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Friday, November 18, 2011

Twitter Thoughts

It's no secret that I love twitter. In fact, one of the few things I dislike about my new job is that there isn't enough cell coverage inside the building to check my twitter feed on breaks. But sometimes I wonder if I'm doing it wrong.

I originally joined twitter to increase my web presence as Kate Davies, to interact with readers and other authors. And I do those things. But when I look at the majority of my followers, that's not what they're looking for.

I've got followers because of German soap operas. I've got followers because of American soap operas and actors. I've got followers because of Hawaii Five-0. (In fact, I've gotten a lot more followers because of H50 recently, thanks to a semi-ranting blog post about the addition of Lori Weston to the show. And about a half dozen of them sent the link to producer Peter Lenkov. Oops.)

All that is great, and I love chatting about some of my favorite pop culture things with people all over the world. But does it kind of defeat the purpose of being on twitter by being known for everything EXCEPT my writing? Am I enticing new readers to my work, or am I diluting the purpose of twittering?

I don't ever see myself abandoning my interests or focusing entirely on my writing at the expense of everything else. But I do wonder if I'm headed in the right direction.

Are you on twitter? Do you want authors to talk just about writing, or other subjects? Is it okay to be "followed" for something other than the books?
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    HJ

    I'm not on twitter, but I do read author's blogs. I think it is perfectly OK to be known for things other than writing, and to tweet/post about those things. Readers like to hear about them, and you are achieving your aim of getting your name out there, and becoming familiar. But you should probably include tweets/posts about writing fairly frequently, so that those who follow you know or are reminded that you are an author. Even if they started following you for some other reason, it is an important part of you and one that they should also find interesting.

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  2. Meg BenjaminNovember 18, 2011 at 2:24 PM

    This is very good advice. I hate having authors post nothing but promo, but yeah, you do need to occasionally remind your followers of why they're following you in the first place!

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  3. LisaNovember 20, 2011 at 10:12 AM

    I think you can post about anything you like. I like to hear about the other interests the authors I like have. You need to always remember to post about your books too. Not constant promo, but letting us know if your visiting on a blog. Release date approaching, if you got an awesome review. These are also things we like to hear about.

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  4. Kate DaviesNovember 20, 2011 at 11:07 PM

    Thanks for the advice, everyone! I do make it a point to link to my guest blogging, new releases, etc., so I think I'm good there. It's nice to know it's possible to find a happy balance there!

    And that said, I'm off to mention that Home For Christmas is still available for free on Amazon and Kindle. :)

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