Twitter is the only profile based social media that I use. Period. I have an author Facebook that I think I liked a few bands on and a personal Facebook that I literally have fifteen friends added. I hate Facebook with a passion and the only reason I have one is: 1. Can’t delete the damn thing. And 2. My girlfriend doesn’t like appearing to be single, so I keep a Facebook so she can have “In a relationship with-”
Silly? Absolutely.
So twitter is my guilty pleasure and something I enjoy most of the time. For some reason I seem to gravitate towards twitter while slightly intoxicated, (perhaps more on that later.) I like it because it keeps the social experience simple. I can follow/friend people with just a click, able to do so with just about anyone and it feel normal instead of stalker-ish. At least for people with public profiles, everyone is on the same page, all on twitter to follow and be followed. You can retweet or tweet someone back and carry on a short convo with a stranger but have it feel friendly. I think it mainly has to do with the 140 character limitation, keeps things short and sweet. All of that is great. For an Indie Author, it is a great way to mingle and get your name seen.
Now on the other side of the social coin, some people are annoying as shit. Especially a lot of authors. (Sorry.) Most of the time I can’t open my feed without finding half or more of it is self plugs, (book promoting.) Or tweets that are nothing but hash tags with a link. My favorite though, is people that follow, wait for a follow, then unfollow once they get it… Recently I had a small DJ follow me from the UK. Sent me a PM with a link and what seemed like a personally typed message, not just an auto service message. So I followed the link and listened to some of his songs, a trance type Dubstep that sounded decent.
A couple days later, I thought I’d message him back and compliment his music, since I was genuinely surprised I liked it. Much to my surprise when I couldn’t message him because he no longer followed me. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Now, I’m not one to boast about my number of followers. (At least not outside jabbing at my girlfriend from time to time just to tease.) I like following a wide range of people and typically they follow back. No smoke and mirrors. It’s just that simple. I typically follow until they unfollow me or they don’t tweet for a while. I use a neat little website called JustUnfollow.com and It tracks who unfollowes me and who disappears. Makes it pretty easy. I also use an app called TweetCaster which is like the twitter app on crack. Allowing me to mute certain people that plug a little too much, while still giving me the ability to see their other tweets.
My approach to twitter is pretty good, I think. I have gotten a little over 200 followers in the last few weeks just by following others. I’d say half of the 200 found me, while I found the other half. Most of the time I keep my book plugs at one per day, most days I don’t plug at all. I tweet what is happening to me, around me, and stuff I find interesting. As an author you sell yourself first and your books second, in my opinion.
#ThanksForReading,
LA_Tafe
Tafe's Indie Pub 