It seems to me that using social media, and especially Twitter, has increased in urgency recently. Many writers are using it to send out links to their own books and see it merely as a promotional tool. They RT praise given to them, RT links and links, and even more links to their reviews. They direct message for you to like them on Facebook/RT them/buy their book/review their book/tell everyone in the world about their book and all you’ve done is ‘click’ follow. I disagree strongly with that level of ‘attack’. I feel that, for writers, Twitter has to be about so much more than filling timelines and direct messages with self-promotion and self-praise, doesn’t it?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot and looking at the writers I enjoy following on Twitter (yes enjoy, that’s what I want out of my interaction on there). It seems that those lovely people all have three things in common:
- They’re consistent.
- They’re helpful/funny/open/shouty.
- They’re available.
Consistent and Helpful/Funny/Open/Shouty
In short, I guess a writer’s tweets need to find a way to add some sort of value to followers’ lives (let’s ignore just how much I tweet about cake), and then add this value consistently. In theory, this’ll mean that when self-promotion is needed followers will forgive and encourage and support. I like that, there’s a balance, a wonky give and take.
At BubbleCow we do this by tweeting out links to resources that we feel writers will enjoy and find useful. Since 2008 we’ve been tweeting out 3-5 links a day to blogs and articles, without fail. Each morning we sit down, go through the Google Reader, find links to articles we think writers will love and schedule them to go out later that day. So, when we’ve needed support or RTs, followers have helped in their thousands (give and take, yes?).
Available
However, being consistent and helpful/funny/honest/shouty isn’t enough, it seems that a writer being available is needed too. In fact, this third observation is one that many Twitter users, myself included, take for granted. We tweet people, they reply, we reply - a conversation, of sorts, it’s nice. Yet recently I’ve come across an increasing number of writers who will ignore tweets, @ replies and RTs. Followers will go out of their way to interact with a Twitter user only to be ignored. And let’s face it, being ignored on twitter is something that happens so often that it almost passes without a thought - almost.
However, a couple of weeks ago, I had an experience that really reminded me of the importance of being available. This experience, that involved just a single tweet, was so powerful that it triggered this very (long) blog post and left a 12-year-old boy very happy.
How Fonners Taught Me a Lesson
My youngest son is a huge Tranmere Rovers fan (for those not familiar with the lower leagues of the English Football League, Tranmere is a minor soccer/football team who are based on the Wirral). My son is also a goalkeeper for his local football team. This means that in addition to his kit, my son also needs goalkeeper gloves. These gloves are not cheap, but to be fair the junior gloves are the same as the senior gloves, used by the professionals, just in a smaller size. The weather in the UK means that goalkeeper gloves last, at best, about a season.
So, with the new season upon us and my son’s gloves needing to be replaced he asked G if he would ask the Tranmere and Welsh goalkeeper, Owain Fon Williams, which gloves he would recommend. Luckily G already followed Fon Williams on Twitter (@owainfon) and sent him a tweet asking which gloves he would suggest. G’s plan was to tell our son about the tweet and if he didn’t reply, which was (we thought) likely, just pick a pair at random and say he’d suggested those gloves (yeah, yeah, it was only a plan!). To my surprise, and relief, within about 10 minutes of the tweet Fon Williams had replied and suggested a pair of Reusch goolkeeper gloves. These were, in fact, the same pair he wears when playing.
Now there’s one thing that I should add to show just how very important this tweet turned out to be for my son. You see, he watches Tranmere every home game. G sits high in the stand with his friends, but my son doesn’t sit with them. Instead, he insists on sitting behind the goal. This isn’t the ideal position, since you can’t see much of the game. G once tried to convince him to sit elsewhere, explaining the advantages of being high in the stands where you can see the full extent of the play. Our son refused to listen to G’s argument and when asked why he had to sit behind the goal he replied, ‘So I can see what the goalie’s doing during the game.’
Long story short, G tweeted @ReuschUK and asked for the best place to buy the gloves, a few days later our son was the proud owner of a rather fetching pair of yellow Reusch gloves. The exact same pair as Fon Williams wears.
The point here is nothing to do with the sale of gloves or even the hero worship of footballers. The point is this… a small gesture from Owain Fon Williams, just a few seconds of his time, went a long way. My son was delighted that his hero would take the time to suggest a pair of gloves. Now, when he stands in goal on a Sunday afternoon he’s proud to be wearing the same gloves as Owain Fon Williams. This is a big deal when you’re a 12-year-old goalkeeper.
