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PitMad on X AKA Twitter

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 15, 2026

The Late, Lamented PitMad on Twitter/X

Oh PitMad, why hast thou forsaken us?

Sadly, I am here to report that PitMad as an event is no more.

So had you ever seen the #PitMad hashtag on X? But, why should you have cared about PitMad?

So, here is a look at what PitMad was. … and a bit on how things are today.

What was #PitMad Back in the Day?

PitMad was a quarterly pitch session on X. So essentially what you would be doing was tweeting about your work. But it was only on specific dates, and agents and publishers were watching.

Oh, and I still call it tweeting. I bet many people do, too.

In addition, it only happened in March, June, September, and December.

It was a great idea! Agents and publishers would essentially scour the Twittersphere, searching for anyone using the hashtag. And, preferably, also using a genre hashtag or two. If an agent liked your pitch, then that was an invitation to query, or at least pitch a bit more.

Your friends could rally around you and offer their support by retweeting your tweets—but liking them was considered to be a faux pas.

When it was still going on, I would dive deep into hashtag and search for people who had not been retweeted much, if at all. And I would retweet them, either with words of encouragement or a comment about how interesting their premise sounded.

And if it were to return, I would do the same. Other writers are not my competition. After all, how many books do you have in your home or on your phone or e-reader?

How many are in the library? Your book most likely will not knock mine out of any of those places. And mine would never do that to yours, either.

Getting Ready With PitMad Hashtags

So you could do yourself a favor, and create your tweets in advance. As in, today.

The idea was to know what to tweet. And you wanted to be able to fit both the #PitMad hashtag into your tweet, but also the hashtag specific to your genre. So, according to Sub It Club and Brenda Drake, the hashtags were as follows:

Main Hashtags for PitMad

† #AC – Action
• #AD – Adventure
† #BIZ – Bizarro Fiction
• #CON – Contemporary
† #CR – Contemporary Romance
• #E – Erotica
† #ER – Erotic Romance
• #ES – Erotica Suspense
† #F – Fantasy
• #FTA = Fairy Tale Retelling
† #GN = Graphic Novel
• #H – Horror
† #HA – Humor
• #HF – Historical Fiction
† #HR – Historical Romance
• #INSP – Inspirational
† #LF – Literary Fiction

• #M – Mystery
† #MA = Mainstream
• #Mem – Memoir
† #MR – Magical Realism
• #NF – Non-fiction
† #P – Paranormal
• #PR – Paranormal Romance
† #R – Romance
• #RS – Romantic Suspense
† #S – Suspense
• #SF – SciFi
† #SFF – Science Fiction & Fantasy
• #SH = Superhero
† #SHRT = Short Story Collection
• #SPF = Speculative Fiction
† #STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
• #T – Thriller
† #TT = Time Travel
• #UF – Urban Fantasy
† #VF = Visionary Fiction
• #W – Westerns
† #WF – Women’s Fiction

Age Categories

So, per the Pitmad site, you had to use an age category. And here they were:

• #A – Adult
† #C – Children’s
• #CB – Chapter Book
† #MG – Middle Grade
• #NA – New Adult
† #PB – Picture Book (this is the youngest age category)
• #YA – Young Adult

Added Hashtags (Optional)

† #DIS = Disability subject matter
• #IMM = Immigrant
† #IRMC = Interracial/Multicultural subject matter
• #LGBT = LGBTQIA+ subject matter
† #MH = Mental Health subject matter
• #ND = Neurodiverse subject matter
† #OWN = Own Voices
• #POC = Author is a Person of Color

Older Hashtags

† #AA – African American (might not be used anymore?)
• #CF – Christian Fiction (might not be used anymore?)

So there did not seem to be particular hashtags for Zombies or Vampires or the like.

What Were The Rules?

Per Ms. Drake and PitchWars (run by the same people), the rules were:

† You could only pitch complete, polished manuscripts. This meant, no works in progress were allowed!
• So, you could not pitch anything already published, no matter how many changes you had made to it.
† You had to keep the feed clear, so you were not supposed to favorite pitches made by your friends. But you could always retweet and even add commentary to the original post with the #PitMad hashtag.
• Also, you were not supposed to tweet agents or publishers unless they tweeted you first.
† Plus you had to be courteous and professional, of course.

• In addition, if you could not be there, you could use a scheduling program like HootSuite to schedule your pitches.
† You could only pitch three times during a dedicated #PitMad day. And the tweets had to differ somehow, even if it was just a difference of a period.
• But if you had more than one MS to pitch, you would get three tweets per MS.
† Finally, if you were invited to submit a manuscript, you had to be sure to put PitMad Request: TITLE in the subject line of your email when sending your request. Plus, of course, you had to follow all other submission guidelines for the requestor.

What was the Schedule?

It was March, June, September, and December. Also, the times were 8 AM – 8 PM, Eastern Time.

For 2021, the dates were:

• March 4
† June 3
• September 2 (hey, that’s my birthday!)
† December 2

Note: all of these were Thursdays.

