regularly posted on various trending hashtags having fun online and sharing thoughts and laughter. Also if you really love a show and can live tweet, do. I did so with #Arrow and Wednesday nights because one of my most active nights online with retweets and likes everywhere. I also tweet with other writers even best selling ones. One of my highlights this year was Wendy Higgins following me after I mentioned one of her books during #K8Chat as one of the examples of realism done well. People notice what you post online. We must always remember that and utilize it to the best of our ability.
I need to try making some pinned Tweets. I've been on Twitter for six years and only have a third of your following.
That's awesome how you've built your Twitter following. I don't really love Twitter and just use it to promote my blog posts right now. Reading blogs and trying to get on Facebook a bit (I'm not good at that) take all my social media time.
I use it, mostly, as a tool to find out what is happening locally, to meet other writers, teachers, bloggers and librarians on line and let it be known when my blog has been updated. I must admits, my follows are in the hundreds, not the thousands, and if I waded through I'd find plenty of them are irrelevant to me. There are some automatic follows when you mention certain things. For example, I can recall getting a sudden follow from a Ferret Society when I made a joke about ferrets on Twitter! But hashtags sound good. I only use them now and then, though.
Thanks for all the re-tweet's!
I'm learning! This is great stuff, thank you!
You've done an amazing job building up your following.
I love Twitter! And thanks for all the RTs! I've never pinned anything. Maybe I should start:)
Thanks, Lexa! I've been on twitter for a while and never have been able to figure out the purpose or how to use it. This is MOST helpful.
First of all, thank you Lexa for all your retweets!!!!! Twitter is mind boggling. And you're so right about #hashtags. If you don't use them, your tweet gets overlooked. Great Twitter advice. You amaze me!!!
Thanks for this. I've been meaning to join the Twitter party and any information I can get is super helpful.
Between you and Chrys, I'm going to figure this stuff out. I'm bookmarking and coming back later. Thanks, Lexa!
I still don't quite "get" twitter. But I will try this out.
Awesome advice. I was frustrated when they left the timeline and went to the algorithm. Stupid stupidheads. *sigh*
Twitter is still just a word to me. It scares me to death! Great advice for when and if I do join in. Thank you.
Great post! You really have rocked Twitter. I have a lot still to learn.
Thanks for the shout out! I love the tarantula story. 😀
Great advice, Lex. I need all the help I can get when it comes to Twitter.
People keep telling me I should be on Twitter, but so far I haven't gotten into it. Probably should do so.
Ooo, that's a good idea about pinning a tweet. I'll have to start doing that.
Fascinating how this all works, from the view of someone who has no clue!
I love those pinned tweets! And that reminds me, I have to change mine. Sheesh! I need to find my checklist again which I made, then lost, then made again.
You really have mastered the art of Twitter and you've rightfully earned your title of Twitter Queen. I see that someone else is calling themself by my Twitter handle, Twitter Twit, LOL. I've been on Twitter for a while and I really just can't seem to get the hang of it either. That's why I call myself the Twitter Twit. Sometimes I start to feel like maybe I'm sort of getting the hang of it, but then when I can't be on there several times a day or when I have to be a way for days in a row then it's too hard to return and then I give up and don't know how to get back into the swing of things. Now I have some third party app posting tweets that I don't want and I have to figure out how to stop it. It's a mess. I Also seem to get conflicting advice a lot. Thanks for clearing up the placement of the @yourtwittername. Someone else told me to always put it at the very end because if I put it at the beginning then only the people listed after it would see the tweets and that would be no one, or something like that. I'm sure I got the reasoning wrong. So that really confused me. My husband has been really sick and in the ICU for almost the entire month of May, he is still in the hospital and I've been off all social media for a while. I'm slowly making my way back, and I'm going to use all of your tips to try and make my experience with Twitter better this time around. I'm looking forward to your next post and more Twitter tips. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips! I didn't know a tweet could be pinned. Must look into that.
I've been on Twitter for a while, but never knew what to do with it. Lately, I've been learning. Thanks for the additional tips. I may understand it someday.
Hi Lexa,
Ah yes and some excellent observations about Twitter. You might not of noticed, "Penny the Pawblisher", tweets your blog and almost every other blog. Penny and I are very aware of the workings of Twitter. She is still getting huge feedback on a tweet from way back on May 19. If you interact with somebody famous, or in this case, an infamous politician named, David Cameron, things can go wild on Twitter. Penny's Twitter handle is near the top of our blog page. It hasn't got that much reaction from the blogging world.
Take it easy, Lexa. Note the Tweet of your blog for which you can Re-tweet.
Gary :)
I'm still pretty lost on Twitter. I tweet whenever I have a new post on my blog, but that's about it. I'll have to look into pinned tweets. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for sharing that! I tried so hard to explain the concept of @insert twitter handle to someone the other day and they didn't seem to get it. Then, they said, "I didn't know how to do that tweet thing you suggested, but they I saw your tweets somehow and so I just retweeted them with that retweet icon!" Sigh. Thanks again. I am going to direct them to your post! LOL!
I haven't jumped into the Twitter ocean yet, but if I do, I'll revisit your posts. You're obviously an expert! :)
Great observations. I've started trying to add hashtags to my blog titles to make for easy tweeting too!
Good advice! I use all of your three favorite #hashtags-hope they work! You'd think a simple #writing would be better, but no one ever mentions that one.
I haven't been bitten by the twitter bug yet - I don't have time for the blog or FB even. Pretty interesting how popular this trend has become.
Good tips!
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