So I guess now when I’m considering how I use Twitter as a writer, there’s a question for me to ponder - What impact will I have when I take a moment to engage? It seems to me that no matter how busy you find yourself, taking a moment or two to reply to a Twitter interaction can bring huge rewards. If someone reaches out, then reach back, it’s simple. A little effort will go a long way, if it leaves one of your followers feeling valued and important.
(NB: Many apologies if I’ve ever ignored one of your @ replies…)
35 Comments
An excellent post. It reminds me of an infographic by Avinash Kaushik who works for Google. https://plus.google.com/u/0/105279625231358353479/posts/3iiDBSAVB8m
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with “What impact will I have when I take a moment to engage?”
- social media is all about engagement, quality above quantity.
Ace link and, yes, there seems to be confusion over ‘building a platform’ and an approach that simply floods timelines with shouty demands. For me, it has to be about enjoyment. I take moments out of my day, almost like walking into a staffroom, to visit twitter. I honestly look forward to conversations on there.
What a great post, and what a lovely series of events for Middle son. x
You can imagine how happy Middle was
x
Lovely post- too many people use twitter to sell sell sell and nothing else. Actually, I was really surprised then you spoke to me on twitter because there’s often a snobbery from writers who feel they are too big to ever engage with someone small. I’ve experienced this with a few people, writers who never respond to an @ or RT. I end up unfollowing anyone like that, & I won’t buy their books either. A few seconds to engage makes all the difference, it can make someone smile & make twitter a chat round the water cooler experience instead of like walking down the street and having a barrage of flyers puched at you saying ‘Buy Buy Buy.’
Thank you - and re the writer snobbery - I think you’re right. I’ve recently tweeted some writers and been ignored. If they’d engaged it would have made me truly happy, because the tweets were sent from my admiration of them (and I was nervous sending them). I was, also, very nervous tweeting you for the first time, perhaps you don’t see you like others see you (in a good way!), and I’m glad you replied.
Great post. I’ve found myself the recipient of DMs asking me to retweet something about how great their book is. I was taken aback when it first happened. I’ve also been ignored by other writers. As such I don’t follow them any more. I know some writers have huge amounts of tweets directed at them so it would be impossible to reply to all of them. But this one I tweeted replied to someone else included in the tweet (another published writer) and ignored me (unpublished).
A cookery writer tweeted a reply to me the other day. It made me happy and I’ll now be buying ALL her books!
I honestly don’t understand writers like that, that’s a deliberate ignoring and it leaves a bad taste. And yes, I’ve had lovely tweets off writers that have made me want to love them forever AND buy all of their books. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Lovely story. Personally I never expect a reply from anyone in the public eye including writers - they may be busy, get hundreds of tweets and they’re not obliged to reply. However it is always nice when someone you really admire takes the trouble to reply in a personal way. My propensity to buy and promote them goes up enormously! Conversely, I hate PR people tweeting on someone’s behalf (why bother?) and people who just peddle their own wares.
I laughed the other day at an author who had an article in a magazine about his ‘successful’ social media strategy. This was the same author I’d blocked after DMing me about his book, constant plugging of his book, persistent asks for RTs and ceaseless (my new favourite word coming up here!) ‘twanking’ i.e. RTing favourable reviews and comments.
I’ve met several authors I know from Twitter in ‘real life’ now and their personalities were exactly the same as I imagined from reading their tweets. They’ve all been absolutely lovely people. As a result I now have no problems in ignoring books from authors who I don’t find compelling on twitter or seem to be up their own a***.
Hi Pete - yes, I agree, some people are busy, we all have lives etc etc etc BUT I still think that if you take time to @ a writer about their writing (I’m not talking writers with millions of followers, who get millions of @ replies a day), about how much you’ve enjoyed their words, then a simple reply of ‘thank you’ will take a minute out of their time and leave a smile on that reader’s face. If someone has taken time to look you up on Twitter and formulate a tweet, why not reply? (Obviously, I’m not saying that all stalky/mad people should be replied to…). But this is all down to different personalities, I guess. I like connecting with lovely people and the people who communicate with me on Twitter tend to ‘get’ me. It’s taken years for me to find people who ‘get’ me. AND - TWANKING is a lush word! x
This is a brilliant post, Caroline. I’m a great believer of thanking anyone that does anything for me, but even I stopped thanking people for retweets when I caught a conversation between a few of my followers about how it bugs them to see them in their timeline. I actually thought I was annoying them so I stopped.
