If you want to level up your twitter skills here are seven of the best articles on the web to help you out.

After reading these guides you will become a true twitter ninja, young grass hopper.

1) Five Steps to Go Viral on Twitter

This article article will help you understand what spreads on Twitter and what does not. It is written by Dan Zarella who is the foremost expert in the science of retweeting.

2) Answers to the Top Ten Twitter Objections

Do you or a friend have objections to using twitter? Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers answers those objections to Twitter in this post.

Here are the Twitter objections he answers:

1. “Twitter sounds silly.”
2. “I don’t understand how to do it.”
3. “It think it would take too much time.”
4. “It is too narcissistic or self-centered.”
5. “I prefer Facebook or some other social media service.”
6. “It is a poor substitute for real relationships.”
7. “I don’t have anything interesting to say.”
8. “I am concerned about my privacy.”
9. “I don’t see how it could help my business.”
10. “I don’t know how to get started.”

Read Hyatt’s post to get his answers to these objections.

3) The Top Seven Twitter Tutorials on YouTube

If you need help using Twitter these videos are incredibly helpfull. You can follow aloung with the video and just press pause when you need to.

4) How Twitter Makes You A Better Writer

Believe it or not Twitter can make you a better writer. This post will tell you how.

5) The Five Stages of Twitter Acceptance

This is a short funny and very true post. The first stage is “Denial” This twitter thing is stupid. Where are you on the 5 stages of twitter acceptance?

6) No One Cares What You Are Doing Right Now

This article, by Thomas Umstattd, will help you know what to say on Twitter to earn more followers and be more interesting. People may not care that you are at the airport but they do care about you. And, more importantly they care about what is interesting to you.

7) Ten Ways to Keep Your Precious Followers on Twitter

How much do you value your Twitter followers? If the answer is “a lot”, then consider following theses these general guidelines if you’d like your followers to continue following you for years.

Related posts:

1. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
2. Nobody Cares What You’re Doing Right Now (and why they still might follow you)
3. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
4. 5 Tips for Getting The Most Out of Twitter
5. How to Get Twitter on Your Phone

Ok, so someone told you that you need to get on Twitter but you have no idea how.

Here are 4 steps to get you tweeting like a pro.

Step #1 Sign up

All you need to do sign up is got to Twitter.com and click sign up. Don’t rush the setup. Twitter does a great job walking you through the process but you have to read their advice for it to do you any good.

Username Tip

Make sure to pick a password you can remember and a username that is NOT anonymous. FirstnameLastname would be the best username if you can get it. My username, for example, is ThomasUmstattd. Notice how the capital letters separate the first and last name. You can’t have a space in a username.

Helpful Video

This video is helpful is figuring out how Twitter works. But remember no one cares what you are doing right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Step #2 Start Following People

Start following people. Twitter is not very interesting until you follow at least 30 people. Twitter can pull in contacts from your gmail or yahoo account and help you find people you already know who use twitter. Those are the first people I recommend would following first. If you are an author you should also follow these 7 people.

How to follow someone on Twitter:

1. Go to their profile page by clicking on their name or photo.
2. Click follow (you will find it under their photo). If you don’t see the follow button it means you need to login to twitter.

Step #3 Setup Your Photo

After you login to twitter click on account and then picture.  Then upload your photo. If it doesn’t work the first time you might need to shrink it.

Step #4 Learn The Twitter Vocabulary

Read this article on Twitter tips. Practice sending a tweet using each tip.

Step #5 Earn Followers

Read this article on what to say on Twitter and how to earn followers.

Step #6 Connect Twitter With Facebook (optional)

Here is our step by step guide to connect your Twitter to your Facebook status.

Step #7 Setup Your Phone to Use Twitter (optional)

Here is our step by step guide to setup Twitter on your phone.

Thats it! Leave a comment below if you get stuck or need help.

Related posts:

1. How to Get Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status
2. 7 Articles To Help You Become a Twitter Ninja
3. How to Get Twitter on Your Phone
4. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
5. Is Facebook A Fad?

