So, you’re on Twitter! Congratulations. That’s quite an accomplishment. You filled out a simple form and voila! (Sometimes it is the most simple things that take the most energy, I know.)
Now what?
There’s a lot of people on Twitter and if you take a look at just one person’s Twitter stream, you’re going to feel like running away. Very far away. You’re okay. Relax. Everything is fine. You are not going to jump in head or feet first. You’re going to think this through one step at a time.
Step #1: Who do you follow on Twitter?
That may seem difficult, but really, it’s not. What’s your niche? Are you an author? Are you a business owner? There’s where you start. I use http://www.wefollow.com as a starting place. I go there and add myself by location (Seattle), occupation (writer), activities (social media, novels), and interests (publishing, publicity, PR, marketing). But you only get five categories, so really think. Must you really inform everyone on Twitter that you collect ceramic frogs? Is it vital or just kinda crazy cool? That’s up to you. But you’re establishing yourself as a BRAND on Twitter, so if that works into your business goals (say you resell ceramic frogs to other ceramic frog collectors) then it works. If you’re trying to establish yourself as a business consultant (and your brand has nothing to do with frogs), perhaps not so much.
Once you’ve added yourself to Wefollow.com, you can just go visit those same categories you now belong to. Click on #writer or #ceramic frogs (ha!) and find out who else is on Twitter with those interests. Those are people you should follow. But be selective. If you see a whole lot of folks that are all fellow writers, adding all of them may not be the best approach. “But,” you argue, “I’m a writer! Those are my people!”
Sure, but do you want to have as your audience just other writers? What about agents, editors, publishing people? If your book is about environmental issues, wouldn’t you want to follow folks who would be interested in what you have to say about that? Say, editors for National Geographic or Nature? It’s about finding an audience that wants to listen to what you have to say. It’s no good to just find more followers just like your mother or your friends who will think you are a genius, but won’t gain you much of a following. (We love our mothers and friends, but they don’t constitute an audience much of the time.)
The best part is that if you find people to follow that just may want to listen to what you have to say, they will turn around and follow you! (You’ll have to create amazing content in just 140 characters; more about that in a follow-up post.) And they’ll recommend you to their followers and on and on. Hey, some of these cool people you just met on Twitter will retweet your content out to their audience.
Now that is Twitter at its best.
Next time, what do you say on Twitter?
