I have my moments when I use Twitter quite a bit. But then I have my moments when I don’t use it much at all.
Right now I am having one of those moments when I’m not using it much.
Shame on me, I know.
As a writer, I need to be on there every day for at least a few minutes a day. However, some days I’m lucky to do much at all.
How is Twitter helpful for me as a writer? How could it help you?
Let me show you five ways it will help us both.
1. Sharing with others
I have both of my blogs attached to Twitter.
What does that mean? It means that once my blog goes live the link to it shows up in my Twitter feed so that my followers can see, read, and hopefully retweet it.
I have also retweeted things I have enjoyed as well. I mean it’s only fair if people are retweeting my writing that I do the same in return.
I have shared links to my books as well. Twitter is a great way to promote and market yourself.
However, I strongly suggest that you don’t say, “Buy my book!” That’s the best way to turn people off and make them unfollow you.
I have quoted a sentence from my books or asked things about the topics I cover in my books or simply made a statement. That’s how you build relationships.
2. Writing
With only 140 characters, my writing is going to be as concise as it can be. I have written a tweet, and when I realize I can’t fit everything in I want to say, I cut unnecessary words, like “the” and “a/an.” My writing has improved quite a bit because of this.
You become a better editor because you have to tweet what fits.
3. Discovering ideas
I’m continually searching for ideas for blog posts or other things to help me with my writing.
As you can imagine, Twitter has thousands and thousands of tweets in the feed every day so there are more than plenty of ideas floating around.
My Facebook group, 10 Minute Novelists, even does a chat on Twitter on Thursday nights so when I join that chat, I get ideas that way as well.
4. Improving Vocabulary
Going along with #2, tweeting helps your vocabulary improve.
I tend to use action verbs with my writing anyway. If you don’t and use more adverbs and adjectives, this will teach you to use those action verbs.
5. Meeting others
I have met other writers and people from other areas using Twitter. I have read how you can meet clients if you do something like freelancing.
This is also a great way to meet your readers and see what they like to read.
Remember how I mentioned the retweeting earlier? That means they like what you’ve written. Write more articles and blog posts like those!
Between Facebook and Twitter, they are the two social media I use the most. I’m learning to use Pinterest more, but I find the other two to be the best ways to reach my readers.
However, each social media had a different function. Twitter doesn’t really need to take much time from your day.
And if you really would like to learn Twitter, I would suggest this book by Katharine Grubb, Conquering Twitter in 10 Minutes a Day.
On that note, I will be getting back to Twitter as I used to do. How do you use Twitter?
I admit, Twitter is a bit of a mystery to me. I don’t think or write in sound bites. Thanks for some thoughtful reframing.
No problem.
I love this idea to use Twitter to find ideas for writing. I was scrambling to find a topic for my blog this week. It would have been so easy to jump on Twitter and scroll a bit.
I have to admit I’m an infrequent Twitter user. It’s an untapped resource for me, so hearing about how you use it inspires me. I think if I invested just a little bit of time on that platform, it could take me places.
I’m glad I could inspire you. It’s a good way to build relationships.
I am a horrible Twitter user! I’ve linked the blog to it, but that’s about it. I use it during webinars etc, but I do need to do a better job of being active on Twitter. I think it’s my inherent wordiness that is the problem- I always go over the character limit and have to edit and edit and edit. You are absolutely right, doing that will make me a better and more concise writer! Thank you for the different perspective!
You are welcome. I used to be pretty good at it until the last few months. I’ve been overwhelmed with other things that it’s on the backburner. I’m determined to get using it again.
I was basically avoiding Twitter until about a month or so ago. I find it very overwhelming and fast. What happened that I started using it again? Periscope came along and then blab and both work in conjunction with Twitter. So I brushed the cobwebs off my profile, wrote a short summary and started to follow people. As a second step I started to tweet out my blog posts and a Quote of the day. So while I am using it a little more I still find it overwhelming and time consuming.
I forget about using it at times until something pushes me there. I do understand!
I have been debating for a while whether or not to start using Twitter. This blog post has inspired me to consider using it! Thanks for the great insights!
You’re welcome!