Mary DeMuth is an author, writing coach, and sought after speaker who speaks at writers conferences all over the country.

In this interview she shares how she uses social media (Blogging, Twitter & Facebook) to sell books and connect with readers.

What is your blogging story? When did you start blogging and when/why did you start your other blogs?

I initially started blogging when we moved to France as church planters. I thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with folks back home. I enjoyed it so much, and started creating a following immediately. That was the fall of 2004 with RelevantBlog.

How much traffic do your blogs get?

Combined, about 30,000-50,000 visitors a month.

How did you promote your blog at first? Has that changed now?

It was just my own networks plus our email distribution list that first drove people to my blog. Now I promote primarily by writing comments elsewhere, adding Feedblitz, and advertising through my updates on Twitter and Facebook. I’d say the latter is what drives the most significant traffic these days.

You have a robust online presence (Twitter, Facebook, etc). What role does your blog play in connection with those other sites?

An intrinsic one. I promote my blogs through Twitter. I have three blogs: Wanna Be Published, My Family Secrets, and RelevantBlog. Whenever I post to the blog, I write an intriguing teaser and a link on Twitter. I also promote other people’s blogs so I’m not a me-monster.

Does your blog help you connect to readers or sell more books? If so how?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve met plenty of new readers through social networking. They say it takes about 5-7 touches before a consumer will make a purchase of your product. Blogging, facebooking and twittering provide several touches at once. One time, a guy with my last name bought a novel for his mother, simply because he found me on Twitter (because of our name). So, you just never know!

What would you recommend to hopeful authors who want to start a blog?

1. Have a purpose for your blog.
2. Be interesting.
3. Be consistent in posting. Don’t orphan your fan base by being gung ho a few weeks and then dribbling off to nowhere.
4. Advertise through your social media networks.
5. Write inviting posts that aren’t too long.

Related posts:

1. Social Media & Authors – An Interview with Dave Evans
2. 7 Ways to Integrate Facebook into your Online Platform
3. 6 Things Readers Want from Your Author Website
4. Is Facebook A Fad?
5. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow

If you are new to Twitter here are 7 people you will want to follow.

They share helpful advice and many of them are authors so if you want a good example to follow here it is.

1. @AuthorTech shares tips that help you do more in less time.

2. @BookMarketer shares tips on how to promote your book online and offline.

3. @PhenixandPhenix is one of the top book publicity firms. They share great tips and news.

4. @KathyIde shares grammar tips. If you don’t want to follow her that’s the sign you need to follow her.

5. @MaryDeMuth gives great writing tips for authors.

6. @MichaelHyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. He is the publishing industry expert.

7. @RachelleGardner is a literary agent with so many tips to share she created the #PubTip hashtag.

There are many other folks worth following but these seven are a great place to get started.

Related posts:

1. 7 Articles To Help You Become a Twitter Ninja
2. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
3. Nobody Cares What You’re Doing Right Now (and why they still might follow you)
4. Is Facebook A Fad?
5. What is #PubTip?

You’ve seen #PubTip on Twitter. Now find out what it is and how to use it.

#PubTip is a Hashtag

What are hashtags you ask? Hashtags are Twitter slang for keywords. Anytime someone includes the # symbol it means the following word is a key word. The magic of hastags is that you can search by the hashtag and “follow it” kind of like you follow a person.

History of PubTip

Rachelle Gardner, a literary agent, started #PubTip on June 31st 2009. She wanted a place for agents and editors to share tips with prospective writers. She uses it a lot particularly when going through submissions. She turns her annoyances into tips. If you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when agents and editors were giving advice to clients this is your chance.

The First #PubTip  Tweet

rachellegardner: Agents & editors: I’d like to start a permanent hashtag, #pubtip, that we can use for publishing tips. What say u?

How #PubTip is Different than #Writing

The #writing hashtag is mostly advice and talk about the craft of writing. How to write well.