Pitmad: Always and Forever

X and other social media platforms remain valuable places for independent authors to pitch their works. Currently, with no more official setup, and with certain rules in place, X is not necessarily the most hospitable place for such pitches.

After all, per the 4-1-1 strategy, a standard six posts should be four interesting or educational posts from other people,  one educational post by you, and one promotional post by you.

Given that ratio, even attempting Pitmad now would mean a total of 18 posts per project you are trying to pitch (this is allowing for three separate Pitmad-style postings).

Is it impossible? No. Is this strategy a rule carved in stone? Of course not. But you can see how fast everything could multiply, particularly if you had more than one project to tout. And keep in mind: X has also changed demographically.

Per Sprout Social, the ratio of men to women is about 2:1. Users also post a lot, which can help to bury your pitch.

Pitmad: Takeaways

So, I am keeping the hashtags in this post because they are still useful on X, Bluesky, Facebook, and elsewhere.

Publishers and agents are still there—they are just not running under the auspices of PitMad anymore. And those publishers and agents are on these other social media platforms, too!

All in all, there are still many more agents and publishers out there. Consequently, you need to get their attention! Matching your ideal reader and their demographics to those on a particular platform is probably a better idea than ever before.

So you had better get crackin’!

And Now a Word About X, Today and Beyond

So, it is probably just as well that Pitmad has gone to that great tweet in the sky, for X itself at times teeters on the brink. Of course, that could change tomorrow. But right now, things still look a little grim.

However, while there have been some alternatives (such as Post and Mastodon), they are a bit lacking for one reason or another. Mastodon has a ton of individual servers (a bit like Discord). But these seem to be silos.

How do you find all your friends? Post seems just to be so new and not very big yet.

Bluesky, though, is looking considerably more promising!

So, even if PitMad were to be resurrected, those platforms are not necessarily the best new home for it. Perhaps they will be in time. But right now, despite its clear current problems, X still has its place.

But never count out Bluesky.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X.

While it has a newish name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter/X
• X/Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Verbal Elements on X
• Visual Elements on X
† Optimizing X
• Metrics and Timing on X
† Offsite Connections from X

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Optimizing XTwitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Optimizing X

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 10, 2026

Time to Start Optimizing X

Now that you are on it, it is time to start optimizing Twitter AKA X. And please keep in mind: a lot of what I am talking about where will work perfectly well on Bluesky and many other platforms. But Bluesky in particular.

After all, the same people made them both.

Using Lists for Optimizing X

What are lists on X?

You may have noticed people who have a rather different follower to following ratio than you do. What do I mean by that?

For instance, say you follow 100 people. And 1000 people follow you. The ratio of follower to following is 100:1000, or 1:10. This is fantastic.

Celebrities often have ratios that look like this, or even better, where they might be following 100 accounts but there are 100,000 people following them. Or more!

Newbies often end up at the other end of the spectrum, with 1000 people they are following and 100 are following them, for 10:1.  If you want to just read for the most part, this is perfectly fine, except it tends to not mark you as a thought leader.

Celebs and Optimizing X

Now, most people do not sit down and calculate ratios. But they do glance at profiles.

Someone like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, might be following some 200 people but he is followed by over 100,000,000. Hence people will really notice if he starts following them.

Does he (or any other celebrity, major or minor) have a sparse news feed? Probably not. Because he might be using lists.

Go to the profile of someone you want to follow but, instead of hitting follow, tap or click the more icon (the three dots), and select Add/remove from Lists.

Your lists will show up, and you can add someone to several at a time, or make a new list. You can even decide whether you want your list to be public.

Go to your own profile (e. g. click on your profile rather than your settings) and you will see whose lists you are on.

Why use a list rather than follow? You can still see that person’s tweets in your feed, but your ratio will not change. Furthermore, a public list tells everyone what you are interested in. How about lists for indie authors, agents, or publishers?

You can also follow lists made by other people. Maybe someone will find yours to be definitive and will follow it.

Who to Follow

Well, who should you follow on X?

Sometimes you want to publicly follow someone, rather than add them to a list. So long as you keep these people special, then this is perfectly great. I have tended to keep friends as open follows and anyone more business-related on lists. But you may prefer otherwise.

Follow fellow indie writers (this is a community, after all), or publishers, or agents. Consider who can help you, and who you can help, and follow accordingly.

How to #Hashtag

What is a hashtag, and how do you make one that is not lame?

A hashtag is a means of searching on X. Hashtag something as, say, #amwriting, and click on that, and it leads to a slice of X of everyone who used that hashtag. But beware hashtags do not look good if you use a ton of them.

Do not just indiscriminately hashtag! Also, keep them short.

#ILovePuppiesAndDolphinsAndUnicorns is probably not going to be something used by anyone else, or at least not that frequently. But #ILovePuppies is pretty popular.

Experiment by searching before you hashtag. Beware, your innocent-looking hashtag might already be coopted for an unexpected usage. Just do a search on #NeverForget or #IStayedBecause and you will know what I mean.

