SPA Girls Podcast – EP37 – Intro to Twitter
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In episode 37 we were all together in person again and we talked about Twitter. It’s probably the second most popular social media platform after Facebook, and it’s definitely one worth investigating. We give some basics on the platform, how to get started, what some of the jargon means, and a few tips on the best ways to build up an audience and connect with others on the platform. It’s probably more of a networking opportunity than somewhere that you will make a huge number of books sales, but it’s a fun way to connect with readers, authors, publishers and other industry folk. Listen in and see what you think!
Intro to Twitter
Twitter is a social media platform. Probably the second biggest after Facebook, and perhaps geared to be more mobile. This platform gives you the ability to connect with people outside of your social and business spheres.
When you first attempt twitter it can feel like a cocktail party, where everyone is talking at once, which can be a little overwhelming, with too much information coming from all directions. Twitter is great for finding out about the latest in your industry, for learning and engaging.
You should enjoy interacting with other authors, industry professionals, or just interesting people. Twitter is about engagement and is not geared to be totally sales orientated. It’s not a quick fix to get you noticed and should be used in conjunction with other social media.
Set up an account: Sign up @twitter.com – think of a user name that represents you and not a specific book or idea that you have right now. Your author name is best, but it may have to be slightly altered to fit, or because the exact match may be taken. Your user name is also called a ‘Handle’.
These are our handles
@CherylAPhipps @wendy_vella @TrudiJaye @SharBarratt
A profile picture isn’t required but you should seriously think about uploading one as it makes you seem more approachable and real to a potential follower. You should add an author bio which needs to be short and punchy. It should say who you are and contain links to your website or amazon page etc.
You will see once the account is set-up that you have:
Home page – This will have a small banner, your photo and shows how many followers and how many people you are following. On the right hand side is your newsfeed which shows all your tweets. You can scroll down to see what you’ve missed. On the left hand side are some people twitter thinks you may like to follow. These are merely suggestions! Please don’t feel obligated to follow anyone.
Notifications page – who followed you, retweeted you or mentioned you in some way.
Messages – you can direct message your followers privately.
Profile Page (located on the right at the top by clicking on your photo) – Contains your main banner, profile picture and bio. Settings are located here to change things on this page. You can also Pin your best tweet – or perhaps your latest release here. This means that it will show first anytime someone clicks on your name.
A quill in a box represents the place you click on to write a tweet. To help you, Twitter counts down letters as you use them so you know how many are left in each tweet.
What is a tweet? – A tweet is a short message 140 characters or less used to connect with other people. Remember, like all platforms on social media, the post remains long after you can’t see it. If you do make a blunder, you can delete it. Although, never assume that it is totally gone. If someone does a screen shot or saves you tweet it can live forever. Don’t be scared – simply be cautious with what you post.
What is a hashtag? —a # is used before a particular word to search for tweets that are trending, or interesting to you. eg #amwriting #amreading #kindle. Don’t use more than 3 as a general rule. (Not because you can’t use more, but it will annoy your followers.)
What is a Retweet? – you are reposting an original tweet just as it is, although you may add a comment.
At mention is like tagging — use the persons handle (@spagirlspodcast). Any time you are mentioned, the post will appear in your notifications.
Like – is denoted by a heart.
Followers and following – You can follow someone but they may choose not to follow you and vice versa. Gaining followers means growing an interested audience with which you can engage over time.
Lists – Organize your followers into lists via your profile page. You could separate close friends/acquaintances/ business contacts etc. this way, and make them public or private.
Search Bar – In the middle at the top of your page, the Search bar is used to find trends or anyone using twitter.
Tweeps – your followers
How to use Twitter – Do’s and Don’ts
Make genuine connections.
Don’t beg followers to buy your book every time you post. Connect rather than sell on most tweets.
Followers are incredibly valuable to your business. Some ideas of tweets that are not sales related are
- Discounts
- Updates on new releases
- Interesting facts
- Recipes
Take note of abbreviations and jargon.
Add graphics (pictures/videos etc) to make people take notice. Keep these in a folder on your PC to upload easily. They will need to be of a good resolution and a specific size.
You can click on a like-minded account and go to their followers and follow them.
Always assume that the entire world can read what you tweet.
