Guest Post: Twitter! The Great Mystery! By Kristi Hudecek-
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- khudecek
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Guest Post: Twitter! The Great Mystery! By Kristi Hudecek-
(author of For the Love of Suzanne)
I have to confess that I went into Twitter kicking and screaming. I didn’t know anything about it. It was scary and overwhelming. What was I going to do with it? I’d created an account in 2011 and had two followers. How was I going to gain anything with a measly two followers? I needed to establish a presence to effectively reach people who might be interested in buying my first novel and I had no clue how to do it.
I got back into my account after a four year absence and was amazed at how many things were popping up. I was seeing things I’d never heard about or even wanted to hear about. That’s when I learned how to follow people who have the same interests as I do.
But who was I supposed to follow? Right away, I followed some people who had helped me with my book. Likewise, they followed me. Fortunately, there is a box on the upper right of the screen with suggestions. I went from a mere two followers to my current number of 75! Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
There is no prize for having the most followers, but the more you have, the more exposure you get. If you get lucky, you will have people retweet your post and reach even more people. If you like the tweet you’re reading, go ahead and click the heart at the bottom of the tweet. It notifies the person who posted it that you’ve seen it and lets them know that they aren’t totally ignored in the organized chaos.
I soon discovered followers could be purchased. Why would anybody buy followers? It will make your followers number go up and have your posts reach even more people. It can be beneficial if you’re trying to sell something or get the word out that you’ve done something phenomenal. It’s all in what your message is and what you’re trying to accomplish.
Oh, those blasted redundant posts. The same people are posting almost the same thing minute-after-minute and sometimes they’re going almost as fast as a teleprompter for a news anchor. Yeah, there are “bots” on Twitter. They post up everything under the sun, but you can control them. You simply go to their profile and either unfollow them or go to the settings and mute or block them.
I had some fun learning how to shorten URLs. You have just 140 characters to get your message out and a long URL will take up most of that space. I experimented with tinyurl.com, ow.ly (no extension) and Google. They each serve the same purpose, but Google has a tracking feature and a little game you have to play to ensure you’re a human. Ow.ly, too, has a game to play to prove you aren’t a robot but doesn’t track anything. If you just want to get it done, tinyurl.com might be for you.
Examples:
Tinyurl.com
This is simple with copying the long URL into the box that says, “Enter a long URL to make tiny:”
I made this long URL:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Suzanne-Kris ... of+suzanne
Into this tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/nmr5m6g
How about trying it with Ow.ly?
Long URL:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Suzanne-Kris ... of+suzanne
To the short URL:
http://ow.ly/UiGiS
One of the most confounding things I encountered with Twitter was the hashtags. I didn’t know how to use them; I didn’t know what they were for. After experimenting, I now understand them and appreciate them. They are a useful tool. They serve to make searching easier.
Let’s say you want to find out what’s going on with National Doughnut Day. To make it easier, in the search box, type in #NationalDoughnutDay and look at all the pictures of the delightful doughnuts that pop up and all the events associated with this special day. You can do this with any subject.
You make your own hashtags. There are no rules about creation, other than to use a pound sign (#) as your first character and use no spaces. As you type your hashtag, a list of suggestions will come up that might help if you aren’t sure what to use.
By all means, check your notifications and messages. You never know what’s waiting for you.
Follow me at @khudecek
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For the Love of Suzanne
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"Ghostwriter" short story from Holding Fire
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I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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- khudecek
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I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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- khudecek
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I consider myself a newbie, too but once you get out there and start trying to figure things out, it comes relatively quickly.
I'm up to 92 followers now. Pretty cool stuff even if I suspect a few of them are "bots".
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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Once you get used to it, it's not so bad.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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I'll follow you if you follow me. @khudecek
Hey, I'm up to 98 followers now. It's a jungle out there but once you get the hang of it, it isn't so bad.
Bookowlie, I'm glad you mastered your phone. I still struggle with mine and it isn't nearly as sophisticated as an iPhone. My phone is so archaic, I'm surprised it has buttons.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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After reading about how to use Twitter myself and trying a few easy tips as an author and blogger, I've had a lot of success. I think it's a great tool for networking and marketing with other people. In fact, I'd say that I now use it more for networking and sharing articles about writing and writing craft than anything else.
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gali wrote:I don't have a Twitter, but I enjoyed reading your informative article.
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety. ~ Psalms 4:8
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- khudecek
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What's your Twitter handle? I'll follow you.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost