Twitter for Writers: How to Make a Name for Yourself

Many writers despair with their Twitter accounts. They see how some authors have thousands of followers and their networks full of activity, but they struggle to get followers, retweets, favorites, and comments. With this post about Twitter writers, we want to close the circle. We have already written about creating a writer page on Facebook and Instagram for writers. 

The potential of Twitter for writers is very high because it has 255 million active users who type 500 million tweets daily.

The first thing you should know is that it is not about being on this social network just for the sake of being on it. If you are a writer, you should only be on Twitter if your reader is also on Twitter. If the potential consumer of your literary work does not use Twitter, it is better to focus your efforts on other social networks.

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How to start using Twitter for writers?

To get started on Twitter, even before opening an account, we recommend you to enter the profiles of some famous writers to see what they publish. Also, remember that Twitter can bring you friends, but it can also raise negative comments or you can become a troll victim. 

Once you know how it works and what people usually post, it will be time to create your writer’s profile on Twitter. As in the other social networks, we recommend you use your author’s name, and you must make a personal brand.

Start following accounts of other writers related to books and literature. Your profile picture should be a good one, if possible, with a smiling face reflecting your personality. Also, add an attractive cover photo. It can be with the covers of your books, a presentation or an image related to your publications.

Create a good Twitter bio

Next, complete the description of your profile. Be careful with it, since you must describe yourself in a few words. We advise you to get to the point and also use hashtags. Yes, the hashtag is one of the keys to Twitter, also Twitter for writers. It is a word that is written after the # symbol. It is used to search for publications by topic. In your case, hashtags such as #writer #books #novel #poetry… can be useful.

You should also put your city, as it can be helpful for users around you to locate you. Another possibility for your biography is that you can put a link. If you have a personal website, blog, or free essay writing platform – that is where you should put it.

Once you complete all this stuff and your profile page looks nice, it’s time to start tweeting.

What type of user are you interested in being?

On Twitter, you will find users who share content from others, those who chat with followers and friends, those who promote their products and, in particular, their books, and those who don’t publish but do use Twitter to stay informed by following other accounts… What interests you as a writer on Twitter? We would say we are interested in being a little bit of all of this.

Your account must publish exciting and valuable content. You must interact with other users and generate debate, be grateful, follow other people and current accounts to keep up to date, and, logically promote your publications. But you must remember that selling through Twitter is quite complicated, so it is better to put the commercial aspect in the background. Twitter is, above all, a social network to gain a name and reputation.

What can work for your Twitter account?

Set yourself a publication schedule and a specific editorial line. Set guidelines to focus on your most popular posts and check what works and what doesn’t.

Be respectful and appreciative. Don’t insult or lie, be grateful when someone shares your content or gives you a positive comment.

Contribute quality, don’t tweet for the sake of tweeting.

Interact. If you want others to share and comment on you, you should do it too.

Don’t overdo it by advertising your books. Those accounts just trying to sell us need to be better received.

Use an application to help you. There are RSS publishing or tag detection tools, even follower selection tools that can help you. One of the ones we recommend is Crowdfire, installed on your cell phone.

Use quality images.

Identify sources when sharing content from others. Do not put your content from others. It is an unforgivable mistake.

Integrate your Twitter with your blog. Twitter for writers is an excellent tool for sharing your articles. Also, put Twitter buttons on your blog.

Don’t tag for the sake of tagging. If you tag, there must be a direct relationship between the person and the post.

Why might your Twitter account not work?

If you buy followers or abuse, follow/unfollow. Don’t buy followers, even if it is getting cheaper and cheaper. You are just buying a number. You will not become more popular because of it. It does not generate interaction or call other followers. You can follow/unfollow, but select among accounts related to yours, not at all costs.

If you spam. Take care of your publications, do not bombard with advertising or publish 20 tweets per minute, with between three and eight publications a day is fine.

If you overuse hashtags or do not use them correctly. At most, two per tweet, and they have a logical sense. Taking advantage of trending trends may be fine, but only if they are related to your publication.

If you publish automatically and nothing else. Many accounts publish automatically, sometimes from an external program, and need to look at the interactions or the other accounts they follow, and this is a mistake.

If you do not ask for forgiveness. If you make a mistake, ask for forgiveness, don’t let it go.

If you limit yourself only to talk about yourself. You can write very well, but you must be humble, it is something that is highly valued on Twitter.

If you mix too much content. You can’t understand everything. Focus on your topic, which is why people follow a writer on Twitter.

If you commit spelling mistakes. We have left it for the end because I guess you take it into account, but it is vital. A writer cannot have spelling mistakes. Therefore, check each tweet; if you notice it later, delete it and rewrite it.

In conclusion

As we have told you, with other social networks, Twitter for writers is also a work in progress. You may succeed one day with a post that goes viral, but you will need more than that to give you legions of followers right away. Success for writers on Twitter lies in consistency, useful and quality content, and who you are in real life. It will be what makes you grow.

We also advise you not to value Twitter accounts based on their number of followers, as many may be fake followers. The important thing is to generate a lot of interaction, receive comments, retweets, and favorites, generate debate, and be active. Like readers, Twitter followers are earned one by one.