Does X Still Matter Enough That You Should Still Want to be Optimizing it?

Hard to say. But only you know your audience or readers. According to Sprout Social, the ratio of male-female X users is something like 2:1. The generation that dominates is Gen Z. So, keep in mind: Gen Z people are born between 1997 and 2012.

Are they the ideal market for your book? It depends. For a generational cohort where a good half or so of them are right around in the wheelhouse where it feels like everyone they know is getting married, having kids, or both, then a book for children could be ideal.

Or maybe books with young main characters out to change the world or destroy it would work better. Hard to say. Just because X is mainly male does not mean they never buy for children.

But some of them might want to continue publicly demonstrating how cool they are. Leaning into that with your marketing might work better.

Takeaways for Optimizing Twitter AKA X

Consider your peers. Who do you love to follow and read? In contrast, who seems like they are not trying too hard? Of course, if you want to start optimizing X, you should copy what the former does, versus the latter.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About X AKA Twitter?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about X.

While it has changed considerably over time, a lot of these tips will still work. And often they will work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter/X
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism

† Conquering X/Twitter (verbal elements)
• Conquering Twitter/X (visual elements)
† Twitter/X (metrics and timing)
• X/Twitter (offsite connections)

And, if you are a fellow writer, you may also want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter/X

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X, Social Media and Professionalism

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 8, 2026

What is the Connection Between X, Social Media and Professionalism?

Professionalism? This post riffs on Be careful who you hire to manage your business’ Twitter account, a post on Social Media Today. Since the original post is from 2011, it’s not 100% relevant anymore. But I still think the ideas are of value.

And yes, we all know it was once called Twitter so that explains my URL and their title and URL as well.

In addition, in the original article, the author talks about, essentially, how to tell whether a particular feed is being handled professionally, or not. Hence following are their “5 Points to consider before hiring a service to manage your Twitter account.”

Professionalism: Check Their X Stream

1. First of all, before you even look at the different tools for measuring an X user’s level of influence (which can be misleading and in some cases manipulated) you firstly need to check the individual’s own X stream.

† What type of language do they use? – agreed. Because branding involves, among other things, speaking the language of your customers.

Are you a hip hop record label? A travel agency catering to retirees? A diamond jeweler? All of these businesses have different customer demographics.

Hence there is no “one size fits all” here. However, this does not mean people cannot adapt to communicate properly with everyone they do business with. After all, you need not hire a child to market to children.

But any Social Media Specialist needs to get the message across so that the target readership is receptive.

Lazy Messaging

• Do they spam their own followers by sending lazy messages? For example: #FF @Xuser1 @Xuser2 etc. Still, I am not so sure I call this spamming. I think, at times, it can useful to do this. At least, a little bit?

But overdoing it (and you will instantly know it is overkill if tweets (I still call them tweets. Don’t you?) like this, or quickie retweets, dominate the stream) is definitely not a good way to do business.

† How do they use their own account? Is it professional or sloppy? Do they send messages late into the night and have no professional boundaries? Do they over mix professional with personal messages? – agreed.

And with useful tools such as HootSuite, you can schedule messaging. A manager never needs to be up late and working in that manner.

There is no excuse for late night messaging, and no need for it. But if a stream is meant to engage internationally, it might be a good idea to split it up into more than one account, so that one stream is for North America and another for Asia.

Messaging

• Are their own messages all over the place so you are not able to pick up a clear message? – this is a good point, and not just when it comes to X. A clear message is key – for a robotics company where I worked, the message centered around sales.

Messages promoted education and/or robots. NASA, for example, was only mentioned in the context of robotics, not in the context of space launches. There is a lot of information out there.

Consider it to be a bit like a garden. Usually it needs weeding and thinning, as opposed to fertilizing.

† Furthermore, do they acknowledge where they take their material from or just duplicate what they see their competitors do? – ah, this is big. It is why I still list the original source for this article. And it is a big part of how the internet works, or at least is supposed to.

You post a blog entry. A competitor sees it. If they riff on it and post it and give you a link back, then that is good for you. And you thank them and do the same in reverse and yeah, they are still a competitor. But you have common ground and in some areas you can cooperate.

This is still true in the age of AI, I might add.

Or they don’t acknowledge you. And everybody digs their heels in and the world becomes a slightly more miserable place. Hey, you make the call, but I prefer cooperation pretty much every time, myself.

Too Much Self-Promotion?

• Do their messages make any sense to you or are they just full of self promotion? Do they hold no real value other than grooming their own ego? – true, but I think sometimes this can come from social media marketing folk not being properly trained.

If the marketing manager is unsure of how much promotion should be mixed in with information, the marketer might be similarly confused.

† How much negativity comes across in their stream? – not everything is or should be positive, but I do get this. The idea is, well, are you promoting to people who want to buy your company’s organic brownie mix? Or do you just sound petulant and whiny?

However, you can sometimes be too perky. But I think if there are errors in this area, they should probably fall on the side of more, rather than less, perk.

Professionalism: Which Business Accounts Do They Manage?

