Getting the most from Twitter

This post first appeared on one of my technical blogs at Hedgehogs.net (http://bit.ly/Im1OO0)  though I have edited it to bring it up to date. Twitter is a great tool but you need to understand how to make best use of it and not all of the information is readily available.

I've been using Twitter now for a couple of months. Used properly it's a great tool for spreading your message, be it personal or business, to a wide audience. Used badly it can compound negative perceptions that others may have about you, your product, or your company.

There are many guides out there that impart sage advice on using Twitter but I've noticed a few things that never seem to be covered or, if they are, have no explanation attached to them. I am going to address these here but feel free to add any I may have missed by way of comment.

1. Make your tweets relevant to your audience. Post links and information that are relevant to the message you want to communicate.
2. Actively target new contacts. Research others on Twitter and follow them - not all will follow you back but a significant number will and the fact that they follow you increases the chance that they comment on your posts (because they're relevant to what you're saying) which increases your exposure to their contacts... pyramid marketing to a relevant audience. That's quite powerful.
3. Don’t be afraid to ‘unfollow’ people. Like any other Internet tool, Twitter has spammers. A lot of these are easy to spot: they normally only have one post that contains a link to some nefarious service of a dubious nature, plus they are following a gazillion people but not actually being followed back by many. True, if you don't block them your ‘followers’ count goes up but do you really want those sorts of followers? I don't and I doubt you do.
4. When posting links, include text that gives the link context. Don't just post a link with no explanation. Doing that gives no one a reason to click on the link. Presumably you put it there in the hope that people will click through, so give people a reason to do so.
5. When posting a link, shorten it. Use one of the many link-shortening tools (bit.ly or goo.gl). That gives you more room for posting your context text. You can use Twitter’s default shortening tool but using one of the free, more commercial ones, allows you to track who has clicked on it, so you have more understanding of what your target demographic likes.
6. Use the news! Twitter has the concept of news channels. These are denoted via a keyword with a hash sign at the front which people can (and do) subscribe to. So, for example, you can follow Tweets about the situation in Iran using the #iranelection channel. Have a think about news channels that your target market might be interested in. If you use a tool like Tweet Deck you can create the news channel as a search pane. Monitor the channel(s) you think might be relevant to your target group and when you identify one that you think is appropriate start including the keyword in your Tweets. This gives you more (and instant) reach to a wider audience.
7. Are you logged in? Not to Twitter, I am kind of assuming that one but be careful when copying and posting links that you aren't copying from a site to which you are logged in. In that case, unless the clicker is alos logged into that site they won’t see what you intended them to when they click through. All too often I see people post links that I can't get to because I am not a member of the website where they saw the genius article that they want to share. If you do have to post such a link, tell people that a sign-up is required to read it.
8. Re-Tweet Tweets that you think are interesting. People love to have their work acknowledged so do it. And try to ensure that you acknowledge  the original Tweet source (RT @sourcename). This can create a problem on some platforms if the original post was near or at the 140 character message size limit (especially if the link is at the end). If that happens, try and cut out any noise words but still leave the original meaning unchanged. If you re-tweet other peoples messages they are likely to be more receptive to re-tweeting yours.
9. Tweet often but wisely: don't do it for the sake of it. Tweet with relevance. That's one of the most important pieces of advice I think I can give. Lots of people tweet about how they just combed their hair or had a muffin for breakfast. Trust me, no one cares about that stuff.
10. Don't be afraid to say thank you. If someone re-tweets your posts or provides something of particular relevance to you or your business, a little grace is no bad thing and can go a long way: even in the twittersphere.

That's my 10 pearls of wisdom for today. I'm now off to tweet a link to this post - let's hope people think it relevant enough to re-tweet ;-)

Blog name change

I changed the name of the blog to 'My Creative Stream' because I felt that 'London Writing' was a bit pompous and presumptuous of me. Also the original intention of the blog has changed (evolved, grown) from being simply short stories to also including comment and tips on the craft of creative writing.
Hopefully the new name gets the intent across without sounding too pompous :)

Why I hate James Bond

(Just a bit of fun)

Why I hate James Bond

My report's with HR, with M, and with Q,
about that philanderer (you know who).
He's a bluffer (makes me nervous),
on Her Majesty's Service
(and from what I can see,
he serves no useful purpose).