But it riled me. I’ve since started again and hope I was listening to a minority. Yes, I might see a lot of tweets from others in my feed doing the same thing but I flick through them - it doesn’t bother me when someone is showing their gratitude for other people. And when I do want a retweet for a little self-promotion of my own, it then works both ways.
Well said, and so glad your 12-year-old goalkeeper is happy by someone else’s thoughtfulness.
I think it’s impossibly hard to keep up with RTs. I tried today and failed, so for me it’s more about the @replies and perhaps a general ‘thanks for all the RTs’. And with all your ebook sales, you clearly do Twitter VERY well
Great post and how nice for your son. My own 12-year-old son got a rely on twitter from a writer and a director that he admires. He was thrilled and I was thrilled for him and those people went up hugely in my estimation. Twitter is a strange place to hang out but I like the analogy of visiting the staff room. As a writer working from home I go to twitter when I’m looking for either information or diversion but a little conversation goes a long way. And I’m grateful for tweeters like BubbleCow who provide useful content. Makes it easier to ignore all the twankers (love that coinage!)
Exactly! I think Twitter saves me from being utterly insular. I’m grateful to people who say hello! x
Agree - a great post and so very true. If writers/footballers/actors etc are rich and famous it’s because lots of non rich and famous people have put them there, and they shouldn’t forget that. I love Twitter because it gives me access to a completely different world (sometimes too much!) and I’ve had some fantastic conversations with readers.
I shall continue to unfollow the Twankers (love it!)
Unfollowing twankers is the way forward. I followed lots of people today and not one of them sent a DM asking me to buy their books/marry them/RT them etc. I am happy that this post has attracted like-minded folk.
Great post Caroline.And what a result for your 12 year old son. My 12 year old (seems a lot of us have 12 year old son’s!) was over the moon when a writer he admires (Steve Feasey) took the time to tweet him back (through me acting as a go-between).and even emailed him.
It immediately puts me off if I start following someone and then I get DMs from them pleading for RTs for praise of their book - which I haven’t even read! It smacks of desperation. It’s so one sided. I was being plagued by one in particular (I wonder if it was the same person?!) even though I told him politely that I didn’t RT praise of a book I hadn’t read. I might well have read his book and enjoyed it but that guaranteed I would never go near it.
But I do try and give writers the benefit of the doubt if I’ve tweeted them saying I loved their book or something and don’t hear back - maybe they didn’t see it. Timelines do move so fast. People can’t be available 24/7 but yes, it’s really nice when you can have a little to-ing and fro-ing. Bubblecow always tweets great content.
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Timelines do move fast and people do miss @ replies, but it’s the fact that so many of us remember those who DO reply that shows the importance of a simple tweet. And, 12 year old sons are ace, aren’t they?
Lovely post! I am now going to follow you on twitter! Anyone who tweets about CAKE is okay by me.
Thanks so much for commenting Adele x
Really good points. My own enthusiasm for twitter grew markedly when an author picked up on a random tweet in which I mentioned his book, RT’d it and and responded really nicely. It felt very democratic, and showed me the positive side of twitter.
I’ve unfollowed a couple of authors who only ever seem to use twitter as a promotional platform for their books, without any other interaction, or saving graces. Not only did I unfollow, but it put me off buying their books. Similarly those who use DMs to try and boost sales. Twitter is a marketing tool, but if that’s ALL it is, it gets very dull, very quickly.
You’re right, there’s a balance to be found and I think many struggle with that balance. Twitter takes time, energy and patience… I fear mainly we’re all muddling through and hoping not to offend. But when people get it right, it really stands out. I like that.
I recently completed reading the book _In the Shadow of the Banyan_ by Vaddey Ratner. On the Goodreads website, I saw a link where I could email her. I emailed her a brief note, and was stunned to see a reply come back in the next day or so. I was so delighted, and shared the news with my book club who had also read her book, and they were shocked, too. Maybe a little jealous. I think even more highly of this author now, and she is so much more “real” to me. You can bet that I will buy anything else she publishes (well, maybe I would have any way since she’s a brilliant writer, but still…).