The #PubTip is mostly about the business of writing. How to sell your work. As you can imagine there is some overlap but not a lot.

Related posts:

1. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
2. Nobody Cares What You’re Doing Right Now (and why they still might follow you)
3. 5 Tips for Getting The Most Out of Twitter
4. How #TweetTheAuthor Connects Authors With Readers
5. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps

No one cares that you are sitting @Startucks. They don’t care that you’re at the airport either.

But they may still follow you. Why? In this post you will the answer and learn how to rethink Twitter in such a way to make your follower count soar.

People follow you for one of three reasons:

Reason #1 They Care About You

My mom follows me on Twitter because she actually cares what I am doing. She also diggs my posts on occasion. If your mom follows you, that’s  why.  Not many people care about me like my mom does. I can’t build a platform by talking to my mom. Neither can you.

Reason #2 They Want You to Follow Them Back

TweetDeck allows people to follow someone and then ignore their tweets. There are millions of people who mutually ignore each other just to inflate their follower numbers. These people follow you for a while and if you don’t follow them back after a while they leave. You can’t build a platform here either although you may be able to impress a publishing house if you have 10,000 followers. They won’t know if they listen or not.

Reason #3 They Think You’re Interesting

As an author this third category are the kind of followers that you really want. Its the only way to build a useful platform. These followers read your tweets and may even retweet you. There are many ways to be interesting but talking about what you are doing is not one of them.

How to Tell If You Are Interesting:

• Do people follow you even if you don’t follow them back?
• Do people retweet your tweets?
• Do people click the links you share on Twitter?

@JamesScotBell is one of those tweeters. He is funny and informative.

Answering the Wrong Question

When you follow someone on Twitter what question are you asking? You’re probably asking “Will this person be interesting.” Your question is not “what are you doing now.” The real question you should be answering is “What is interesting to me right now.” If something interests you chances are it will interest other people, even if they don’t know who you are. Stop sharing things on Twitter that are not interesting.

What are you doing now? What is interesting to you now?

If you don’t believe me just look and see what hashtags are popular. People follow hashtags even when all the tweets are from people they don’t know. A hashtag is a keyword with a # in front. So the #Wordpress hashtag is all the buzz about WordPress.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.

Related posts:

1. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
2. 5 Tips for Getting The Most Out of Twitter
3. 7 Articles To Help You Become a Twitter Ninja
4. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
5. What is #PubTip?

Part of the appeal of Twitter is that it gives users opportunities to communicate with people they’ve never had access to before. Learn how Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists used Twitter to connect author Andy Andrews with thousands of readers on Twitter.

The unique features of Twitter got our publicity firm thinking about how to leverage the large followings that many of our authors have. How cool would it be if their “followers” could have a designated forum to speak directly with them in a live setting.

So, we created “Tweet the Author,” a weekly chat with authors about their newest books.  With “Tweet the Author” we can play on the biggest strength of Twitter—access—and give those people living outside areas where authors do events a chance to interact with them in a “live” setting.

Last Wednesday we hosted our first “Tweet the Author” event with New York Times best-selling author Andy Andrews, whose newest book, The Noticer, is now in its 7^th week on the New York Times bestseller list.

How Tweet the Author Worked

For Andy’s “Tweet the Author” chat we set #thenoticer as the hash-tag, which meant that people could join the chat by searching “#thenoticer” in the search field on Twitter. From there people could follow the chat as it progressed by simply refreshing their screen. If they wanted to ask Andy a question or join in, they would simply type in their tweet and add #thenoticer at the end.

How We Promoted Tweet the Author

We began promoting the event about a week ahead of time by:

• reaching out to bloggers who reviewed the book
• writing our own blog post
• tweeting about it a few times a day

Perhaps more importantly, we also received great help from Andy and his team, and the fabulous publicity staff at Thomas Nelson. “Tweet the Author” was billed as a chance to ask questions, discuss the book and give Andy feedback on how the message may have impacted people’s lives and by giving people about a week’s worth of notice, we gave them the ability to plan to attend.