2. Ask for the name of one of the business accounts they manage, and go through this with a fine tooth comb. Keep an active eye on the account and monitor how they manage the business’ online profile.

• How many messages are there and what type do they send? – it is a quantity and a quality game on X. You need to get across some seven or more views before people start to consider buying.

And consider X’s international, 24/7 appeal – people may be checking your messaging out at 4 AM your time.

This, by the way, goes against an earlier statement about the marketer not adding content into the wee hours. No, they should no – but unfortunately, sometimes, that is when the readers are online.

After all, if you are making content for people playing World of Warcraft, they may be on at 4 AM. As for quality, that goes along with the above statements as well – are the messages worthwhile, or are they dull self-promotion?

Engagement

† How do they engage with the client’s audience? – some of this is in the form of retweeting. Retweeting and replying have a place, as it is a give and take type of engagement. Is there professionalism behind the engagement?

• And how is the call-to-action placed and worded? – this is fairly self-explanatory. There is a difference between what looks like a hard sell, and what has more of a friendly “Hey, check this out” vibe.

Does the marketer know the difference? And is the difference readily apparent in messaging?

† In addition, do the articles relate to the client’s industry and audience? – this harkens back to my NASA example above. Content is necessary, of course, but irrelevant content is worse than no content at all.

Because it is better that the marketer pump out less content if it is not relevant, yes?

Any SEO or AI SEO will tell most companies that they have too much content, rather than not enough. So, cut out the fluff, already!

• Do they add any value? – the $64,000 question! Can you tell without having access to measurement tools?

Professionalism: References

3. Ask for a number of references and call them. This, of course, is excellent advice any time you are hiring.

† How has the business level of influence grown? For sure if they cannot achieve this for themselves, then they cannot do it for the client. – try objective measurements if you can get them, like Google rankings, bounce rate, etc.

• What have been the benefits? – only your industry will have the specifics for this. Increased sales may or may not be the actual benefit.

After all, sometimes social media is used for damage control. If that can happen more efficiently and inexpensively – that might be the benefit.

† What difference has it made to your online brand? – again, this is a specific question.

• How good is the level of communication? – hard to say what this means without context. After all, the car dealer and the online cancer support group will have different needs in this area.

† What results has the business seen? – again, objective measurements are best, whatever you can get.

Professionalism: Metrics

4. Ask what X measuring tools they use to provide their clients with monthly reports. Do they use anything else to measure how things are working (or not)?

• While there are some good free tools around, they do not come close to paid analytical tools for managing X and other social media accounts. – agreed, but sometimes that is how things go, particularly if the person you are considering has worked for startups or nonprofits.

†Ask what recommendations they have made to the client that have enabled the business to grow based on the findings. – these should be in whatever reports the person under consideration provides.

Professionalism: Time

5. Finally, ask how much time they intend to spend on your account over the week.

• How will this time be managed with all their other projects? – this is a good question for any sort of a freelance or offsite working relationship.

† What elements of account management does this breakdown in to? – again, this is not confined to social media. Rather, it is a good question for any potential employee who will be working remotely, or not exclusively with you.

• How will they keep you informed and up to date with relevant messages and conversations? – reports? Emails? Something on Slack or Teams? What is manageable and relevant?

Professionalism: My Own Ideas

And now a few of my own when it comes to professionalism.

† What do the messages look like? Are they interesting? Relevant? Grammatically correct within the character limit? Or are they just slight variations on a theme?

• Do all provided links work, or do they go to dead ends? And do the links have any sort of measurement behind them, even simple click metrics? Do they lead to generic pages, or to any custom landing pages for X users? Can you get metrics and attribution from them?

† What is the follow/follower ratio? Does the person follow everyone, or are they, at least seemingly, a bit choosy in this area? We all know that junk follower accounts exist – does the prospective hiree even follow those or seem to use auto-follow?

More Ideas on Professionalism and X

• So how often does the person send a message? Daily? Monthly? A monthly X stream is barely this side of useful. Messages need not come every five seconds. But it is a fluid, evolving medium and needs more attention than that.

† How do they handle the controversial things that Musk gets up to? Even a community solely devoted to politics might want to sit out at least some of those shenanigans.

And finally, and this is a question for the person (and you may not get an accurate answer, by the way), does the person under consideration actually like what he or she is doing?

Do they have a passion for it? Or is it, like, Time to make the doughnuts?

I am not saying that we can (or should) always love what we do. But plenty of people love doing this. Why not hire someone who does?

Finally, you can get a passionate Social Media person, to handle your Twitter stream, do your blogging, manage your online community, promote your Facebook page and more. And they will do it with professionalism and aplomb.

We really do exist.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About Twitter AKA X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about this still misunderstood microblogging platform.

While it has a newish name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter/X
• Verbal Elements on X
† Visual Elements on X
• Optimizing Twitter/x
† Metrics and Timing on X
• Offsite Connections from X

And, if you’re a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter/X

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Social Networking/Social Media Tips

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 1, 2026

Social Networking/Social Media Tips

Social media tips? Yes, please! A while back, Grassroots Giving Group published some great social networking tips. I agreed with their ideas but would like to expand upon them a bit.

