Based on how popular my first two blogs were in my series of Twitter Tips for Newbies, I have created this third part in the series with some extra information I have discovered as my own Twitter journey has continued.
Emma’s Twitter Tips for Newbies Series
Part 1 – Twitter Tips for Newbies
Part 2 – More Twitter Tips for Newbies
Part 3 - Even More Twitter Tips for Newbies - this blog post
Bookmarking Tweets
What does it mean to Bookmark a Tweet?
This is a relatively new function in Twitter that allows you to save tweets and access those saved tweets on your mobile device.
How to Bookmark a Tweet
Check out this nifty quick tutorial How to Bookmark a Tweet by Caroline Forsey (Twitter: @cforsey1).
UPDATE: This tutorial says that it bookmarking is not available on desktop but it is now—it's the same process on a mobile or desktop.
Twitter Moments
I personally don’t use this feature but here is a quick video that shows you what the Moments feature is as well as a step-by-step tutorial by Ash Read about how to create Moments: Everyone Can Now Create Twitter Moments: Here’s All You Need To Know
Tagging
In addition to the Tagging section in Twitter Tips for Newbies, here is some more information about tagging.
How to avoid tagging folks in a tag game when they’ve already been tagged by someone else:
click the reply speech bubble
click on the blue list of names at the top of the message to see who is already tagged
be sure not to tag them again or their poor notifications will blow up exponentially!
More Red Flags
Bots
Adding to the list of Red Flags to Spot Bots in Twitter Tips for Newbies, watch out for:
Twitter name that is an email address
bio that proclaims occupation as engineer or worker on oil rigs
profile pic and banner of engineers on oil rigs in hard hats and hi-vis vests, or of just the oil rigs themselves
Foreign Language
I personally soft block (see More Twitter Tips for Newbies) folks who tweet in another language entirely with no English whatsoever. I’m uncomfortable with not being able to understand what is being tweeted.
Number Farmers
How do you spot someone who is likely to unfollow you just to boost their numbers? If they have a huge number of followers (say 10k) disproportionate to the much smaller number (say 1k) following them, then it is likely they will immediately unfollow you after you follow them.
My experience shows that people who proclaim to be ‘actors’, ‘musicians’ or ‘influencers’ do this a lot, but I’ve also had some ‘authors’ do it too. It’s a sleazy move, guys – don’t do it.
Twitter Numbers
For many folks, Twitter is not a numbers game but for others, a larger following is a crucial for their author platform, especially if they are planning to self-publish or publish non-fiction. It’s important to know a couple of things about Twitter’s numbers.
My experience has shown me, as have the multitude of my followers who have bemoaned the same issue, that when you have fewer than 1000 followers, you’re pretty much invisible to Twitter’s mysterious algorithms (please don’t ask me to explain the technicalities of this). But what it means is your tweets don’t get pushed onto people’s feeds. This is based purely on my experience - not any technical know-how of how Twitter works.
Ever experienced sending out tweets only to have not a single person like or comment? It’s a pretty awful feeling but it’s not personal. Your followers can’t like or comment on your tweet if Twitter doesn’t show it to them.
How Do I Get Twitter To ‘See’ Me?
Get yourself over the 1000 followers mark
Grow your followers wholesomely and organically by following and interacting with folks who you are compatible with and who you can see are active in the #WritingCommunity.
Blind following (without screening) a string of followers from follow trains will not do anything except grow the number of people you follow and give you a blister on your finger from all the clicking.
Don’t get me wrong, follow trains are a fantastic part of how I grew my own followers in the beginning but I screened everyone carefully first. And yes – it’s tiring and time consuming to do this but so worth it in the long run to have a healthy interactive platform. Don't forget to DELETE BOTS!
A large following full of inactive accounts and bots does not help Twitter 'see' you. Only by interacting and engaging with real folks will Twitter eventually pick you up and start pushing your posts onto your followers' feeds.
The 5000 followers cap
Did you know that Twitter has a cap of the number of people you can follow? This used to be 2000 but it is now 5000. Twitter will ban you from following any more people once you reach this cap until the number of your followers comes up to the 5000 mark too – only then will Twitter allow you past this cap.
This is why it’s best not to blow out your following numbers by blind following because you’ll hit 5000 and then find yourself with thousands of people who are not following you and you’ll not be able to follow back any new folks who follow you. So, try keep your numbers fairly balanced.
If you've made the rookie mistake of blindly racing to the 5000 cap (I did it too), start unfollowing all those who don’t follow you back to make space to follow folks who are following and engaging with you.
Big Rookie Mistake With Engagement
Misusing 'Retweet With Comment'
If you reply to a tweet or thread (multiple tweets with multiple replies below the original post) using ‘Retweet with comment’, your comment cannot be seen by anyone on the thread because essentially you have recreated a new tweet of your own on your own feed.
For the best engagement with folks, like and comment directly on the original post so everyone can see your answer and have the opportunity to comment back to you.
You can still ‘Retweet’ the original post, just don’t ‘Retweet with comment’.
So why does ‘Retweet with comment’ exist then?
This function is best used when you want to show your own followers the information in the post you are retweeting and add your own commentary for your followers to engage with you on the topic. But if it is your intention to engage with others on the original comment, then don’t use this function.
Common #WritingCommunity Acronyms
Thanks to Darryl Ballegeer’s (Twitter: @darrylballegeer ) efforts, here is a list of the most common acronyms you may see floating around in the form of hashtags in the #WritingCommunity:
AOC/POC – author/person of colour
ARC – advance reader's copy
BSL – best seller list
CNF – creative non-fiction
Comp – comparable titles
CP – critique partner
FF – flash fiction or follow Friday
HC – hard cover
HEA – happily ever after
HF – historical fiction
MC – main character
MF – mainstream fiction
MG – middle grade
MS – manuscript
MSWL – manuscript wish list
NA – new adult
PB – paperback
PB – picture book
QL – query letter
SF/F – science fiction/fantasy
TBR – to be read
VSS – very short story
WC – word count
WF – women's fiction
WIP – work in progress
YA – young adult
Final #WritingCommunityMum Twitter Tip Reminder: Fill your feed with the sort of content you want to see by proactively following the kinds of people you want in your feed as well as screening your followers before following back.
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