The Twitter Twit.
I posted the following on a writers forum where I'm publishing my book. All of my author friends tell me that I MUST Tweet. I thought you might find it both interesting and informative. If I'm really lucky, you might even be able to answer some of my questions. Just click the comments section following this:
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Okay, at the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I've signed up for a Twitter account. I've received the confirmation email and all is well, it appears I'm now a card carrying member of this secret organization. At least it is a big secret to me. I now have this weapon that is loaded and ready for action, problem is, I haven't a clue where to aim it and what to do with it.
As I've said before, my cell phone is about ten years old and wouldn't tweet if I threw birdseed at it. It's battery is big enough that I could jump-start my motorcycle with it, but as far as I can tell, it won't tweet. Having said that, I guess I'm limited to the PC/Web driven version of Twitter, which is fine.
However, what do I do now? I feel totally clueless. How do I tell folks that like 140 character messages about my 342 page book? Why would anyone that likes to read things in 140 character groups even be interested in reading a book?
Is there a simple (I mean really simple) tutorial out there that explains why, and how I can use this "tool?" I'd love to know what sort of messages you authors send out? I can picture some:
"Hi, I just wrote a page of my new book, I'm all tuckered out, guess I'll go to bed. I'm most creative when sleeping, just ask my wife."
"Here's my book, a tweet at a time, "Part 1: It was a dark and stormy night..., (Part II tomorrow)"
"The voices in my head are telling me a story, quick, write this down before I lose it, I don't have a pen."
"This Twit has learned to tweet; now I'm learning to quack, you'll have to wait for the book to come out for that.
Etc. etc. etc.
Seriously, HELP!!! Where do I go from here? How do people find out about my work, and why would they? I've mastered (yeah, sure) web sites, blogs, and Facebook, but no matter how I pucker my lips, I have not yet successfully tweeted...
Dennis
PS: Since writing this a year ago, I've learned a lot and I've become somewhat more accomplished, but I can still be considered a twit if you like. Here are a few recent comments that I added to the original posting:
I was a babe in the wood when I signed on. I sent out my very first tweet, “Hello world, this is my first tweet.” Then I waited, figuring someone would respond. I waited three days-nothing! I figured it had to be like ham radio, call out a CQ and wait and see if someone answers. I then figured out that, since I didn’t have any followers, nobody received the message. Twitter is unique. The longest message can only be 140 characters, so U need 2 B creative and economical with words, (translated: so You need to be creative). Using a URL translator becomes a must. See tinyurl.com for one example, there are others. Once you shrink a 200 character web URL to just a few, you can stick it in the tweets. Just like the other social media, you need to have followers (friends) that share your interests. I suspect that I may have had more readers pick up a copy of my book as a result of a tweet than from any other social network posting. Once you become proficient with Twitter, I recommend using an app like Tweetdeck.com to enhance your Twitter experience.
Author of: Three Hundred Zeroes: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail
A non-fiction adventure travel story on the Appalachian Trail
Finalist in the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Contest
Available on Amazon.com, Kindle and the CreateSpace eStore.
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Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you wish. I'll follow you, if I can figure it out. I think my address (is that what they call it) is @k1ypp . I said "think" because I'm not sure of anything at this point. I'm certain if you're a Tweeter, Twitterer, Chirper etc., you'll find me. I can't understand why anyone would want to follow me when I don't even know where I'm going.
________________________________________________________________________
Okay, at the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I've signed up for a Twitter account. I've received the confirmation email and all is well, it appears I'm now a card carrying member of this secret organization. At least it is a big secret to me. I now have this weapon that is loaded and ready for action, problem is, I haven't a clue where to aim it and what to do with it.
As I've said before, my cell phone is about ten years old and wouldn't tweet if I threw birdseed at it. It's battery is big enough that I could jump-start my motorcycle with it, but as far as I can tell, it won't tweet. Having said that, I guess I'm limited to the PC/Web driven version of Twitter, which is fine.
However, what do I do now? I feel totally clueless. How do I tell folks that like 140 character messages about my 342 page book? Why would anyone that likes to read things in 140 character groups even be interested in reading a book?
Is there a simple (I mean really simple) tutorial out there that explains why, and how I can use this "tool?" I'd love to know what sort of messages you authors send out? I can picture some:
"Hi, I just wrote a page of my new book, I'm all tuckered out, guess I'll go to bed. I'm most creative when sleeping, just ask my wife."
"Here's my book, a tweet at a time, "Part 1: It was a dark and stormy night..., (Part II tomorrow)"
"The voices in my head are telling me a story, quick, write this down before I lose it, I don't have a pen."
"This Twit has learned to tweet; now I'm learning to quack, you'll have to wait for the book to come out for that.
Etc. etc. etc.
Seriously, HELP!!! Where do I go from here? How do people find out about my work, and why would they? I've mastered (yeah, sure) web sites, blogs, and Facebook, but no matter how I pucker my lips, I have not yet successfully tweeted...
Dennis
PS: Since writing this a year ago, I've learned a lot and I've become somewhat more accomplished, but I can still be considered a twit if you like. Here are a few recent comments that I added to the original posting:
I was a babe in the wood when I signed on. I sent out my very first tweet, “Hello world, this is my first tweet.” Then I waited, figuring someone would respond. I waited three days-nothing! I figured it had to be like ham radio, call out a CQ and wait and see if someone answers. I then figured out that, since I didn’t have any followers, nobody received the message. Twitter is unique. The longest message can only be 140 characters, so U need 2 B creative and economical with words, (translated: so You need to be creative). Using a URL translator becomes a must. See tinyurl.com for one example, there are others. Once you shrink a 200 character web URL to just a few, you can stick it in the tweets. Just like the other social media, you need to have followers (friends) that share your interests. I suspect that I may have had more readers pick up a copy of my book as a result of a tweet than from any other social network posting. Once you become proficient with Twitter, I recommend using an app like Tweetdeck.com to enhance your Twitter experience.
Author of: Three Hundred Zeroes: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail
A non-fiction adventure travel story on the Appalachian Trail
Finalist in the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Contest
Available on Amazon.com, Kindle and the CreateSpace eStore.
________________________________________________________________________
Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you wish. I'll follow you, if I can figure it out. I think my address (is that what they call it) is @k1ypp . I said "think" because I'm not sure of anything at this point. I'm certain if you're a Tweeter, Twitterer, Chirper etc., you'll find me. I can't understand why anyone would want to follow me when I don't even know where I'm going.