And, how I went from 126 Twitter Followers to 700 in 3 weeks…

I’ve had my Twitter account for a number of years, but up until three weeks ago I just didn’t get the point. I was following a couple hundred people and had about 126 followers. I visited Twitter.com annually to see what the big deal was, harumphed and then logged out.

Now, of course, I get it. Twitter is a huge, vital and special community and resource - if you know who to follow, what to post and how to interact.

Here are Alicia Mayer’s 3 key tips to Twittering, and feel free to add more as I’m still quite new to this world:

1. Have a reason to be on Twitter. I am a writer/editor/publisher with a number of my own books in the pipeline. Naturally, my primary reason for being on Twitter is to interact with the world of publishing, which is moving like quicksilver right now. Secondly, I’m looking for a literary agent and linking my Twitter profile to this blog, Hollywood Essays, gives me an opportunity to showcase what I’m up to. Thirdly, after fighting the impulse not to bring attention to myself, I’ve embraced the need for a profile, also known as a “platform”. Finally, I’m a communicator and Twitter is the ultimate for not only saying something in 140 words or less (for writer/editors – the less is more maxim could be my tattoo, if I believed in them), but its also terrific for linking to your blog, website or 3rd party sites that you wish to share with the world.

2. Follow, follow, follow! In just three weeks I went from 126 follows to 700. Here’s how I did it: I went nuts one night following every last literary agent I could find (I got depressed when I realized the results to my search term went on ad infinitum). Because my profile indicated that I am a writer, and hopefully one with an interesting background, many of these new follows became followers. And so it went. I followed the many interesting people, businesses and organizations that abound on Twitter – and a smattering of celebrities, magazines and other indulgences. Recently a Twitter BFF introduced me to a friend of his and now we are following each other. What a great idea!
3. Add to the community. Twitter is not a one-way street and the best use of it, and the way to get even more followers, is to add to the community. I do this by retweeting a tweet I feel is important and/or funny (I’m a sucker for funny). I have this blog and I make sure that it is the highest quality possible – content is king and crummy content is no good to anyone, especially you and your cause. I also comment on tweets from people who aren’t following me but perhaps might if I come to their attention. But Twitter’s power as a community is really in the linking to other content that is valuable to you for whatever reason. In my case, I have visited webpages that are vitally important to my work, which I suspect I may never have found if it wasn’t for someone I follow linking it on Twitter. Do the same. If you find something that adds to the community – link to it. Make sure to use a service like Bit.ly though to reduce the size of the URL.

If I had time for a fourth point I would beg you to be very careful about your profile pic and your bio. I found I did not follow people with cryptic, quixotic or sarcastic bios. Tell me about yourself, what you do and why. Keep it simple and preferably true.

There you have it folks. Increase your following and embrace Twitter. You’ll be glad you did. Find me on Twitter @aliciamayer