How Twitter Helps You Connect With Readers In a Meaningful Way
By: Rachel Thompson
Tags: Freelancing, Social Media, Business, Writing, Marketing

Many bloggers and writers shy away from Twitter for whatever reason. They tell me:

It’s too new. My kids are on it. (Well, it’s been out since 2005 at this point. So, no.)

It’s all about politics. (Only if you follow that topic, sure.)

It’s just a bunch of other writers spamming their book links. (If that’s who you follow, then that’s what you’ll see. Follow readers!)

I wrote a post last year that goes into the nuts and bolts of learning how to use Twitter as a marketing tool. You can read that here:

Today, I want to discuss how you can connect with your readers in meaningful ways on Twitter. It is possible, though it will take effort on your part. Like anything, Twitter is what you make it. You get what you give. And you can’t be everywhere, so decide if it’s right for you.

Invest The Time

One of the main reasons writers give up on Twitter is time. They don’t invest time into it, so they don’t feel they’re getting anything out of it.

I’ve been on Twitter for eleven years (on my personal author account, @RachelintheOC) and I can tell you from experience, consistency and attention are the keys to building a vibrant, active account.

One of the main reasons I started with Twitter in 2009? I’m not a Facebook fan. I find people write novels in response to a post, tend to be extremely critical, or make something political when that’s not what I intended (e.g., a photo of my cat). I also found out that a former love died by suicide by going to his wall. As you can imagine, this was extremely jarring.

I wasn’t alone. In fact:

The number of active users of Facebook (those people who have logged onto the site in the previous month) has reached a historic high of 2.45 billion. (Source: Statista, 2020.) People wanting to quit Facebook state not only the recent issues as motivation but also the sheer laboriousness of keeping up with it all. (Source: The Conversation, 2020.)

So, I headed over to Twitter and found my people. I had not released any books at that point. All I knew was that I was grieving and wanted to connect with others who may have experienced something similar. And I did.

I followed people based on keywords that held interest for me at that time: grief, grieving, suicide prevention, etc. I also liked the short format (at the time, 140 characters; now, 280). Twitter made it impossible for people to leave novels on my timeline, which is great (we can now create threads, which is helpful from a marketing standpoint).

Keywords and keyphrases are ‘key’ to finding people you want to interact with on Twitter. Keep in mind, they will change over time as you and your interests change over time.

You can read more about keywords and key phrases here:

Create a Strategy

As I got closer to the release of my first memoir, Broken Pieces, which chronicles being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I started looking at creating my author platform.

Once I understood the power of Twitter, I created a strategy to connect with other survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Not to ‘use’ that in some kind of devious, underhanded, capitalizing-on-tragedy kind of way to market my books; more to let them know that I’m there if they want to talk — so they’d feel less alone.

That’s why I started a weekly chat: #SexAbuseChat, every week at 6 pm pst/9 pm est, in 2014. I’ve done this chat weekly for six years. My cohosts have changed, yet I’m completely dedicated to donating my time to create and support this wonderful community. Worth noting: this is a completely non-promotional chat. I don’t pimp my books or anyone else’s. We discuss different topics helpful for survivors to work through.

Strategically, having this chat helps this survivor community understand that by following me, they know I will consistently share information about mental health, survivorship, relationships, and other topics related to being a survivor.

It’s important for writers to realize that not everything we do on social media has to be promotional. Yes, I do share occasional promos for my books, yet never during chats.

You may not have something as serious as childhood trauma or suicide to help you connect with people (I hope you don’t). That’s okay. What are your interests, passions, hobbies? Start with that. There are millions of people on Twitter. Some may be your readers, some may not. That’s okay, too.

Alternatively, when I started my business, @BadRedheadMedia, in 2011, I already knew my keywords and phrases would be author branding, social media, book marketing, author platform, and book promotion since that’s what my experience had been in the real world and what I’d be focusing on in my business.

So, my strategy on Twitter was simple: follow writers who needed information on those topics, as well as others I could learn from.

Given that I know what my keywords and topics of interest are on both of my Twitter accounts, I consistently share blog posts, articles of interest (mine and others), visuals, quotes, videos, and follow people with similar interests.

I also started a weekly #BookMarketingChat there as well — solely to help writers learn how to market their books, to share my own challenges, and to invite experts to share their knowledge. Again, it’s completely non-promotional. Most importantly, I interact with and build relationships with my followers, and that’s where the magic happens.