Confessions of a Twitterphobe (January Theme by Tamera Will Wissinger)

Four months ago if someone had told me that today I would be writing an article to inspire reluctant writers to consider joining Twitter, I would have said they didn't know me one bit. I had no interest in Twitter. None. I had already jumped four major online hurdles in 2012: I had developed a website, made a Facebook Author page, become a Goodreads author, and learned how to post an article on Blogger and Wordpress. Enough, I thought. I don't need to be on Twitter.

And then, on October 2, 2012, as members of one of my debut author groups, The Class of 2k13, planned to go live with our website, I received an email from Demitria Lunetta, one of the class's social media leaders. At the bottom of her very nice memo about setting up the class Twitter account, there was a very nice note directed to me:

“Tamera...sorry to call you out, but you're the only one without twitter. Let me know if you need any help, otherwise when you set up your account I'll add you to the list."

Notice it doesn’t say, “Tamera, are you going to be on Twitter?” or “Tamera, if you decide to jump into Twitter…” but “when you set up your account.” That’s pretty definitive. GULP. And yet, I did not want to do it. Panicked, I wrote to another classmate, Polly Holyoke, who had helped me out of other jams I’d gotten myself into.

In a series of emails between October 2 and 3, Polly calmly and patiently walked me through the benefits of at least trying Twitter while I put up every barrier I could think of. Some of my best arguments: What good would Twitter do me? I'm an author with no books out yet. Who would follow me, who would I possibly follow? Wasn't it a social network that would steal my time? What would I tweet? What about privacy? I stopped short of whimpering; “but I don’t want to,” although I did think it. Emotionally, this felt like the eve of my first day of junior high – I was petrified and in uncertain-intimidated-afraid-lock-down-passive-resister mode. Recognizing this, here is what Polly told me:

“My gut feeling (which you can totally ignore- of course!) is that you should probably sign up (which takes five minutes), play with twitter, see if it has any value for you, and then stop in a year if it doesn't. It's hard to judge something objectively until you've really used it and understand how it works/who it reaches.”

Oh.

Why didn’t I think of that? With this one simple paragraph, Polly simultaneous took all the wind of fear and uncertainty out of my sail and floated a gentle breeze of encouragement and control to lift my sail from another direction.

I did as my friend suggested. I poked around. And within a day, here was my reaction in a response to Polly:

“…as I looked around I realized that twitter works because of the network effect of all of us connecting in a small way to make a big impact. So I got over my issues and dove in. Thanks for helping me work through it...”

I had spent gobs more energy worrying and wondering about Twitter than it took to just sign up, look around, and educate myself. That’s what happens when preconceived notions go unchecked.

I sent my first tweet on Friday, October 5, 2012. Here’s what it said: “Poetry Friday is here: ‪http://laurasalas.wordpress.com/  Enjoy!”

Image courtesy of twittericon.com

Simple, painless, interesting to me, and something that other readers and writers might be interested in. I began to follow a few writers. Kit Grindstaf, a fellow author from my other debut group, The Lucky 13s, was the first to say "hello" and follow me. Soon after, others began to follow me, and my network has slowly grown from there. Among the activities that I’ve participated in on Twitter: 

• Celebrated book releases and good news of friends and acquaintances
• Interacted with authors whose books I love 
• Connected with people who have enjoyed reading advanced copies of my book
• Linked people to events, articles, and information that I find fascinating, noteworthy, or amusing 

Most of my tweets are reading and writing related, but some aren’t. I have initiated tweets about my upcoming debut novel, but only on occasions when I have something truly newsworthy to say. I control what/when I’m willing to tweet, so none of it feels like a privacy invasion or takes up too much of my time. I do still have a lot to learn, but I am learning, and I’m having fun and I’m no longer afraid.

As far as the impact on marketing: I don’t know if there will be a payoff and I may never know. One of the wonders of networking in this way is that for every tweet I send, there is the possibility that one of my followers will retweet or respond, activities that, if I react, reach their followers and mine. In this way it's possible to make connections far beyond my own network.

The marketing possibilities don't stop there. In addition to readers and writers, also on twitter are booksellers, librarians, and teachers, publishers, editors, and agents. In a way, Twitter is like an ongoing virtual industry conference, and I have a small billboard and a backstage pass. This alone is a very compelling argument for why any author – well published, newly published, or pre published – might want to consider Twitter.  Beyond the possible reward of drawing attention to myself or my writing, though, I simply like feeling connected to people and information that I wouldn’t have been aware of before.

If you are a reluctant tweeter, I invite you to look around. You don’t even have to have an account to read tweets – you just need to know a person's Twitter handle. (Mine is @TameraWissinger) And if you sign up for an account, as Demitria recently suggested to me:

“…you don’t have to tweet at first. You can just follow people that interest you and see how it’s done, then jump in when you feel more confident.”

I’ll share one more gem from Polly, too:

“Tweeting is easier and much less scary than lots of other stuff you've learned this past year.”

So true. Thank goodness for the sound advice of writing friends who took my concerns seriously and helped me when I needed it! And I agree with them – Twitter isn’t something to fear or shun, but something to consider as one resource of many in our common quest to write as well as we can, share what we know, and to connect with others equally committed to placing wonderful stories into the hands of children.

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There are good resources online to help if you’re contemplating opening a Twitter account. Here’s a link to an article by Molly Greene that is specific to authors and that I’ve found useful:  

0-4,000 In A Snap: How to Build a Quality Twitter Following Fast

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Tamera Wissinger is the debut author of GONE FISHING: A Novel In Verse, arriving from Houghton Mifflin Books for Children on March 5, 2013. A graduate of Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program, Tamera shares her time between Chicago and Florida.

In addition to locating her on Twitter, online you can find Tamera on her website, Goodreads, or Facebook.