{"id":176,"date":"2013-07-03T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T00:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/social-media-for-writers-2-twitter\/"},"modified":"2020-07-01T13:43:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T03:43:17","slug":"social-media-for-writers-2-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2013\/07\/social-media-for-writers-2-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media for Writers #2: Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>I love Twitter. I do. And that is why it is featuring in this, the second in our series on Social Media for Writers. When I started this blog three and a half years ago, I joined Twitter<\/a> almost immediately. I’d been told it was a great way to meet other bloggers and get my posts ‘out there’.<\/div>\n

So I signed up, opened it up and… ran screaming from the room. How was I ever supposed to do this? Who should I follow? How would I get anyone to talk to me? I ended up following a whole lot of celebs, most of whom tweeted inane things at me, and nobody<\/i> wanted to talk to me.<\/p>\n

So I left.<\/p>\n

A few months later, under pressure from friends who know about these things, I went back in there. This time, I looked for people whose blogs I’d been reading. Then I looked to see who they were following and followed them. I followed people who tweeted great links about writing. I followed writers. And I, timidly at first, got involved in their conversations. I learned the lingo and I learned to love hashtags. I still love hashtags. Hashtags are a fine art.<\/p>\n

One of the people I met on Twitter in those (second) early days was Kerri Sackville. I could see straight away that Kerri was good<\/i> at Twitter. She had a great mix of witty, pithy tweets that could be (and were) retweeted easily, along with conversation, humour and general, well, Kerri-ness. I take great pride in the fact that one of our Tweetversations<\/a> led to the publishing of her first book (When My Husband Does The Dishes…<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Today, Kerri is writing her third book, along with countless columns, articles and blog posts. She is a lively speaker (we have appeared together on several panels, so I should know…), has been on the tele a lot (Sunrise, Mornings on Channel 9, The Morning Show on 7) and is currently a regular panelist on The Daily Edition (Channel Seven). She also teaches social media courses at the Australian Writers’ Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, there was no-one better to ask here today to answer some questions about Twitter for Writers.<\/p>\n

Will Twitter help me to sell books? How?<\/b>
\nKerri Sackville:<\/b> “Yes, absolutely. It is HARD to sell books these days. It’s not just enough to have a great book. There are hundreds of great books out there. You need publicity. Every author gets assigned a publicist for about six weeks for every book release (unless you’re a huge name author, in which case your books sell themselves anyway). The more you can do to promote yourself the better. Developing a Twitter following helps to get you name (brand) recognition so that a) people will notice your name in a bookstore and be more likely to pick up your book, and b) people will be aware of your book from Twitter and may take steps to seek it out themselves.”<\/p>\n

Do I need huge numbers of followers for it to work?<\/b>
\nKS:<\/b> “Obviously the more followers you have the better. But no, you don’t need huge numbers. Books sell by word of mouth. Even if you have a few hundred followers, they can spread the word to their friends and followers, who will spread it to theirs etc etc. It’s essentially pyramid selling online.”<\/p>\n

Top three tips for making the most of Twitter<\/b>
\n1.<\/b> Be funny, interesting, opinionated, or, preferably, all three.
\n2.<\/b> Respond to EVERYONE who engages with you.
\n3.<\/b> Get chatting to people – break in on conversations, reply to strangers, add to conversations. It’s all about the words!<\/p>\n

Biggest mistakes authors can make on Twitter<\/b>
\nKS<\/b>: “The biggest mistake ANYONE can make on Twitter is to try to sell their product before engaging with people. It is fine to give your books a plug, but you can only do this when you already have an engaged audience. So build a loyal following THEN plug your books, not the other way around.”<\/p>\n

Five authors you think are doing Twitter well<\/b>
\nKylie Ladd <\/a>
\nAnita Heiss<\/a>
\nTara Moss<\/a>
\nKate Forsyth<\/a>
\nCaitlin Moran<\/a>
\nFleur McDonald<\/a><\/p>\n

Kerri Sackville is the author of When My Husband Does The Dishes…<\/a> and The Little Book of Anxiety<\/a>. Find Kerri at her blog Life And Other Crises<\/a>, say hello on Facebook<\/a> or, of course, on Twitter<\/a>!<\/b><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like Social Media for Writers #1: Blogging<\/a>, and check out my list of 50 of the Best Australian Writers and Authors to follow on Twitter<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Twitter. I do. And that is why it is featuring in this, the second in our series on Social Media for Writers. When I started this blog three and a half years ago, I joined Twitter almost immediately. I’d been told it was a great way to meet other bloggers and get my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[697,688,5],"tags":[724,719,717,718],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-social-media-writers","category-writing","tag-blogging-for-authors","tag-book-promotion","tag-build-your-author-platform","tag-social-media-for-writers"],"yoast_head":"\nSocial Media for Writers #2: Twitter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twitter for writers: In this addition to the 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