How well did it go?

At 1 PM CST last Wednesday we introduced Andy and held our breath…as with any idea, even if you think it’s a good one you never know if it’s going to work until the wheels are up and you start it. The questions quickly started rolling in and Andy was ready for them. He met both of his challenges—keeping up with questions and answering them in 140 characters or less—like a total pro.

People asked about characters from the book, and many sent tweets saying they were heading out to buy the book or recommend it to friends. One tweet from a teacher even mentioned introducing the book as a high school level school-wide reading project.

Although it’s impossible to count the number of people who attended the event (you can only count those who tweeted—not those just watching the discussion), we did have 40 unique tweeters for the hour and numerous questions. We have no idea how many “lurkers” we had who just listened to the conversation.

If you start adding all the followers from those 40 unique tweeters—not to mention those who covered it ahead of time, you get to a very large number of impressions.

Making #TweetTheAuthor a Weekly Event

Andy Andrews Tweet the Author went so well that we have decided to make “Tweet the Author” a weekly Twitter event on Wednesdays from 1-2 PM CST.

Today’s “Tweet the Author” guest is New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson. His newest book, Warbreaker, debuted on the New York Times list in June.

Sanderson will be answering questions about Warbreaker as well as talking about his eagerly anticipated November release, The Gathering Storm, which will be the beginning of the end of the famous Wheel of Time series.

I hope that “Tweet the Author” will continue to be a hit among readers who will now have the ability to attend author events from the comfort of their couch.

What do you think? Have you participated in a #TweetTheAuthor? What did you think?

Related posts:

1. 6 Things Readers Want from Your Author Website
2. 5 Tips for Getting The Most Out of Twitter

If you build it they won’t come. The only way to get people to visit your author website is to give them something they are looking for. But what is that?

This article summarizes research done by the Codex Group about what readers want from author websites.

1. Exclusive Content

43% of respondents to the Codex Group Survey want exclusive online content.

This is an untapped goldmine. Provide special goodies exclusively on your site and watch your visits blast off. Give them fun stuff they would be willing to pay for. MP3′s short stories, whole books. Go crazy.

Seth Godin gives more stuff away for free on his blog than most other authors. He also sells more books than most other authors. He gives stuff away on his blog only to his blog readers. He has no “goodies” page.

2. Your Speaking Schedule

36% want speaking schedules, book signings, and appearances.

This is really true, particularly for guys. I check Mark Cahill’s website often just to see if he is coming to Texas.  Posting your speaking schedule can also increase your appeal as a speaker. If event planners know you bring your own crowd they will be willing to pay you more.

3. Recommended Books

36% want to see recommended books; “explainers,” or inside information about the book.

This is also a great way to make a little extra money on the side since amazon will  give you a commission on any book sales you refer using their affiliate program. Garr Reynolds does book recommendations well. He doesn’t just recommend a book, he explains the jist of the book visually. He also has a list of recommended books along the right side of his site.

4. Book News

33% want weekly e-mail news bulletins with updates on tours, reviews, and books in progress.

Let your website visitors feel like they are on the “in crowd” they get to know about stuff first and get special perks by visiting your website.

5. Your Contact Information

Nothing is more frustrating for readers than to digg up an authors website only not to be able to contact that author. Setup an email address just for getting reader feedback. The practice of corresponding with readers is centuries old. C.S. Lewis used to spend hours hand writing responses to his reader’s letters. If he can do that the least you can do is give people your email.

5. Your Social Networking Information

Are you on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? Make sure to include buttons so that your readers can connect to you on those networks.

6. Good Photos

People don’t want to see lots of plain text when they come to your site. They also don’t want to see that snapshot your husband took of you in the back yard. You don’t need photos of you necessarily but you need photos of something. Use photos that relate to your topic. Get some professional photos of yourself.