Etiquette:
While you shouldn’t feel obligated to follow everyone who follows you, it is polite to reciprocate tweets.
Unfollow if people are bombarding you with the same tweet over and over again, and feel free to block rude people or spammers.
There is a limit to how many people you can follow in a day. (this changes – so be mindful)Start with people you know and then people who interest you.
Above all – have fun!
We hope that this weeks podcast has been interesting and enlightening.
SPA Girls Podcast – EP019 – Interview with Trudi Jaye
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This week we’re up to episode 19, and it’s an interview with paranormal romance author Trudi Jaye, yet another member of the SPA Girls.
Trudi Jaye published the first book in her Magic Carnival series in 2014, and now has five books out, the latest in December 2015. Before she was an author, she worked as a journalist, writing about a range of topics from big data and artificial intelligence, to movies, television and even chainsaws and hardware.
Trudi has wanted to be a writer since she was very young. Over time it became apparent that she needed to choose between a love of photography and her writing. (We know how that turned out)
With a wide and varied resume Trudi has been – an exchange student in Denmark, lived and worked in a castle and also a pub in Scotland, worked in London as a live in assistant and been a camp counsellor in USA.
With an Honours degree in Political Science achieved and her overseas experience finished Trudi returned to New Zealand and became an editorial assistant. This made her very detail orientated as she was editing blurbs for TV programs. After two years she became the official writer for this.
Moving on to writing for a variety of magazines Trudi eventually became an editor, but quit when she realised she preferred the actual writing to editing.
Trudi began searching for groups looking for support for her passion and eventually joined RWNZ (Romance Writers of New Zealand), which is where she found the rest of the spa girls and other like-minded friends.
When she was younger she felt embarrassed to be seen reading romances so finding RWNZ was a revelation that so many people not only love these stories but write and publish them with or without agents and publishing houses.
Several years ago she was a freelance writer but when she had her daughter, Zoey, she began part-time work as a magazine writer for a tertiary institution.
Trudi Published her first book Ringmaster in May 2014. Her genre is paranormal romance and urban fantasy because she loves world building, supernatural and the mystique of paranormal. Since that first book Trudi has published another 5 books including a boxed set which all belong to the same series.
She has also written and epic fantasy which has yet to be published which is 140 pages long!
Trudi found her niche when she watched the MTV awards with a dark carnival theme and this appealed, especially after seeing an old episode fantasy Island where people got wishes granted but not in an expected way. Mashing the two ideas was how she created her magical carnival.
Self Publishing
Why self-publish? It was something Trudi has wanted to do for a very long time. Having tried the traditional route by querying agents and publishers Trudi realised that she doesn’t like the idea of being judged by anyone other than her readers and likes the control it gives her – to write what she wants on her own schedule.
It is a lot harder than she thought it would be as she is impatient, but she believes that you have to put the hard work in and follow the processes to get the desired outcome.
In the last few months Trudi has done a lot of work on building her platform by doing courses to upskill as a publisher. Growing her mailing list, advertising on Facebook and Twitter as well as joining a few forums were top of her to do list. Being a member of the Spa Girls has helped and she is always on the lookout for new ways and processes to do things.
Trudi publishes direct where possible. In New Zealand there are platforms we are not able to upload to. Initially she only used Amazon KDP select because it was too daunting to upload to others. Over time she began to use all the other platforms – Amazon, ibooks and Kobo direct and others through D2D (Draft 2 Digital). Trudi has a philosophy now of not wanting to put her books on one platform as she doesn’t like the singular control.
Other Tools
Trudi writes and loves working in scrivener. After the first draft she takes it out and puts into word. Formatting is done in Legend Maker because she has a mac computer. She also uses create space to have POD (Print on demand) available.
Trudi is a proponent of the Pomodoro method and does 1000 words in 25 minutes – 2000 words in an hour.
The Future
Trudi is looking at another 3 books in the carnival series but has a new series in the works and another YA series planned out. She really enjoys writing – thinking up new ideas – and doesn’t find it a struggle in general, apart from the editing.
She is also looking for ways to stay healthy by doing Karate and walking, and not wanting to be desk bound learning is in the process of learning a dictation program, which should also help with word count.
Advice
Treat fans as if they are your friends. Reply promptly and help them in any way you can.
Links
Trudi Jaye.com
