Book Blogging 101 - Tweeting Dos & Don'ts

Spawned from the Big Sis, Little Blog program, Book Blogging 101 was born. Do you have a question? Leave it in the comments section or email me parajunkee at gmail dot com


Q: How can I better promote my blog on twitter?

From Gemini Ace's Flikr

The one thing I get the most crap for in my real life is my twitter obsession. With chicks walking around with shirts like Nobody Sares! in the twitter font, it really is sometimes hard to justify why I’m on twitter so much. Maybe for the nonsense stuff, it might be hard to justify - the socializing, the random statements, etc. But the marketing you can’t deny.

• I tweet my latest blog post.
• Five tweet buddies Retweet my tweet.
• Instant exposure to my twitter followers and the followers my retweeters have.
• I watch my blogger stats, 10+ people followed that tweet link to my post.

So, with that kind of exposure what are the dos & donts of your twitter feed??

Ok, first let’s analyze our twitter feed. Take a look at your twitter profile and read what you tweet. Potential followers will look here first, if it is all nonsense or just spamming links people might not follow you. If they see you are contributing valuable information they might be a bit more apt to follow you.

Kikolani.com states that a good mixture of tweets is as follows:

• Status update sharing a promotional link.
• Status update sharing a beneficial quote related to your niche.
• Status update with an @reply to someone else.
• Status update sharing a news article related to your niche (not yours).
• Status update with an @reply to someone else.
• Status update sharing a helpful article related to your niche (not yours).
• Status update sharing a promotional link.

From random questions that I posted, asking "What do Twitter Users Do that Most Annoy You?" most people came back with DON'T OVERDO IT!
Meaning...

• Don't post about your contest over and over again
• Don't updated Goodreads with 5 million To-Read selections and route it all to your twitter feed
• Don't DM or @ people with "Check out my Contest" links

Like anything, moderation is key to the success of your followers. I know you want to promote that contest badly...but a tweet an hour...yeah that might be too much. Maybe try twice a day? One in the morning, one in the evening. And make sure in between that you get on and socialize.  You don't want to be what some bloggers have pegged a "Narcissistic Tweeter"

What does that mean? Basically all your tweets are LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT MY BLOG! LOOK AT MY STUFF! LOOK AT THE PICTURE OF ME WITH THIS ARC, AREN'T YOUR JEALOUS???


Be helpful. Be informative. @ tweeps with personal comments. If someone asks a question and you know the answer...answer it. I know you are dying to promote your stuff, but other Tweeps might get annoyed with your constant marketing and might put you in the SPAM category - and with a click of the mouse UNFOLLOW.


This post might open up a slew of other questions, I might be doing this backwards...first you have to get on twitter right?? Then you have to grow your follower base...right? Check back next week, maybe we'll go over that. ;)

Questions for commenting:

When does it go from fellow blogger to spammer with you?
Do random, nonsense tweets aggravate you? i.e. someone tweets: My mind is like a sponge. I find it hard to randomly think of outfits to wear. {tweet}
Do the "I'm Listening" tweets, or "My Horoscope" tweets aggravate you?