And they were essentially exploring when Facebook and Twitter (X) are useful. Here are some of their ideas.

Social Media Ideas

Here are a few quickie ideas.

Announcements

Never just announce upcoming or new things but also add links in order to drive traffic. Agreed! However, I would add a targeted landing page. Below is an example:

If you have people coming in from Facebook, why not create a new landing page to personally welcome them (e. g. Welcome to our Facebook Friends!). The best part about that is that, since it is a separate page, Google Analytics will track the clicks separately.

You have a fighting chance of getting good metrics, so you will know whether your announcement of the opening of a new branch of the Widget Factory played better on Facebook or on X.

Sending shortened website addresses on X – use an URL shortener. Of course! But why not use one (such as from HootSuite) where you can get some click metrics?

Using both a personalized landing page and a URL with click metrics can give you an even clearer idea of how traffic flows.

Oh, and they do not tell you why you should shorten an URL on X (even if the URL fits). But I will. It is to make it easier for people to retweet.

Social Media Tips on Planning

Here are some tips for better planning.

Planning in Advance

There is nothing new here. You should keep up with things and plan in advance. Absolutely. And that means, when you are hot and creative, write, write, write!

Keep drafts and ideas going, and also think about how you can expand on your own blog entries or those by others (such as this blog entry).

Get yourself a stable of other blogs and blog writers, news sources, etc. Who inspires you? Who interests you? But never repeat or steal, of course. Rather, expand and comment. These are perfectly legitimate ways to update your blog.

This Day in History

Commemorate occasions in your company! There must be something you have done that is good blog fodder. Of course, not every day is memorable, but it is another way to keep the pipeline going.

If July 12th is an important day in your organization, make sure that the July 12th blog post and Tweets are ready to rock and roll, and they are updated to the correct year.

Heck, in HootSuite (for example), you can schedule messaging. Why not schedule your content for July 12th (or whatever your special day just so happens to be) and be done with them?

Quotes

They said, “Quotes!”

Quote Collection

I like this idea, and I think it can be used for a lot of purposes. This is not only quotes about your specific organization or its work, but even more generalized quotations.

Surely there is something from Shakespeare (“My kingdom for a horse!”) or the Bible that could work for you in some capacity or another. It can be another jumping off point for creativity.

Ask Your Audience Questions

I think this is more useful if you have a somewhat large and actively commenting readership. While a rhetorical question is lovely, I think it is just better if you can get at least a little feedback. Otherwise, it feels like you are just shouting out to the wilderness.

Staff Introductions

This is another great idea. While your site might already have staff biographies, that is another way to get the readership acquainted with who is making the product.

Notes From Your Day

I do not know about this one. Your day, maybe. Mine? I guess this is, in part, centered around the event reviews I used to do back in the day. But otherwise, my days in the past were spent, well, here, blogging. And now I spend them at work. All of which may or may not be thrilling to others.

But I can see where my peers could have some very interesting days.

Social Media Tips: Takeaways

So there you have it. Some pretty amazing social media tips for getting and keeping things going. And, while the post was not, specifically, about blogging, it rings very true for that very specific – and sometimes challenging and elusive – task.

Oh, and you may also want to learn what the best lengths are for social media posts.

Finally, many, many thanks to the Grassroots Giving Group.

For more information, see the December 16, 2010 edition of Grassroots Giving Group.com blog.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About Social Media and Tips on How to Best Use It?

If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.

Social Media in Our Society

† Social Media Continues its Relentless Pace
• Social Media’s Seduction AKA Oops, Did I Do That?
† Social Media Background Check Being Used For Jury Selection
• How Social Media Can Ruin Your Life

Working with Social Media

† A Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketer
• Four Important Social Media Stats
† Jell-O on the Wall: Social Media Perfection is Fleeting

Social Media for Writers

• The Power of Social Media (Neurotic Writers’ Edition)
† Social Media and Writing
• Social Media and Writing Part 2
† Social Media and Writing Part 3
• Are You Promoting Your Writing With Social Media?

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What Do You Look Like Online?Social Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hope and Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted posts, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Social Media Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration rocks, Wikileaks knocks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways to improve, Time-saving tips, They Used to Call me Robot Girl

What Do You Look Like Online?

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 3, 2024

So, What Do You Look Like Online?

This post is a riff on a rather old post, Do You Know What You Look Like Online. Essentially, the question is, if you were searching for someone (someone just like you, perhaps), what sorts of judgments would you make? What seems off?

What’s being suppressed, which aspects should you be promoting, and vice versa? Is the picture clear or fuzzy?

The gist of that article is, take control of your information, keep it as a uniform brand and check it every month or so. The corollary to this is one from Shama Hyder Khabani, which is, essentially, don’t spread yourself too thin. Concentrate in only a few places.

