Twittery Observations

For the last two days, I've been trying to organize my Twitter feed into lists, a project that's long past due. I have no idea how close to the end I am. However, I've taken in some things about Twitter, and about what works. (I say this as someone who doesn't use Twitter much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.)

First of all, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can make lists (categories) to put those you're following under. Then you can click on a list and just view the tweets from that category. So, for instance, I have a "bloggers" list. If I want to get rid of the "noise" of Twitter, and just want to see my blogger peeps so I can visit them if they've tweeted a link to a blog post (for example), I can just click on the blogger list I've created and scan down the page, getting rid of all the other tweets sitting there on the feed.

You can make these lists public or private. I've made these all public, so if someone goes to my profile they can click on "lists" and look up Twitter accounts that fit one of the above categories. Want to find publications? You can find them under my lists!

I separated out lists for bloggers, writers/authors, editors/agents, publications, news/links, and promotion. This will probably be modified later, but this is a good start. I'm getting tweets thanking me for adding people to the lists. I had no idea they'd be notified when I put them in the list--I simply wanted to simplify how I approached Twitter so maybe I'd use it a bit more, while making it easier to use. So it's a good thing to be added to a list. See? I learned something!

But there are a bunch of people who won't be going into any of the lists I've created, because there's no explanation under their names as to who they are. And when I'm going through more than 2000 people, I don't have time to click on everyone to check out what they do and what they're tweeting. They get skipped.

There are people who do have something written there, but it's a clever statement, quote, or something along those lines. Several are wonderfully creative or funny. However, if I don't know who this person is, I'm not adding them into a list. I'm not unfollowing them, though, which I am doing with some accounts I'm coming across.

The ones I love are accounts that straight up say that they're a blogger, writer, editor, agent, publication, publicist, musician, comedian, actor, whatever. A bunch lay it out there, whether it's via hashtags or written out. Some particularly well done author bios, as an example, include that they're the author of such and such series, won x award, and blog at such and such blog or website. That's a lot of information, all squished into the limited area allowed for bios, but they did it. There are agents who are also authors, writers who are also book reviewers, so on and so forth.

Thanks to this little project (urg), I'll be reviewing my own bio once I'm finished organizing everything.

To create a list of your own, go to your profile page on Twitter, click on "more," select "lists," then click "create new lists" on the right side. You'll be prompted for a name for the list, an explanation of it, and then you can add names by typing them in or clicking on the spot on your profile page that says "following." This will bring up a list of everyone you follow, and you can click on the sprocket symbol then select "add or remove from lists." Then you can select which group or groups you'd like to add them to.

You can also click on the sprocket icon at the top right of your Twitter profile page, in the toolbar, to access your lists. (Here's a Twitter instruction page for it.)

Do you utilize lists on Twitter? What categories have you separated them into? Do you find it helpful, or was it a waste of time?

May you find your Muse.

Yay & Twitter: Help!

Before I start talking about Twitter, I want to excitedly announce that I got the first submission for the Pen Women Flash Fiction Contest! Yay! I hope they start to flood in. If you haven't seen information on this Flash Fiction Contest, you can click the Flash Fiction tab at the top of my blog. I am the Chair for the contest, but am not judging it. Getting that first submission made all the hard work seem worth it!

Also, I attended a lovely Pen Women meeting on Saturday with guest speaker Cynthia Becker, who talked to us about researching for a biography (she wrote about Chipeta, wife of Ute Chief Ouray). I am hoping to pass along some of the helpful information she gave us, probably next Monday. She had great research links and ways to research that will help you with historical accuracy, whether you're writing historical fiction or a biography.

Lastly, I think I've landed on a fun extra for daily posts during the A-to-Z. I'm so excited to try it out! Speaking of the A-to-Z, we hosts are doing "getting to know you" posts throughout the next month-and-a half and answering questions you might find to be unexpected. Arlee Bird, our honorable leader in insanity, posted his on Saturday. Mine isn't until March, but you will find some fun posts from my co-hosts in the meantime.

Moving on to Twitter...

I signed up for Twitter last spring or summer, having received encouragement during the A-to-Z on how helpful it was for writers. I have not really gotten to know it well yet, and have mostly used it to reply to tweets directed at me and to post a link to each post here on the blog.

The problem is that I've been getting contacted more and/or tagged, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond, what the Twitter rules of etiquette are, etc. I'm hoping some of you can help me.

When someone tags you in a "tweet" with the tag #WW what does that mean? Is it just referring people to a Wordless Wednesday-type post? Should I be responding with a thank you, re-tweeting, what? Help!

Also, if someone tags you with the tag #FF what is that for? Follower Friday? What does that mean? Should I be responding with a thank you? Once again, please help!

For my part, I always try to tweet a thank you to anyone who retweets one of my tweets (haha, writing that word over and over is weird). I follow back most who follow me unless it is blatant advertising, completely inappropriate (considering I have a twisted sense of humor, it has to be really inappropriate) or something porny, and I hesitate when it is someone with no tweets, or none that are recent. I also look at their number of followers versus the number they follow. If this is very lopsided and they have a ton of followers but are only following a few, I pretty much assume they intend to delete me after I follow back, so they will not get me as a follower.

