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Saturday, December 08, 2012


Use Twitter Without Wasting Time


One of my writer friends emailed me this week about his twitter account. He was concerned about losing followers and not increasing his followers without spending lots of time on twitter. I reached out to help him and recommended Tweet Adder

Another friend and literary agent, Wendy Lawton wrote her end of the year report card. When it came to twitter, she wrote, “SOCIAL NETWORK: D I have to admit to Twitter fail. I just can’t find the time to do it all. Aaarrrgggh! And I tried Pinterest and Goodreads—so I’d know how they worked—but I had to cry “uncle.” I can’t do my job and keep up with all these opportunities.”

I empathize with this busy literary agent. Each of us have our own daily challenges. Maybe you are trying to create daily time to write and can't seem to find moments to move forward. Maybe you are sending out your latest nonfiction or fiction book and getting regularly rejected. Or maybe you have crafted your materials but can't seem to get them into the hands of agents or editors because of constraints on your time. 

I'm several months into a new job as an acquisitions editor. I'm enjoying it and appreciate the work with authors but it leaves little time for writing—or social media. Yet I must be doing something in this area. If you look at my twitter account, my followers continue to grow and I regularly send out information on twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, I'm about to go over 42,000 twitter followers.

I'm going to show you how to use twitter without wasting lots of time on it. First, let's cover some basics about twitter. Do you have your profile set up properly with your photo and your profile? Do you have a background on your twitter page to make an attractive place for others to visit? These steps are simple and something you accomplish one time—yet important. Please look at some of the details that I give in this area through this free handout on social media (on page 2).

For several years I've been using a program called Tweet Adder 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. It is constantly turned on and working. Tweet Adder is designed around the rules of Twitter and will slowly follow people that you have selected to follow (using keywords geared to your particular target audience). If the new follower does not follow you in return, then the program will unfollow these people. This simple process keeps your numbers increasing on twitter.

Also I like that Tweet Adder is not a monthly fee program but has a one-time fee with lifetime updates. On a regular basis, Twitter changes how they operate and Tweet Adder will make the adjustment to their program and issue a new version of it. Then the next time you start the program, it will notice you don't have the latest version and ask if you want to download and update your program (which I do).

You can get a 20% discount on the fee for Tweet Adder if you use this discount code disCouNt20 (yes it is case sensitive) when you check out. 

Other than a tiny bit of time to set up the program and regularly use it, Tweet Adder allows you to use twitter and increase your followers and does not require much of your precious time. I highly recommend this program to everyone who wants to build a presence on twitter.3

Also there are some other tools that you need to use on a consistent basis. It does you little good to be using Tweet Adder on twitter if you aren't posting tweets on a regular basis. I post tweets at least three to seven times scattered throughout the day. You can use a free program like Hootsuite to set up these tweets and they can post during the day. You take 10 to 15 minutes (or less) and set up these posts.

In addition, I recommend you keep a running list of different programs you want to promote on twitter. I have a number of free teleseminars and resources that I've created. I have a little file with these resources and various tweets that I use on a regular basis. I don't have to recreate them but can simply cut and paste and post the tweets. It allows me to use the tools but not spend a great deal of time in the process.

Consistently using twitter doesn't have to consume your life—but like your writing, if you want to grow your presence on twitter, you need to use it on a regular basis.

I hope I've helped you see the value of such tools like Tweet Adder. If you have doubts, I recommend you download the trial version and use it for a few days to see if it will work for your needs.

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2 Comment:

At 10:41 PM, Blogger Shirley Corder Left a note...

Hi Terry. I followed your advice and started using TweetAdder about a year ago. I love it. BUT I have now reached the Twitter 2,000 following limit, and I'm battling to get past it. I've unfollowed a stack on two occasions and am busy building my numbers again, but how did you get past this hurdle? TIA. Shirl (S.Africa)

 
At 9:40 AM, Blogger Terry Whalin Left a note...

Hello Shirley,

I've been actively using Twitter for a number of years and I'm unsure how I got over the 2,000 following limit.

I used google and found this little short YouTube video with great advice on this topic: http://youtu.be/qM_Xw2JLuqs

I hope it helps you.

Terry

 

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