Twitter for Idiots…

Twitty Bird

I have a new challenge.
Yes, I know I have admitted to this before, and not managed to master all of the challenges I have faced in my quest to be an uber intelligent blogger with outstanding promotional skills.
The few I have conquered have gone a long way to encourage my endeavours though. Even on those dark days when nothing seems to be worth the effort, my new found knowledge keeps me going. And when I do manage to learn something new and incredibly helpful, I’m sure I can be heard all the way down in Australia!

I could list all my failures, but I won’t, simply because I haven’t written them off just yet. I call them my “works in progress”. Being stubborn does have its advantages, and I thank God for mine every day.

Back to my new challenge.
I have read an awful lot of helpful books, all aimed at newbies like me. The best so far have been the ones by Rayne Hall.
Rayne Hall has written a series of easy to understand and helpful books on just about everything you need to be a successful writer and blogger. She also includes everything she ever did wrong in the beginning, just so you don’t!

Everywhere I look, it seems, people are saying that Twitter is the place to successfully promote your books. If you know how. I have tried, several times in fact, to be clued up on Twitter, but somehow my brain has so far refused to grasp anything but the basics.

HOWEVER… armed with Rayne’s instructions, I am determined to try again. And this might just sound like the last chance saloon, as I’m not getting any younger.

Time for some positivity…
I will learn and master the art of scheduling posts.

I will also learn how to promote our books like a professional.

I will learn how to use Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule my tweets for the best effect. (And that’s the first problem before I even get started. Which one do I use? They both say easy to use, but they haven’t met my brain.)

I discovered that there is a whole list of requirements, making it nowhere near as easy as I first thought.

1. Urls should be shortened (and that’s another thing I failed at)
2. Images have to be exactly the right size. You have only 140 characters to play with and images are deducted from these.
3. When tweeting a previous post, use the permalink instead of the original title. (Get a load of me, that sounded very technical!)
4. Your Tweets should all be different. Change the words and images. Don’t just retweet, it’s boring.
5. Create a document list of all your tweets ready to schedule, so you can use them again one day.
6. Decide which system to use. Some sound easy but not decided yet. You never know, I might just get smart enough to tackle Scrivenor at this rate!

Further post on my progress (or lack of it) coming soon.


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Responses

  1. relationspdbeverly Avatar

    Not in my case. I still don’t understand it much. Quite frankly, it makes my head hurt.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. The Coastal Crone Avatar

    I am way behind – I don’t even tweet but it is on my list for this year.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Rayne Hall (@RayneHall) Avatar

      Twitter is the easiest and quickest social media network to learn and use.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. jenanita01 Avatar

        not quite ready to agree with you on that!

        Like

  3. Rayne Hall (@RayneHall) Avatar

    Thanks for the flattering mention of my books. I’m honoured!
    If you want to keep the scheduling simple, go for Buffer rather than HootSuite. HootSuite is fine for people who are reasonably savvy about these things. Buffer is perfect for folks who want it simple. :-)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. jenanita01 Avatar

      thanks for that, I was undecided…

      Like

  4. OyiaBrown Avatar

    Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.

    Like

  5. vanderso Avatar

    I’ve just started with Hootsuite. It takes a bit of time to schedule a whole week’s worth of tweets, but I was glad this morning, when I put up my new blog posts, not to have to spend an additional half hour tweeting and not to have to take time out the rest of the week to tweet follow ups. I didn’t vary my language as much as I should have this time around, though.
    It has taken me a few tries to figure out how to save and re-use drafts, but I’m getting the hang of it. I considered the paid Pro version so I could “bulk schedule,” but then discovered I couldn’t include images when I did that, so I downgraded again.
    Hootsuite provides a short link for you. That’s a help. I haven’t had any problems with my photos, but they are all fairly low in resolution.
    I also like their “streams,” where you can see where you’ve been mentioned, who’s following you, etc. Very handy!
    Hang in there!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. jenanita01 Avatar
  6. Jnana Hodson Avatar

    OK, I still don’t get it, the idea that someone who’s limited to so few characters is actually going to read something as long as a book. But you have me reconsidering.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Rayne Hall (@RayneHall) Avatar

      Hi Jnana,
      Because the tweets are so short, people have more time to read books. Makes sense? :-D
      Rayne

      Liked by 2 people

    2. jenanita01 Avatar

      It must help get the word out, don’t you think?

      Like

      1. Jnana Hodson Avatar

        That part I get. But it’s all this time online, which often seems frenetic. Remember, I’m still not texting, though my wife and daughters keep promising/threatening me with a real cellphone to replace the TracFone they foisted upon me a decade ago or so.
        Maybe I’ll wind up retreating to a cave in the mountains yet. One with a wind-powered generator.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. jenanita01 Avatar

          I don’t have a mobile phone, so couldn’t text if you paid me, more than enough to keep me busy on line. The secret, I think, is to try and keep it simple…

          Liked by 1 person

  7. Sue Vincent Avatar

    P.S. I posted a pic of where to get the shortened link with the reblog :)

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Sue Vincent Avatar

        On my blog with the reblog :)

        Like

  8. Sue Vincent Avatar

    Reblogged this on Daily Echo and commented:
    Glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t got to grips with Twitter :)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. jenanita01 Avatar

      at the moment my grip is more like a strangle hold!

      Like

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