Two Helpful Tips for Authors and Twitter

Recently some people have come lamenting to me about the chaos that can be Twitter. One person saw that I followed over two-thousand people, and wondered how I could keep track of them all. I've also heard some people lament that, after a while, Twitter becomes such a cluster of tweets that they feel disheartened to even bother. 

Here are some helpful tips to make your Twitter experience just a little bit better...

Lists are Your Friend

Lists are ways to organize your followers, or people on Twitter in general. (You don't even need to be following someone, or be followed by someone, to be on a Twitter list.) Basically, you go to the Lists option, create a list, name it appropriately, and then start adding people once it's been created.

Lists can be very helpful if you want to categorize your followers. Want Urban Fantasy authors all together? Put them in a list! Want traditional painters in one group? Put them in a list. Do some authors have podcasts? Put them in a podcast list. That way, you can go to that specific list, and see the feed only for the people on it. Granted, sometimes even lists can get about as long as your followers, which is why many people start splitting up lists. What I mean is some people might make separate lists, like "Fantasy Authors 1," "Fantasy Authors 2," etc. It's helpful to add here that you can add someone to more than one list, so if you have someone that writes fantasy, but also dabbles in science fiction, you can add them to those respective lists. 

Private lists can also be of assistance, if you don't want people to know they're on a certain list - or, alternatively, if you don't want people offended they're not on a list. For example, I have a "Cool Tweeps" private list that I use to keep track of people who I want to regularly check up on. These are authors that I speak with on more than one occasion, or people who are basically like online friends. Using this list helps me go straight to them and avoid the clutter of the feed - keeping it private helps prevent anyone from being offended.

The nice thing about all this? You'll probably find more convenient ways, for your individual purposes, to do all this. Go crazy and have fun with it.

The Mute Button is Your Friend

"Whoa there, Ben," I can hear some of you saying, "isn't muting someone kind of mean? What if I want to talk to that person?" Let me explain why, after a while, you'll be telling me how important the mute button was to you.

First, keep in mind muting someone is not like blocking them. If you aren't following them, nothing they do will pop up in your feed. If you are following them, then they won't appear on your Twitter feed, however, their tweets will still show up in your notifications and in your direct messages. So if you follow someone on Twitter, then mute them, you won't be blocking them completely, you'll just be keeping them out of your main feed. You'll still be able to visit their page and see what they're posting, and they'll still be able to respond to your tweets and interact with you, and you'll be able to see that.

Second, one thing you'll notice very quickly in the indie author world is that there are two types of people on Twitter: those who interact with followers, fellow authors, etc.; and those who do nothing but bombard their timeline with ads, automated messages, and the like. Keep in mind I'm not saying advertising your books is bad, but you don't want someone to go to your timeline and see nothing but ads that contribute nothing. Follow enough people like this, and your feed is going to be nothing BUT ads. You'll not want to look at it at all. (By the by, don't trust Twitter's "quality filter" - but don't get me started on that.)

When I first started using Twitter, I didn't really think about muting anyone. As I followed more and more people, I realized that I didn't want to go to my Twitter feed because it would be nothing but ads and automated messages. Finally, I decided to fix the problem: I sat down, went through my Twitter feed, and, upon finding someone posting an ad, went to their account; if I saw that their timeline was nothing but ads, I muted them. After thirty minutes of doing this, I saw a great thing unfold on my feed: I started noticing authors and artists whom I had followed, and yet never gave any much deserved attention. Why had they been ignored for so long? Because they had been buried in mountains of ads and spam. A few more people got added to my "Cool Tweeps" list.

Cleaning up your Twitter feed be like...

These are two simple, but helpful, tips I can offer fellow authors in organizing their Twitter, and finding a more efficient way to utilize it. I hope this blog post helps! Comment if you have any other tips or suggestions from your own Twitter experience.

Stop Hating on the Haters

We've all heard people talk about them on social media. They're despised, mocked, and treated like pariahs. Mention them, and you'll receive encouragement to avoid them at all costs, and not even bother with hearing them out. Look at artwork shared on Facebook or Twitter, and you'll probably see them lambasted. To teachers of the therapeutic, they are considered the vilest creatures alive.

I'm, of course, talking about the dreaded haters.

Granted, I've never really seen anyone who uses this term pause to define and explain it. I suppose most would imagine angry people sitting behind the anonymity of a keyboard, insulting and trolling others left and right with their arsenal of personal jabs and ad hominems; in this regard, I suppose the term is fitting enough. At the same time, I've noticed some uses of this term center around people who criticize your work, or point out the errors therein. Are you doing something wrong? Did they point it out? They must be a hater! Are you incorrect about something you've stated as fact? Did they point it out? They must be a hater! Could your work use improvement? Did they suggest that? They must be a dirty, low-down, good-for-nothing hater!

Authors and artists alike, let me give you one piece of advice: stop hating on the haters!

Why should you stop hating on the haters? Let me give you a few reasons...

First, you're being a hypocrite. You're becoming a hater yourself. It's like people who despise intolerance to such a level that they become intolerant bigots themselves. It's also like those people who respond to any criticism with "STOP JUDGING ME!", even though by definition they're starting to judge the other person. In this same vein, you're not helping anyone by being so vehement against the haters out there. You yourself are hating, just from a different direction.

Second, you're deluding yourself by placing all your critics into one collective group. Some people out there can be mean, yes. Some people out there just want to insult other people, yes. However, some people want to offer constructive criticism, even if it's tinged with bluntness. This might shock you, but some people can disagree with you and not think you're hot stuff, and not do so in a spirit of spite. It's unfair to lump the internet troll with the person who just wants to help improve your book.

Third, let's just call this mentality what it really is: deflection. You're basically taking this mentality of, "It's not me who's the problem! It's those haters! That's all they do is hate! That's the only reason they don't like me!" Did you ever stop and think that maybe they have legitimate reasons for disliking you or what you've done? At least consider what they're saying and see if there's anything positive you can take from it. If they really are just trying to hurt your feelings, then ignore them; but don't delude yourself into thinking that you're this semi-infallible demigod. Some of the best people I had in my life were the ones that said, "Dude, man up," or, "You suck at this; do this more." They helped me focus on my strengths, forgo my flaws, and review where I was headed. Sometimes the words hurt, and sometimes it's difficult to chew, but that's part of maturing. If we forsake that, then we remain immature children.

So in conclusion, let me repeat that we should stop hating on the haters. After all, you just might learn something from them. And if that's the case...

Let the hate flow through you...