Excellent! That shows the author is using social media in a positive way. I’ll look her up.
Excellent post! I don’t get onto Twitter as often as I’d like these days (mostly Saturday nights when I get the TV to myself and can tweet to my heart’s content about Dr Who and X Factor!) and the last time I logged on I was shocked by the number or RTs and book plugs and actually deleted a number of people if they appeared to be spamming my timeline. I love Twitter for the banter (especially about reality tv shows - makes me feel a bit less loser-like if others are watching too!) but it’s also FAB for asking for information and people very kindly supplying it. Just the other days Elizabeth Haynes (bestselling author of ‘Into the Darkest Corner’) mentioned some books she’d been recommended. I asked which ones and was DELIGHTED when she replied. And, not only did she reply but she had a bit of a banter too. If I hadn’t already bought her book I’d have Kindle clicked it there and then. The award for best Twitter author EVER goes to Dorothy Koomson who, not only said she’d ask her husband for the answer to a science question I posed but actually RANG ME to tell me what he’d said. Dorothy Koomson! She’s sold squillions of novels and she took the time out to talk to me?! I do try my very best to reply to Twitter questions and DM, especially from unpublished authors who need advice. Pay it forward and all that.
Couldn’t agree more! I have bought so many books because I’ve LIKED the author on Twitter. And, as for Dorothy Koomson, well she’s amazing and generous and, YES, she’s one of my favourites on there too. I agree with you in every way, paying it forward is right, it is how it should be. Oh YES!
hello lovely lady! great post - I love interacting with people on twitter and have made some great friends like yourself because of it, but I found a new thing recently i don’t know if its because i had a spate of a couple of you who had books out and i was tweeting about it and RTing but I had a spate of authors following me, i’d follow back, they’d DM me with a buy my book or go to my website to buy my book then as soon as I tweeted them saying something along the lines of going to buy the book look forward to reading it, they never replied and then promptly unfollowed me. After going into their follow list i realised they had a load of followers and they hardly followed any themselves, so I quickly realised that they were doing a numbers game and promptly unfollowed them and didn’t buy the books and if I had already I found I couldn’t read them because it annoyed me so much!
Love the story of your 12 year old - gave me the warm happies
xx
Oh I HATE that! It’s another pet hate, following to get you to follow back/buy something. I really just don’t understand how they can think that works. Yes, they look popular with larger follower numbers, but that’s it! But, on the positive side, there are many lovely connections made too
x
There really are - and those are the connections that make me stay with twitter, when I get irritated by the many idiots I just think of how many fabulous people I do connect with and its been worth it
x
At the risk of sounding quite immature here, I <3 Twitter. I wish I could say it was for some intellectual reason, but it isn't. It allows me to indulge my "celeb/hero worship" side. I have always been fascinated by celebs and authors and what they think about the issues that concern me. Thanks to Twitter, I know. My favourite authors regularly reply to tweets and engage in conversations, which makes me SO incredibly happy.
My bigges Tweet was from LeAnn Rimes, who wished me happy Birthday. I have been a huge fan of hers since the early 90's!
Thank you, Caroline, for being an ace Tweeter! Your cake Tweets always make me smile!
xxx
Hey Trish! Love this comment, full of positive. I think you demonstrate exactly what I meant in this post. A simple reply can cause genuine happiness. Perfect x
Great post. I’ve experienced the good and bad on twitter. I wrote a book review on a Marika Cobbold book and tweeted a link and to my surprise she tweeted back thanks, visited my blog, read the review and we had a brief ‘chat’ about her book. Unexpected contact is nice and didn’t take much time for either of us. It certainly made me more likely to buy more of her books.
But, I agree about the constant DMs! I hate it when people follow me, I follow back and then they start their DM campaign. STOP. Chat with me and I’ll help you out. Don’t beg.
Glad your son has had a positive experience. More of them
Sounds like a very ace experience and well done to Marika! Thanks so much for commenting.
What a sensitive and sensible post. I think what you say is true for anyone who is on twitter in part for business reasons. You also miss a lot if you just advertise and don’t chat. I think if your experience on twitter means that you wouldn’t stay on there if you weren’t advertising something then you’re clearly making a mess of it and missing out.
Exactly. I couldn’t agree more!