My Own Information—What I Look Like Online

Absolutely agreed. When I google my own last name, 40,900 hits come up. And, fortunately, my own website is on page 1 (Yay, SEO!). My Entrepreneur profile (writing I did for work) comes up on the first page of results. So do my Twitter/X and LinkedIn profiles.

Also on the first page are my Facebook profile, and my Amazon author page. Get to page 2 and there’s my profile on YouTube.

Another Angle

Putting my last name into quotation marks yields 6,480 hits. All of the same usual suspects come up on Page One of the results. And nothing is too weird or scandalous. Even MuckRack, which essentially just scrapes for your name, doesn’t have anything bad.

Hey, Bartleby published me!

How Accurate is the Information?

To my mind, checking and rechecking every single month might just be a bit excessive. Is there a need to keep your profile accurate? Sure. Flattering, or at least not damaging? Yes, particularly if you are looking for work.

But to keep it sterile and perfect, as you scramble to make it perfect every moment of every day? Eh, probably not so much.

My own profile is the product of just doing a lot, and it being published. It’s easy to find flattering info on me. What I look like online is competent more than anything else. There’s nothing radical.

As for less flattering stuff, well, let’s just say that I am glad the internet wasn’t around when I was in high school.

Yikes.

But…

I would like to think (am I naïve? Perhaps I am) that potential clients and employers will see the occasional typo and will, for the most part, let it slide unless the person is in copyediting.

I am not saying that resumes, for example, should not be as get-out perfect as possible. What I am saying, though, is that this kind of obsessive and constant vigilance seems a bit, I don’t know, much.

Will the world end if I accidentally type there instead of their on this blog? And, does it matter oh so much if I don’t catch the accident immediately? Even when you consider that I’m a writer. After all, I should know better, yes?

I mean, with all of this brushing behind ourselves to cover up and/or perfect our tracks, and all of the things we are leaving behind, where’s the time and energy to make fresh, new content and look in front of ourselves?

Clean Up Your Presence

To me, there is little joy in reading a blog post or website that looks like the person who put it together was barely literate. But there is also little joy in reading sterile, obsessively perfect websites and blog posts.

A little imperfection, I feel, is a bit of letting the ole personality creep in there. Genuineness – isn’t that what the whole Social Media experience is supposed to be about, anyway?

I refuse to believe – I hope and I pray – that a bit of individuality never cost me potential jobs or any company I’ve ever worked for potential clients.

And if it has, then that saddens me, to feel that, perhaps, people are paying a lot of lip service to the genuineness of Social Media but, when the chips are down, it’s just the same ole, same ole.

Genuineness is great. One you can fake that, you’ve got it made? Please, say it ain’t so.

And don’t get me started on AI.

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Starting a Twitter StreamTwitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Starting a Twitter Stream

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 12, 2023

Let’s Look at Starting a Twitter Stream

How do you go about starting a Twitter stream? Should you plunge right in, or hang back? And what about oversharing?

Yes, I know it’s called X now. Oh, and a lot of these tips are perfectly good for Bluesky as well!

Your Twitter Stream Account

You will need a name! Let’s say you’ve taken my advice (or you have decided this on your own), and gone with an account just for writing. If you want a personal account, or you already have one, then you would want to make a second one.

Fine, but you need a name. How about a word like writer or author somewhere in there? You can’t go beyond 15 characters. Fortunately, you’ve got both letters and numbers, so you could conceivably add wr1ter or auth0r if you liked.

Go as short as you can while remaining coherent and unique. An abbreviations like wrtr is well-known, so you don’t have to worry about people getting confused.

Your Look

Settings are important in X as they are with every social network. X moves them on occasion. Every large site does beta testing, where they experiment with different layouts and looks to see what you’ll click on more often—this is normal.

Currently, they are under where it says “More”.

But you change your profile image from the profile page. Add a profile image and make it a head shot or at least a picture of the cover of your book, if you have one. Don’t keep the egg!

A background image is nice but not strictly necessary. X has some pretty decent generic images if you are unsure of how you want things to look.

Who do you Follow?

Following is as much a part of starting a Twitter stream as tweeting is. After all, you’re going to be answering people on occasion, not just blathering to the wilderness. Er, you do realize that now, don’t you?

Spend a little time chasing hashtags. #amwriting, #amediting, and #MSWL are great for getting started. Know an author you like is on X? Then follow him or her!

Publishers and agents are also good choices, as are your friends from NaNoWriMo or Wattpad or the rest of the writing community, even the fan fiction writing community.

Follow people who put words together into sentences and stories. Applaud their efforts and read what they have to say. It matters.

Your First Tweet for Starting a Twitter Stream

Yes, I still call them tweets. Don’t most people?

There’s no reason not to just say hi. It doesn’t have to be momentous. Be kind and supportive. Other writers are not your enemy and they’re generally not your competition.

That is to say, you can own both Untrustworthy (note shameless plug) or the Twilight books. Owning one does not make it impossible to have the other. A book collection is only limited by space, taste, and budget. It’s not like pie.

More to come later!

Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Want More About Twitter AKA X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X. While it’s now got a new name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

† Demystifying Twitter
• X/Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Verbal Elements on X
• Visual Elements on X
† Optimizing Twitter/X
• Metrics and Timing on X
† Offsite Connections from X

And, if you are a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter

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Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (Visual Elements)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (Visual Elements)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 10, 2023

A Look at Visual Elements on X

What are visual elements on X? There are two areas on X/Twitter where you can make a visual impact, and it has nothing to do with what you’re actually tweeting (I still call it tweeting. Don’t you?). No, scratch that, there are three. Kinda.

Avatar

So the first, most obvious one, consists of the account’s avatar. Here’s where you should put the company logo. Don’t have a logo? Then it can be a picture of the person doing the tweeting, as this is supposed to be something of a conversation.

And for God’s sake, make it someone real. Otherwise any offsite connections are going to get awkward right quick!

For authors, try the cover of your most recent book!

Other visual elements of choice for an avatar can be a picture of the company mascot, if there is one.

Or a photo of one person (the main user) on the X team. Although if two or three people are doing the tweeting, what about a closeup of both or all three of them, photo booth style?

This will depend upon your industry and your image therein. But at the very least, you must get away from a generic X avatar.

Background Visual Elements

Where’s the second area where you can make a visual impact? It’s your background. Here’s where your company logo can go if it’s not already being used for the account’s avatar.

And if you have a well-known logo, that will add to the visual impact, so long as you’re not using the logo for both the avatar and the background. Because that constitutes overkill unless both are subtle.

Depending upon monitor or device size and screen resolution, some parts of the background will be hidden or revealed.

So make sure to place the logo on the left of the background, preferably near the top, and test the look on several different-sized monitors and devices, and using different resolutions and operating systems.

You will not be able to customize the look for each setup (like you can with Cascading Style Sheets), but at least you’ll get an idea of where you’re being cut off. Naturally, you want to optimize your visual elements for whatever setup your customers are most likely to be using.

If your target audience has vision problems (e. g. perhaps they’re elderly), the most likely setup may very well involve a larger than standard screen resolution.

More About the Background

Below the upper left corner is some space directly above where the tweeting actually occurs. To the left, vertically, you have a little room in which to place the company web address, a telephone number and possibly a short slogan.

X is meant to be short and sweet; don’t get caught up in adding a lot of verbiage here. Less can certainly be more in this case. Keep in mind, too, that no one can search on any verbiage you place here in the background image.

You can also add a picture just below your logo, or in place of it, in the upper left corner or along the left side. Try, perhaps, a picture of the X team. Because you can great impact from offering pictorial evidence of who’s listening.

Another option: place a picture of your main product here.

There is also some space to the right. But it’s just the gifs or jpgs you’ve put into tweets. A savvy social media manager will look at design elements and see if they can use that space as a part of a more unified design, although not as a focal point.

For example, maybe it’s a recipe for making a roasted chicken. Your first image might show the bird (a before shot). The second might have a short list of ingredients (although keep in mind the print may be small).

Third might be brief instructions. Fifth could just be the cooking time and temperature. And the sixth and last one (currently, there are six images on the top right, but X may change this) could be the finished recipe.

Tweet Now, Or Later?

What’s part three? Visuals are also something, like every other part of X, that you can schedule. This can come from a free or quasi-free website or software like Buffer, Fedica, or HootSuite.

But, what do I mean by timing? Picture this. You’re up early, and you’re kind of groggy. So all you really need is a cup of coffee. Then wouldn’t an image of a cup of coffee catch your eye? It just might.

And maybe this is small or even too subtle. But it’s another way to use visuals. Consider what the day looks like for the people in your Twitter/X stream. When are your followers up?

If your followers are in the Philippines and not Boston, then you will need to think of everything as 12 hours opposite from the way you see it. So don’t put up a happy wake up cup of coffee image when your Filipino followers are heading to bed or going out to parties.

Visual Elements: The Upshot

What you tweet is, naturally, important, but consider the other areas where you can enhance your message. These basic visual elements can help you to place an exclamation point at the end of your tweets.

Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Want More About Twitter AKA X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X. While it’s now got a new name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Conquering Twitter/X (verbal elements)
• Optimizing X/Twitter
† Conquering Twitter/X (metrics and timing)
• Conquering X/Twitter (offsite connections)

And, if you’re a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter/X

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Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (offsite connections)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (offsite connections)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 10, 2022

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (offsite connections)

Are offsite connections possibly via X/Twitter? The semi-surprising answer is: yes. Because X is so bare bones, any number of applications have sprung up around it. They have come and gone over time. So, this is in order to help you manage it and become as great as you can be.

Understanding the people you tweet with is, of course, a great way to determine if offsite connections are going to be worth it. After all, offsite connections that are hundreds of miles away are not likely to be easy, cheap, or even possible.

