Twitter is a great way to meet people, develop relationships, and promote yourself and your book or business. But it's important to avoid being seen as someone who just promotes themselves.
Most of your tweets should be about helping others, but you also need to inject some personality, to put the social into social networking and help people get to know you. Here are 21 ideas for tweeting:
1. Link to helpful or entertaining articles, websites, and blog posts. Add your own comments or ask for feedback.
2. Re-tweet good posts by other people, but don't go overboard—most of your tweets should be original. Include "re-tweet" or "RT" in your post to indicate that you're re-tweeting someone else's post.
3. Another way to re-tweet is to add a thank you to the previous tweeter at the end of the message. This works well if you have edited the original post.
4. Comment on someone else's tweet. Be sure to refer to the original message in your post, because your followers will not be able to see it.
5. Invite people to subscribe to your ezine, blog, or group, and offer an incentive.
6. Announce your live and virtual events, such as book tours and teleseminars.
7. Introduce other authors or experts in your field who are also on Twitter.
8. Teach a mini lesson in 140 characters.
9. On Fridays, recommend your favorite tweeters by using the #followfriday hashtag along with their user names. It's best to say why you recommend them.
10. Send congratulations to others when they share good news.
11. Link to your own articles and blog posts, but do it sparingly.
12. Link to photos or videos (yours or others) on Flickr, Twitpic, or YouTube.
13. Ask for advice or ask questions that encourage responses.
14. Comment on someone's interesting Twitter background or clever bio.
15. Offer a free downloadable ebook or sample chapter, with no strings attached.
16. Thank others for mentioning you on Twitter.
17. Recommend a book, product, or service, other than your own.
18. Mention your hobbies, pets, kids, or personal activities. Just don't talk about what you ate for lunch!
19. Talk about your writing or what you're doing in your business.
20. Post an inspirational quote or message.
21. Welcome new followers.
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of several books including
Along with our book reviews we offer affordable services to meet the needs of our authors in the growing book publishing industry. Our service packages are budget friendly, effective, and will assist the author in showcasing their book to the reading audience.