Related posts:

1. The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes
2. How to Track Your Author Website’s Effectiveness
3. Don’t Play Hide & Seek with Your Readers
4. 7 Ways to Send More Traffic to Your Website During a Radio Interview
5. 5 Things Visitors Don’t Want From Your Author Blog

Do you feel like you are not getting much out of Twitter?

Here are 5 ways to make Twitter more valuable to your life.

1 – Send @Reply Messages

The magic of Twitter is the @Reply. What is an @reply you ask? Whenever someone starts a tweet with @username then that is an @reply. The only people who see the @reply are people who are following both the sender and the receiver. This allows dynamic and spontaneous conversations between groups of friends without causing noise to those outside the group. It also reduces spam so you don’t see chit chat between people you don’t know.

For example, if you started a tweet with @AuthorTech then the message would go to our Twitter account. It would also show up for people who are following you and @AuthorTech.

2 – Use Hashtags

A hashtag works a lot like an @reply but with a topic instead of a person. So, lets say that you wanted to read the buzz about the TV show 24. If you did a twitter search for #24 you would see all the chitchat about 24. The cool thing about hash tags is that you can make a hash tag about anything you want.

For example, at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers conference last year we had #mthermon about Mount Hermon. All you had to do to keep up with the Mount Hermon chitchat was follow the #mthermon hash tag.

3 – Use a 3rd Party App

Most twitter users don’t go to Twitter.com. Generally only newbies uses the web to “do” twitter. The reason is that Twitter easier and faster to use with a third party app. A third party app is a program that installs on your computer that makes twitter easier to use.

Twitter App Recommendation:

• TwitterFox – This app plugs into the firefox browser and is dead simple to use.
• Tweet Deck – This is the app that the power users use. It can split incoming tweets into multiple threads. You can use it to group your friends.
• Tweetie – This is the prettiest and easiest twitter app. It only runs on the mac but it sure is nice looking.

4 – Put Twitter on Your Phone

Twitter is fun to use from your computer. But it is way fun to use on the road. Mobile twitter makes keeping in touch easier. It also allows for spontaneous coordination. Tweets like “Hey everyone, I am going to the 7pm showing of The Hobbit. Anyone want to come?” are most valuable if people have mobile access to Twitter.

Guide: How to get Twitter on your phone.

5 – Setup a Twitter Skin

Another way to get more out of Twitter is to use a Twitter Skin. A Twitter skin is the picture that goes behind your twitter page. For example at Twitter.com/AuthorTech. You will see the friendly author tech robot on the right hand side. We will have a post in the future on how to create a Twitter Skin.

Bonus Tip – ReTweet Great Tweets

Many people don’t know what to say on Twitter. Thats where Retweeting comes in. Retweeting is for Twitter what forwarding is for email. So if you see a great tweet you can retweet it out to your followers. All you need to do to send a retweet is copy the Tweet and past it into the message field. Then add “RT @ThierUsername” at the beginning. Sometimes people will add a hashtag to their retweets as well.

Here is a tweet I sent out a few hours ago:

“New blog post: 5 Tips to Getting The Most Out of Twitter http://bit.ly/3g1XT“

As you can see its a fairly plain post. No hash tags. Nothing fancy.

Here is a recent retweet that @BookPros sent to his or her followers. Notice how BookPros adds value to the Tweet

“RT @AuthorTech New blog post: 5 Tips to Getting The Most Out of Twitter http://bit.ly/3g1XT // Great tips for those still new to #Twitter.”

Everything in bold was added by @BookPros.

What do you think?

Feel free to practice these tips and let us know how it goes.

Related posts:

1. 7 Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
2. How to Get Twitter on Your Phone
3. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
4. Nobody Cares What You’re Doing Right Now (and why they still might follow you)
5. 7 Articles To Help You Become a Twitter Ninja

You can Tweet from any phone. The fun of twitter is using it on the go.

This guide shows you the best ways to Tweet from your phone.

