Can you afford not to be a twit?

Hi everyone! Haven't those malware messages on blogger been a pain! After spending half a day dealing with blogger I got nowhere really. The messages seem to come and go at will. I have an excellent anti-virus program and there was nothing malicious on my site so don't be worried if you visited me and received the message.

Today's post is rather ironic as my twitter account was hacked recently, but I learned a lot as I fixed it up, mainly that a lot of people care...

I was impressed by a post on Raquel Byrnes' blog some months ago and asked her permission to re-post in case you missed it. These are the opinions of Nicole Rodgers who is somewhat of an expert in this area.

Some of us have discussions re social media, especially that upstart Twitter. Some see it as a waste of time, some can't imagine a life without it. No matter what your opinion is, like me, you may find Nicole's insights intriguing...

Over to Nicole.

Just a decade ago if you went to university to learn marketing skills what you learnt had absolutely nothing to do with the reality of the modern media.

Now even 'wasting' time on Twitter is really more useful from a marketing standpoint than any university learning regarding demographics and market trends.

According to Nicole Rodgers, having a strong Twitter following is really one of the most important aspects of running any kind of successful business on the web today. She offers ten tips on creating that following:

1.  Follow Everyone Back

• If someone follows you, follow them back. No exceptions. Even following back a spam bot can be helpful if a dozen other people followed them back, too.

2.  Design a Great Avatar

• Your userpic is the reader's first impression of you. If it looks dull, people are less likely to read that tiny little snippet of text sitting next to it.

3.  Follow the Big Names

• Even if you don't care what they have to say, follow the big social media people, the "opinion leaders" you can find listed at Twittercounter and other social media ranking sites. Even if you could care less, Twitter is all about big numbers. 

4.  Send @Messages to the Big Names

• Ninety nine percent of the time, they're not going to answer you, but that doesn't matter, because here's the trick: people will see that you're sending those messages to some famous person and think "This person must be big, they know (insert celebrity name here)." It's total baloney, of course, but it works.

5.  Link, Link, Link

• Don't just say "this a hilarious video", link to it. Link to interesting articles, pictures, videos, songs, everything. If sixty percent of your Tweets are just links, you're doing something right.

6.  Be an Expert

• People are a lot more likely to look for Twitter accounts focused on a subject they take an interest in than a Twitter account simply dedicated to your own personal thoughts and ramblings. If you know a lot about video games, movie news, antique furniture, whatever, milk that knowledge, and once you've made a name for yourself, don't be afraid to have controversial opinions. Nothing doubles your followers like a controversial opinion.

7.  Tweet, Tweet and Tweet Again

• Most people who use Twitter check their accounts at the same time every day. If they're following a hundred other accounts, then there's a good chance that your Tweets will be pushed off their page by the time they sign on. Post your best Tweets a couple extra times throughout the day to push them back to the top for those who haven't seen them yet.

8. Use Multimedia

• The more pictures, videos and mixed media you link, the better.

9.  Use Easy Tools

• There are all kinds of apps you can get for your phone and your web browser to make Tweeting incredibly easy, keeping you in the loop and letting you text tweets in half the time.

10. Be a Twitter Junkie

• Don't be afraid to be one of those people with their nose constantly buried in the phone, it helps.

We can say what we will about Twitter, but the bottom line is that it's one of the most effective marketing tools ever created, and if you're looking to develop an audience or get your piece of the market share, you'd be crazy not to take advantage.

Nicole Rodgers has been blogging about online marketing for 3 years.

What do you think?

Myself, I've been finding twitter more and more useful, especially the hashtag symbols. I write for #RFWer, #FridayFlash and other  memes as they arise. By using the hashtags, other writers can find your current stories easily, comment and RT (Retweet) to their followers. The current Writers Platform-Building Campaign uses #writecampaign for notices and to reach out to all those who've joined up.

Writers have a world of help open to them by following just some of the amazing tweet helpers such as:

@BookBuzzr
@BookEditorLM
@audaciouseditor
@BookMarketer
@WoMensLitCafe #FF
@BookReTweeter
@IndieBookIBC

and all the Publishers, indy and established are at your fingertips. And you can get all sorts of help with self publishing. Really, except for getting someone to cook dinner for you, it's all there (well, maybe that too!)

Since I started writing this post I've had a bit of a following frenzy. I now have nearly 900 followers and am listed in 95 separate lists. Groovy. Now all these followers can find out who cooked me dinner, ha ha. Seriously, if your followers are linkers you'll be able to access so much info your head will spin. And having Tweet Deck is a great way to see what your your fellow twits are saying. Just don't forget to save time for writing!

•  Are you a twit?
• Did you find any of Nicole's tips useful?
• Did you disagree with the opinions in this post?
• How has twitter been useful to you as a writer?
• Can you add any more writer helpers to my short list above?

If you are really into this, you might like to read Nicola Morgan's post about Twitter and she has an e-book dedicated to answering your questions about Twitter: