How to Tweet like a Twitter Pro

As promised, here is the second part of my twitter tirade (see my post titled Ghetto Twitter, part one). If you’d like to use Twitter more effectively, please consider my suggestions.

The bottom line is, decide what category of information you’d like to Tweet about. And run with that. For example, I manage two personal accounts. One is about writing and the other is about wedding planning. The intent of the writing account is to inform people about how to improve their writing. It also provides updates on writers’ conferences, cites provocative quotes about writing, etc. For the wedding planning account, I offer bride and groom advice, beauty tips, announce newly engaged people, etc. All of that to say, I typically stay within the theme for which I opened the account.

The whole point of Twitter is to provide some measure of relevance to your followers. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform to begin and maintain conversations with other followers.  It requires daily output to make any impact.

Here are some actionable tips:

• If you want to build any influence, publish six to ten (6-10) tweets per day in batches of three or four.  Do this for visibility.  A single tweet is apt to get lost among the other tweets that flood in. When people view tweets on their smart phones or laptops, they scroll. People scroll down looking for interesting items that inform them, engage them or entertain them. They only stop scrolling when something interesting catches their attention.
• Publish the tweets at high use times–such as in the morning as people begin their days, at noon when people take lunch, and in the evening when people are at home on their personal laptops after a long days’ work.
• Re-tweet things from other influential organizations or people who tweet like information. It part of that communicating thing.
• Respond to direct messages. I don’t respond to sales pitches, but I do answer sincere questions or comments.

If you’re a celebrity, you can get away with tweeting that you’re in the grocery putting a can of black olives your cart.  It’s cool to know what Mr. Famous Person is doing at that very second. It is to me, anyway–. But it doesn’t interest me, at all,  that someone whom I don’t know likes black olives. Hope this helped!

Happy tweeting and I look forward to following you. 

Write on!

“Ghetto” Twitter

I realize there are people who don’t understand how to use Twitter. But they tweet anyway. My advice? Just stop. Stop pecking out boring, senseless phrases. And to other users, I say, stop trying to sell us your seminars, books, and other products. Neither is what the capability is for.

Here’s the thing: Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. In other words, it’s like writing a mini-blog consisting of 140 characters. That’s about a sentence and a half, maybe two. Like a web log or blog, I would prefer to see people provide useful or interesting information when they tweet.

Some will say, “Hey, Pam! Who do you think you are! It’s not that serious. I’ll Tweet what I want!” Sure. Go ahead. Continue to tweet gibberish or appear to be obnoxious because you’re trying to push a product or service. But know that I’m not going “Follow” you. And without followers, face it–, you’re not communicating with anyone. Without followers, you’ll achieve the same effect as writing down your activities in a little notebook and sliding it into your back pocket.

Let me quote a few lines from Naughty By Nature’s lyrics, Ghetto Bastard. I’m going to substitute the word “Ghetto” for the word, ”Twitter.” Okay. You ready?

“If you aint never been to the Twitter
Don’t ever come to the Twitter
‘Cause you wouldn’t understand the Twitter
So stay the eff out of the Twitter.”

Can’t you just hear Treach’s raw growl telling you to stop posting nonsense?

Twitter posts, just like any other form of communication, should entertain, inform or persuade. As Rufus and Chaka Kahn said, “Tell me something good.”

In my next entry, I’m going to provide some Twitter 101, foolproof instruction on how to tweet with a purpose; i.e. in the vernacular, “like you got some sense.”

“Training does not need to be politically correct,” Jerry Feinberg

Write on!

No one puts “Blogging” in the Corner!

The Deliberate Writer is a writer’s blog.  Meaning, it’s a platform I created to dialog with writers–, or anyone else who is interested in reading about writing.

[yawn--.  I know…]

But since creating this category, I often feel like I’ve constructed my own box or barrier around my freedom of expression. 

This inflexible category (of my own making, I admit) stunts my thoughts.  Sometimes I want to write about other things I’m passionate about, but I can’t.  I can’t because the topic doesn’t concern the craft of writing or provide writing advice. 

So, this is my new declaration.