If I happen to be on for whatever reason and see something interesting I want to share, I retweet it by clicking "retweet" at the bottom of their post (I specify that because I've since happened across a discussion on whether you should do it that way or whether you should copy the link and do a whole new tweet on it).

I'm trying to learn it because I hate thinking there is some proper way I'm supposed to be responding to various things on there and people who were nice enough to mention me are possibly peeved that I haven't responded appropriately. I'm sure there have been some other manner of tags, though I think #WW and #FF are the major ones I've seen. Is there a resource you might recommend for knowing what various hash-tags mean or would someone kindly tell me about the proper ways to behave in Twitter Land? I don't want to be known as rude.

I imagine I can't be the only one who has no idea what any of this means, so any answers provided in the comments will hopefully help someone other than me, as well.

What do #FF and #WW stand for and how should one respond to them when tagged/mentioned? Do you automatically follow back? If not, what are your specifications for whether you follow someone? Are you in the same boat as me...signed up, but completely clueless?

May you find your Muse.

Social Media for Writers

I've questioned various forms of social media since starting this blog: why should we use them, what good are they, how do they help, are they just time wasters? I signed up for Twitter after a lot of recommendations on my Twitter post during last year's A-to-Z challenge, because I was told it was valuable for writers. I was already on Facebook, and MySpace was obsolete to me before I joined Facebook. As far as LinkedIn, I only joined because I kept getting requests from people. But what should I be doing with them?

For Twitter, I've followed publishing houses and such, and some have even found me first, which I imagine is for their advertizing purposes, but it works for me, either way. So far, it has not had major use yet, but I imagine its day will come. Also, I would have to spend more time on there to give it a real chance before I complain. I can see how it would be a good source for finding publishers, learning about agents, and hearing about contests, though. And when the day comes that I've got something to advertize, I'm sure it will be helpful there, too. I know that I have valued it when someone has "retweeted" or "RT'd" something I've put on there, and I wonder if some of my readers haven't been discovered that way.

I'm still trying to figure out some of the logistics of Twitter. When someone "tags" me with a "FF" tag, for instance, am I supposed to respond in some way? I don't right now, because I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Help? I don't respond every time someone thanks me for following them on there, for various reasons. Am I supposed to always respond? Am I supposed to tag everyone who follows me with a thank you message? Do people prefer that, or are they happy without it?

Facebook has a bunch of uses, so while I can see how it can be valuable, I'm not sure how to get a Facebook page out there where everyone knows it's there. For instance, I created one for the Pen Women, but how do I get people to follow it? Of course, I have one for this blog, too, but I figure for right now just having the button on the side of my blog referring people to it is good enough. If someone wants to "like" the Facebook page, they can find it on here. As of right now, though, it is mostly used to notify people of new posts on here. I tried starting conversations on there a few times that were related to what I had posted, but it didn't work. Maybe in the future when I have five trillion followers/readers?

One that I never bothered much with until recently was LinkedIn. Like I said above, I added it because I kept getting requests. I mostly had a couple friends on there and that was that. However, I started getting requests from fellow writers who had found me on here, and then I got recommendations for others to add, and I've started doing a teeny bit more that way, but that was really it. Then, maybe about a week or so ago, I got a nice little form message recommending some groups I could join. I had no idea there were groups! I clicked on the groups and checked them out, and there were some neat groups of writers, so I went ahead and joined.

Lo and behold, a few days ago someone posts in one of the groups that their anthology deadline has been extended. I click on that discussion, it sounds interesting, and I go to the site. Their prompt instantly sparked something, and I immediately wrote a personal essay to submit. I've never submitted an essay for publication (I've hardly submitted anything for publication...), so I have no idea if it's good, but I'm delighted to have done it. In case you're interested, the anthology is Sofas I've Slept on. I believe they're taking submissions until March 20, 2012.

Image courtesy of OCAL at CLKER.com

I'm learning that I maybe shouldn't be so skeptical of social media, and that it has value. The problem is learning how to use it to my advantage without allowing it to suck me in and become a time waster. That's true for every single bit of social media I take part in. Other than the lure of CastleVille, I'm getting better at brief, pertinent visits most of the time.

Quickly, I'd like to mention the Pikes Peak Writer's Write Brain, occurring tomorrow, Tuesday, January 17, 6:30-8:30 at Celebration Place in the Citadel Mall. It sounds like a great program. I'll likely write it up if I get good notes, and share it with everyone, but if you're able to attend, I'm sure personal attendance would be far more valuable than my write up. This Write Brain will be run by Deb Courtney, Robert Spiller and DeAnna Knippling, and concerns New Models in Publishing. Each of these people has been involved with both traditional and self-publishing. For more information, click HERE.

What forms of social media do you use? What do you find most valuable? How do you insure you aren't wasting time?

May you find your Muse.