He gets everything he wants,
and never has to sign for it,
yet if I poo in Thames House
It's signatures in triplicate.

It's all so unfair, he gets all the best gadgets
with stun gas and lasers and whizzy big widgets:
all I get's a phone with some stupid apps,
his new Aston Martin has special mud caps
that turn outwards revealing a huge scatter gun
(I just sit in an office, on a chair, on my bum).

He's this obsession with Blofeld who, so he claims,
has vile, evil plans and nefarious aims.
But, from the pictures I've seen,
he's cat lover and really awfully quite tame.

He's been seeing a woman of exceptional looks
with whom he's supposedly beating up crooks
and he claims to fight sharks and men with steel jaws,
(I'll wager in bed that he farts and he snores)

But I know the truth, yes, I've worked it out:
She's not what she seems (and he's just a lout).
She's really an agent from a far eastern land.
(Ha! Even his nookie is pay-on-demand)

I've been watching you see for several long weeks
Every move, every contact, awake and asleep
He thinks he's so clever, with his wit and his charm
My report will soon crack the façade of his calm

What? I'm undone, but how can this be?
They've not come for him, they're arresting me.
It's not fair, I tell you, I've committed no crime
(well, apart from the money I took that one time).

and that's locked in safe in deep darkest Devon,
with cameras, steel walls, and security men,
who won't let you in unless the right code is given.
Of course: the PIN that I used... it was double-oh seven!

The five word sentence danger

With thanks to Sharon (A215). Here is a good tip. It's about five word sentences. I  think it applies to nine word ones too. Or two. Perhaps even three. But now, I'm playing about. So back to five words.  You need to vary it. Or else it gets dull. Make up your mind, here.

Poetry is a load of old rubbish.

Poetry? It's a load of old rubbish!

That's the sentiment that I hear from a lot of people. Not morons or fools but people who have not been exposed to it, taught it, or fallen upon it one rainy Sunday by chance. Of course, I happen to think that they're wrong but it's the devil's own job to get them to see another side. Why? And why is poetry not just nice/beautiful etc but actually crucial to the general art of fiction? By the way, I'm choosing my words carefully: I do mean crucial.

First of all, why do so many people think poetry is rubbish? I think it's because most people when they think of poetry only think of limericks. Now, these can be fun but they really represent a very small (miniscule) subset of the superset that is poetry. So, you say poetry and people instantly think 'There was a young poet from Mawdor, who was a frightful old bore...' etc. Or they think of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings (quoted in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), or, perhaps that infamous Scottish poet William Topaz McGonagall.

Of course, these terrible poets are all fun to lambast but the joshing sometimes creates an impregnable barrier to accessing the good stuff.

A further problem, I think, is that people sometimes think that all poetry has to be iambic pentatmeter and the minute they hear that term they run a mile. It's been said by many that iambic pentameter lends itself to the natural speech patterns of English. In The Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry tells us that 'The rising rhythm of the five-beat iambic pentameter has been since the fourteenth century the most widely used metre in English poetry.' Well, OK, I will concede that but it can, I think, be difficult and feel quite laboured and personally I reckon that iambic tetrameter suits the language better. Hang on. All these terms: iambic; pentameter; tetrameter. What do they all mean? Now I know that many who read this will know what they mean but many won't and for those who don't I would recommend finding out and deliving in to the different poetic terms. Find out what enjambment is, seek out the elusive trochee, and learn the difference between a limerick, a sonnet (and the different forms therein), and all the other forms of poetry.

There is something else though and that is: imagery. Poetry is often an exercise in imagery. Pareidolia (the psychological phenomenon of reading significance into random stimulii - like sights and sounds - like the Man on the Moon) often informs poetry. Poets often have to think very visually. That is also true of fiction writers and it is my belief that a fiction writer who also writes poetry (even if they only dabble from time to time) will develop an increased ability to write from a visual perspective and that that is why poetry, as I stated at the beginning of this post, is crucial to the art of fiction. It is a shame that that isn't taught with more fervor in schools and defended more robustly when the statement 'Poetry? It's a load of rubbish!' is made.

By the way, April is National Poetry Month. Why not give it a bash? You might be pleasantly surprised at the results :)