Text Message

The most basic way to do Twitter on your phone is by using SMS Text Messages. Twitter actually works well over SMS. You won’t get flooded with tweets. You only get the tweets from the users you specify and only at the time of day you specify.

The downside to using text message is that it limits the number of people you can follow on the go and it can be expensive if you have to pay per message.

How to Setup Twitter SMS

• Step #1 Go to twitter.com and click Settings.
• Step #2 Click devices.
• Step #3 Type in mobile phone number. You will need to add +1 before your number if you are from the US so the Author Tech Tips number would be +12542314517.
• Step #4 Verify your phone number by sending your personal code to 40404. You should get a verification text back from Twitter
• Step #5 Turn on device updates for the users whose tweets you want to come as texts.
  • To do that go to their Twitter Page,
  • Click on following
  • Click “on” under device updates.

iPhone Apps

If you have an iPhone you can get a much better Twitter experience by using one of the following apps. Unlike SMS you won’t need to pay per message with these apps.

• TwitterFon The best free app
• Tweetie The best app but it costs $2.99
• Twitterific Super simple free app that lacks features like search.

Andriod Apps

If you have a Google Andriod Phone like the T-Moble G1 you can get a much better Twitter experience by using one of the following apps.

• Twidroid A fully featured Twitter app.
• Trak This apps can send your geolocation along with your tweet so big brother (and your followers) can know where you are.

Blackberry Apps

If you have a Blackberry you can get a much better Twitter experience by using on of the following apps:

• TwitterBerry Original Twitter Balckberry app
• UberTwitter Snazzy looking new kid on the block.
• Twible Moble This app has a different interface than TwitterBerry

What About You?

How do you use Twitter on the go? Which apps do you like?

Related posts:

1. How to Get Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status
2. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
3. 5 Tips for Getting The Most Out of Twitter
4. Nobody Cares What You’re Doing Right Now (and why they still might follow you)
5. 7 Articles To Help You Become a Twitter Ninja

In this step-by-step guide you will learn how to sync Twitter and Facebook. This will save you a ton of time by allowing you to update only one site and stay current on both sites.

In this guide we assume you are already on both Twitter and Facebook.

Big Picture

To get Twitter to update Facebook, you need to setup Facebook to grab your most recent Tweets. Once you get that setup, Facebook and Twitter will update each other automatically. Facebook will not grab @replies, only regular tweets.

Step #1

Visit the Twitter app page on Facebook, or search for Twitter in Facebook, click on the app, and then click on “go to this application.”

Step #2 Click Allow

Clicking allow will let Facebook update Twitter.

Step #3 Twitter Username & Password

Type your TWITTER username and password here. If you type your Facebook login info you will get a fail page.

Step #4 Test

Congratulations now when you update Facebook it will also update twitter.

You should now be able to see Tweets in Facebook. Go ahead and type what you are doing to test that everything is working. You get bonus points if you link to this post when you do it.

Step #5 Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status

You are not done yet. Your tweets won’t update Facebook yet. You need to find the following button on the top right side of the page.

Click it the button. It won’t bite I promise :-)

Step #6 Click Allow Again

Facebook likes to get your permission for stuff.

Once you click allow you should be good to go.

Step #7 Test Again

Now you want to go to www.twitter.com and post a tweet and see if it updates Facebook. If it does then you are good to go. If it doesn’t leave a comment and let us know what went wrong.

Step #8 Edit Your Settings (optional)

Chances are the default settings are what you want. But in case they are not, Facebook has conveniently hidden the setting page so that you need to read this guide to find it. To edit your twitter settings:

1. Visit the facebook app settings page.
2. Click Edit settings next to Twitter
3. Select the options you want and then click okay.

This is what the twitter settings look like in Facebook.

That’s it! Did this work for you? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Related posts:

1. How to Get Started on Twitter in 5 Easy Steps
2. How to Get Twitter on Your Phone
3. How to Sync Your Address Book With Facebook
4. 7 Ways to Integrate Facebook into your Online Platform
5. How to Create a Facebook Page in 3 Easy Steps