photo courtesy of ~Brenda-Starr~
You may remember at the end of last year I asked writers to vote on their greatest challenge on Twitter. We settled on a topic, Engaging Followers, and then I asked for any other questions that should be covered.
The Good News
Well, the good news is that I wrote the webinar over New Year’s weekend as planned, put it aside for a week, and then revised. Now, I am ready to schedule this webinar at your convenience. If you would like to attend and learn tips for engaging your Twitter followers, be sure to sign up for the email list here (or up in the right corner of my blog.) Go ahead, sign up. Don’t be shy. This way, you can let me know when you would like to have this webinar and I can remind you to be there. 
I promise I will not send email to anyone who doesn’t wish to receive it. Nor will I sell your email to anyone else. If you ever want off my list, all you have to do is click the unsubscribe link in the bottom of the email.
The Bad News
The bad news is that I wound up holding several questions that didn’t fully fit into the topic and/or length of the webinar.
I decided I would go ahead and answer these questions in blog posts.
Deborah Blake asked:
My biggest issue is about balance. How do I balance time spent on Twitter with my other writing needs?
How To Balance Twitter With Writing
I struggle with this myself. I will be on Twitter one day, and suddenly I hit a groove. I tweet with several different people, the time seems to fly and next thing I know, someone needs to be picked up from school and I haven’t written anything of substance all day.
Another day, I can’t seem to make a connection with anyone on Twitter. I start to fret about the time I’m spending. Is it worth it? Should I force it at this point? Should I get back to my writing?
I suppose everyone on Twitter struggles with these questions, but as a writer I am particularly vexed because the act of interacting on Twitter often feels much like the creation process of writing. It isn’t always easy for a writer to simply dash off a response to a tweet. I have been known to agonize for fifteen minutes over the words in a tweet, striving for the right tone or removing three characters so I can be retweeted.
Is this the best use of my talent?
When I have that glorious, manic afternoon of tweeting, have I wasted this week’s best muse juice on disposable conversation?
After wrestling with these doubts, I found it helpful to ask myself these three questions and use the answers to design my strategy for balancing Twitter with writing.
1. What do you want from Twitter?
If you aren’t sure what Twitter can do for you and your business, then it’s likely you aren’t clear what you want from your experience.
You have probably heard all the buzz. You can network with people all over the world in an instant. Writers hope to meet agents and publishers through their Twitter streams. One clever tweeter leveraged the wit in his Twitter stream into a book deal and a television show.
Stuff can happen.
You have other things to do though, and only so much time to spend on conversation. As we discussed above, it’s possible that time spent on Twitter takes away from the time and creativity you have for other writing.
So, why do it?
I tweet because Twitter marketing makes my other writing more valuable.
I make the time each day to follow new people, tweet good information, and connect with my friends on Twitter because I know that the more connections I make, the more readers I have. And the more readers I have, the more my words are worth.
When I wonder how I will have time to keep up with Twitter and writing, I remember that I can use Twitter to drive readers to evergreen content for as long as this platform remains viable. That means I can write a blog post today and tweet it out once a month for the next five years and continue to get hits. If I balance Twitter with writing today, I won’t have to write as much in years to come because each word will be worth more due to the readership I will influence.
2. How much time will you spend on Twitter each day or week?
Once you are clear what you hope to get from Twitter, then you can decide how much time you have to devote to Twitter and force your goals to fit in that framework. Tasks tend to expand to fit the space we allow them and can get completely out of control if we let them take as long as they want.
A timer is a writer’s best friend.
I’m not kidding.
Setting a timer and saying I am going to do this right now for this length of time will free you to get back to writing sooner and help you force yourself faster on mundane tasks. Let’s face it, much of the housekeeping you do on Twitter – finding new followers, unfollowing others – can feel tedious. It’s easy to get distracted. Having a timer will push you to stay focused and get the busy work done. And when you are engaged in animated conversation, your timer will alert you that chat time is over and it’s time to get back to your writing.
3. What are your metrics?
When you know why you are on Twitter and how much time you plan to spend, then you can choose the metrics you will watch and for which you will set goals. These will help you gauge your success and justify the time you spend while also urging you to up your game. Over time, your statistics will provide valuable feedback that helps you improve your marketing efforts both on and off Twitter and strike the right balance of Twitter and writing for your successful career.
Metrics to consider:
- Net number of new follows each week (following YOU)
- Traffic from Twitter to your website
- Traffic on bit.ly links you shared
- Revenue generated on your website
- How much time you actually spend on Twitter related tasks.
These can be measured using free online tools (Bit.ly and Google Analytics) and a timer.
The Metric Cycle
What’s great about this flow is that it becomes cyclical. As you progress on Twitter, the metrics begin to justify the time spent and influence how much time you decide to allot to Twitter each week.
Tracking your goals and measuring your success, you will know when it makes sense (cents!) to devote more (or less) time to Twitter.
So, what do you think? Can you use these questions to find the right balance of Twitter and writing for your career? Feel free to comment below with any tips or suggestions.
Don’t forget to get on the email list for the Engaging Followers webinar.
