Twitter is Not a Magic Genie!

I am saying this with the utmost love, I swear.

This past week I was on a chat with a bunch of other writers, and the leader of the group was giving direction as to how to properly use twitter. Those of you who know me are now rolling your eyes thinking…oh no here she goes…

Yes, here I go again. I kept my mouth shut out of respect for the teacher, but I really wanted to just scream. One of the reasons I am frustrated is that I was using it incorrectly for almost a year, and then I got it. I mean to say I understood how to use it, and I have seen amazing results…seriously.

So, back to the beginning. Twitter is not a Magical Genie. People describe Twitter as social media. I am going to put the emphasis on social. The best way to describe it is a huge worldwide party with millions of different people chatting about all kinds of different things at the same time.

(#)Hashtags are like name tags. We are walking through the party, and how are we supposed to know where to go to talk? If we have a topic we want to talk about, like for instance Polar Bears, we want to search for anyone with a #polarbear nametag, aka hashtag.

So now we have a good hashtag. There are tons of great people talking about Polar Bears! Awesome! So you have this cute Polar Bear stuffed animal that needs a home, and you are trying to give it to someone who likes Polar bears. 

So what do you do? Just walk into the room and start just randomly shoving the Polar bear in people’s faces asking if they want it, or do you start talking to people and getting to know them? Have conversations about your common interest, and then they may notice or you can mention that you have this adorable polar bear you want to give someone. 

While that person may not need another polar bear, they may know someone who does. So they tell, aka retweet, your message out to all of their friends. 

They do this because they know you and they want to help. You say thank you and move on to the next interesting person. Of course if the first person has a great poster he needs to sell, you would let all of your friends know as well, retweeting their message, and will probably get a thank you in return.

Does anyone see where I am going with this? Twitter is literally a social medium. You cannot just go and blast twitter with tweets about your book, blog, and article. You will not get anywhere, or worse if you go on overload you will get blocked. The only way to get anywhere with twitter is to be a part of twitter, to actually join the party and mingle with the guests. There used to be a saying, “Success is not a Stationary Sport.” Well twitter is definitely a sport. Not only do you need to make friends, you need to get attention….but I think we will discuss that another time.

So go out and make some friends for goodness sake!

Happy Tweeting ~  AmyJRomine on Twitter

###

۞۞۞۞GIVEAWAYS۞۞۞۞

*All giveaways are open to all WORLDWIDE unless otherwise stated.

Join our chat over at the Yahoo Chat and Promo group! (and claim your free e-books!)

###
Author Promos: Also featured at top spot on blog (above the fold) and on most of the feeds sent out to email subscribers. Hit the "Contact" tab for more info.