8 Things I Learned in 1 Year of Twitter

This past week I have mostly been working on contest stories. The current chapter on the Virtual Wars needs an almost complete rewrite. I have four long paragraphs that may end up being deleted. They are boring exposition pieces that don't help move the story along.  The first round of The Writer has begun. I am to write a story about a character that escapes from a hospital. That story is due on Tuesday, so I may have two stories to post on Monday.

In today's blog post I wanted to talk about a few things I have learned about twitter and promoting on twitter. It has been about a year since I first joined, and it has been quite an interesting journey.

1.) Don't Spam! 

Spamming is bad! Your advertisement posts look just like everyone else's. Most people are going to ignore them. Even if it's something they may enjoy and want to look into. The ads will get lost in the sea of twitter spam that comes across our feeds every few seconds. Automated response messages fall under this category too. All automated messages are bad!

2.) Don't Re-Spam!

What is re-spam? Reposting the same ad over and over again will get you a bit more visibility. More often it will annoy the people who enjoy your other tweets. You don't want to drive your fans away. Retweeting a retweet of your original tweet counts as re-spam overkill.

3.) Follow Back!

Following your followers back will get you opportunities to meet more people, and expand your circle of influence. You want to look at their tweets first. You may not want to follow back if all they do is spam or their account is a fake account made to promote a service. Those people won't help you, so be sure to make sure you are following a real person and not a bot. 

4.) Lists are your friend! 

Make lists from the beginning. There are some people you follow who you may want to read all of their tweets. Lists for friends, other authors you like to chat with, or news sources you enjoy. There are going to be seas of spam all over your main twitter feed. You want to seperate the spammers from your other tweeps. You may not want to unfollow some of those spammers for various reasons, and they aren't going to stop spamming. I've tried to get them to stop before. It's not worth the arguement. Most of them are not going to stop.

5.) Engage with your followers!

Reply to their tweets. Retweet with comments. Respond to tweets that mention you. Be engaging with your tweets. Entertain, inform, and chat with your followers. This is the best way to get them to care when you are trying to advertise something.

6.) Unfollow those who don't follow back

There are obviously exceptions. I wouldn't stop following some of my favorite authors unless they gave me a compelling reason not to. If they don't care about your tweets then why should you care about theirs? The answer will tell you if you should unfollow or not. You want to constantly maintain your list of people you are following as well as your lists. I usually give these people a week or two before I unfollow if they don't follow back.

7.) Keep an eye out for new people to follow

One of your tweeps retweets someone else.  Why not follow them? I'm always trying to expand my circle of influence. If you are an aspiring or are currently an author then you are most likely trying to do the same.

8.) Use Hashtags #

When it comes time to make an advertising post, always use hashtags. They are useful for reaching people outside of your circle. You can also read posts in specific hashtags to find more people to follow. One I have found useful is #reading or #amreading. There are several others you can look into.

 

The Lego Movie

Rated PG / 1 hr 40 min / Animation - Action - Comedy

What is it about?

President Business has obtained a weapon that puts fear into the hearts of all men..  Lego men. It's called the Kragle. His plan is to unleash it and end the world. There is a prophesy that a master builder will find the "Piece of Resistance". That builder will be the most creative, interesting, and special person in the whole world. Several years pass. Introduce an ordinary construction worker named Emmet. He finds the Piece of Resistance, and is now expected to be the person from the prophecy. The problem is that he doesn't have the slightest clue what he's doing.

You will like it if...

You go to see it. It is an instant classic movie about the building blocks that most of us grew up playing with and loved. There are two things that detract from this movie. The animation can be jerky at times, but not as bad as South Park. The bright colors of the bricks can take some getting used to as well.  Everything else in this movie is fantastic. The animation can be amazing at times when you consider the fact that they strictly used Lego bricks. The script is hilarious. It has laughs almost from start to finish. There are parts in it that are emotional once you get closer to the end that fills the gap between laughs. This movie captures what it means to love the brightly colored building blocks. Many of you know that I love Legos. Maybe I'm a bit biased. This movie was everything that I could have hoped for and more.This is a movie that parents can take their children to see, and end up enjoying it themselves.

The Ghost Part 21

The Ghost Part 21 - The Ghost learns about the obstacles to come while healing from her injuries.

Thank you all for the love and support this past week. I may crack the top 100 for horror and fantasy this week all thanks to your support.

Will the Next Contestant Come on Down!

I have been excited lately for a few writing contests that I have entered. I'll get to those in a second. I just reached 1000 reads on my work The Ghost on Wattpad. I wanted to thank all of you who made that possible.  I hope you have all enjoyed it! On my current project I have finished with edits on chapter 10, and have started chapter 11. There is a lot of exposition. I have a lot of rewriting to do.

OK enough of that jibber jabber. Let's talk about these contests! I mentioned the contests on Wattpad briefly in last week's blog post, but I wanted to elaborate a bit more on them. Have any of you participated in a writing contest before? What was your experience like?

 And that was the last time I saw them

This is the contest I am most excited about. All of the contestants are to write a tale based off that line. I have an idea for that writing prompt that has me excited. I have already started writing it, and I hope to have the first part up on wattpad shortly.

It is the tale of a homicide detective who is working a late night shift. A man comes in who wants to confess to being a serial killer that the police have been looking for. The detective questions the man. The story the man tells is compelling, but there is no proof. Is he the killer? Can the police arrest him with no proof? Is he a complete nutjob?

The Writer

This contest is based off the TV show The Voice. I don't watch the show, so I have no idea how this will turn out. They start with 50 possible contestants. The 4 writing mentors choose 8 writers. I've been chosen for one of the teams based on my work on The Ghost story. There is only one spot left open so far, so this one should be starting soon.

 

The Ghost Part 20

The Ghost Part 20 - The Ghost faces off against a centaur.

I have a new cover! Please let me know what you think of it. Also my story is showing up in the rankings for the first time. I want to thank you all for making that happen. All the reads and votes are appreciated.