[suspenseful pause]  

I don’t want to feel constrained or confined with my own blog anymore.  I’ve decided expand my blog topics.  If I want to blog about public relations or my latest bad hair cut or even fried chicken, I want to be able to do it. No, I WILL do it!

Now that I got that off my chest, I want to iterate:  The Deliberate Writer is a writer’s blog.  So, even though I may write about my job, my unmanageable hair or food, I’ll likely somehow relate it all back to the joy of writing.  Because, Oh, Zach–. I’m a writer. That’s what I am. What I do. [tap, tap] Ahh!

Write-On!

Analyzing the Master Dickey. Author Eric Jerome Dickey, that is.

Audio books are on my list of favorite things. I’m currently listening to Eric Jerome Dickey’s series of books about a character named Gideon. Gideon (no last name) is a powerfully sexy yet emotionally tormented contract killer. I just finished the book, “Dying for Revenge,” and have “Resurrecting Midnight” on standby to load into the car CD player. Gideon and his conflicts are compelling to me. I’m still thinking about him–and all the other characters, even though the book is over and I know he is safe now.

Listening to Dickey’s books has made me consider the impact of my own work on readers. I’m not comparing myself to Dickey’s talent, style or genre. Not at all. The similar part I want to achieve is to have my work be as compelling as the stories he writes. Well, no, that’s not true–. I want my stories to be even MORE compelling than his. I remember reading a quote that said something like: If your story is lagging, you can always add excitement to it by brining in “a man with the gun.” My book is character-based so I’m not sure I can introduce a gun-wielding scenario that would make sense for my story–. Instead, I will continue work on improving my own voice, my own style, and my own overall talent.

While contemplating Dickey’s success as an author, I came up with a few tips that may help the rest of us struggling writers.

• Write and publish tens of novels and plays like Dickey has done. We can accomplish this by writing and publishing continuously for nearly 25 or 30 years. Your writing, although probably good now, will continue to evolve into greatness. Just pick up the pace and become more devoted toward improving.

• Create endearing, complex characters that can transcend among other books. Better yet, create characters that are compelling enough to lend themselves to a series of adventures in future books. How? Refer to the first tip. Practice begets perfection.

• Travel and see more of the world so your books’ settings can be authentic. When Dickey’s characters travel to exotic and exciting places, his readers travel there too. But he doesn’t stop the action to describe the pretty or gritty street scenery along the way. Dickey brilliantly USES the scenery, i.e. the bridges, the streets, and the indigenous corner store in his stories, to further his action.

• Pay attention to people along your daily path. Take notes about strangers who have unique traits. Use the distinct nuances about them to help make your own characters distinctive and memorable.

We may not be Dickey or Morrison or Tan or Steinbeck–. But you are [your name here]! And you, and I, are going to be great soon.

Write on!

My Past is Prologue

I went home this past weekend. For me, “home” will always be the place I grew up. No matter where my belongings rest and despite the warm and comfortable oasis I have with my own husband, it seems I will forever refer to my parents’ house, as my home.

I don’t know that I should still call my childhood house, “my home,” though–. None of my things are there. And I’m not physically or financially tied to it. Besides, the bible says, “…a woman shall leave her father and her mother and shall cleave to her husband, and they shall become one flesh…” Genesis 2:24-25.

So, as I lay awake in my childhood bedroom, next to my sleeping flesh, I conceded that although I have no physical or financial ties there, I would always be emotionally bound to my family home. That’s just the way it is. I have lots of good memories but unfortunately, those good ones could not help but to collide with some of the upsetting ones. All those conflicting emotions manifested themselves in hard-to-digest chunks–. They seemed to disagree with me all weekend. But, the punch line of the story is: my “home” made me who I am today. Without the happy and sad concoction of experiences that formed and inspired me, who knows the kind of person I might have become? Like Shakespeare wrote, the past is prologue.

The deeper question is: Did I become the woman I had designed myself to be–more than 30 years ago? I mean, right there in that room–, as a result of all that dreaming and hoping and planning–, did I turn out the way I thought I would? In retrospect, the short answer is yes. The longer response is, my adult life turned out even better than my childhood imagined one. I have everything I need in my life. And the best thing is, I’m still living and blessed with the potential to make some of those childhood fantasy dreams come true.

Dream. Write. Publish.

Write on!