Other Software

Here are some more sites to check out:

• HootSuite – a tweet scheduling service (and more). Here, you can track stats and import your lists.
† Social Oomph (formerly TweetLater) – time tweets and gather simple metrics on shortened urls. You can set up more than one account this way.
• Tweet Stats – a graph of, among other things, daily aggregate tweets, your most popular hours to tweet and who you retweet.
† Check out Tweepsmap – analytics and info on who unfollowed or followed you.
• Consider Twopcharts – look up clout, followers, etc.
† How about Twiends? – ways to grow followers responsibly
• Legal Birds – find lawyers on Twitter.
† Twitter Packs – find like-minded Twitter users (since this is a wiki, it depends on users to keep it up to date).

Offsite Connections: The Upshot

As X continues to mature as a business tool, I predict that more and more of these off-site services will spring up. But understand that a number of older ones from just a few years ago are gone.

The most successful one will, in my opinion, combine the best features of all. And this will be coupled with ease of use and an ability to show trends over time.

And finally, Twitter changes things almost as much and as fast as Facebook does. So keep in mind, these instructions may need some tweaking.

Oh, and if you do actually see or even meet your Twitter connections, you’ll get to see if their X profile imagery accurately reflects who they are!

Want More About Twitter AKA X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X. While it’s now got a new name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream.
† Demystifying Twitter
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† X Verbal Elements.
• X Visual Elements
† Optimizing Twitter
• X Metrics and Timing
† Getting More Twitter Followers

And, if you’re a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter

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Getting More Twitter FollowersTwitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Getting More Twitter Followers

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 25, 2022

Are You Interested in Getting More Twitter Followers?

Who doesn’t want to be getting more Twitter followers?

Oh, it’s the Holy Grail, isn’t it? Getting more people to follow you, and moving that magical Twitter followers number up, up and ever upwards, to stratospheric heights. And, even more importantly, increasing it to more than the number of people you’re following.

More on that later.

Social Media Today weighed in on this, and I supported their ideas but would love to expand up them in this post. Here’s what they had to say about Twitter followers and increasing their numbers.

Quality vs. Quantity

First off, they point out that it’s not quantity, it’s quality. Well, yeah. Kinda. However, various Twitter graders (such as used to be found on HubSpot – now they provide a website grader) did give more credit for having more followers. Were these graders meaningful? Kinda, sorta.

HubSpot admitted that they did give some weight to the actual numbers. I am not averse to actual numbers being used as a part of the grading system. They are, after all, somewhat objective. But does any of it have a meaning? Probably, mainly, to fellow social media marketing-type folk, if anyone,.

Follower counts can also matter to publishers. This is because many publishing companies will see a writer’s followers as a slew of hot prospects for sales. It may even influence whether a publisher agrees to take on a manuscript, or not.

But if you were to tout your grade to anyone not into it, they’d probably look at you as if you had three heads (my apologies, HubSpot).

And, truly, the numbers are not so very meaningful a lot of the time. I mean, do you really want to show everyone how many bots are following you?

I didn’t think so.

Who Do You Want to Follow You?

So onto the techniques.

(1) Think about who you want your Twitter followers to be. Like with any other idea, you need to have some sort of a plan. If you want to sell landscaping services, it would help to target homeowners and gardeners, yes? And in your area, right? You might get John from Cincinnati but unless you’re in the Cincinnati area, forget it. John may be wonderful, but his following you is of little help to you.

Social Media Today‘s suggestion was to go after directories like We Follow. Agreed, and possibly also go after local groups of people. As in, put your Twitter handle on your business cards. The physical kind of cards, I mean. You’re mainly going to be handing those to local folk, so there’s a match there.

(2) Complete your profile. This is a no-brainer and I have no idea why people don’t do this as it takes very little time. And, while you’re at it, add a photograph. Make it of your face, or of the company logo if the profile is shared.

Return the Favor

(3) Follow others. Sure, but don’t do so indiscriminately. At some point, you will hit maybe 2,000 following. However, if your own Twitter followers are nowhere near as high, you’ll mainly look like a spammer (e. g. an account indiscriminately following whoever).

The easiest way to assure that a more balanced ratio is maintained is to get into the habit of doing it now, before you have to care about it. Therefore, don’t just follow back everyone who follows you, unless you’ve got a good reason to do so.

A lot of accounts will follow and then unfollow in a day or so if you haven’t followed back. You most likely don’t want these followers anyway. So, unless they are appealing for some other reason, do not bother with them.

Might I also suggest pruning? If someone isn’t following you back and they aren’t that interesting, uh, why are you following them again?

Use Tweepsmap to find people who recently unfollowed you. It’s free!

You’re Not the Only One

(4) It’s not about you. Agreed. I may tweet (on occasion) about shoveling snow, but the bottom line is, I know that’s not fascinating to most people. You have a new blog post? Tweet about it. The company landed a new contract? Tweet about it. The laws are changing in your area? Well, you get the idea.

(5) Hashtag, retweet, and reply. That is, pay attention to other people. How would they best be able to find your stuff? Would you want them to retweet your stuff? Then retweet theirs. Comment, reply, engage. Be involved with the Twitter community.

(6) Add people to lists. Of course. But use those lists! I’ve been on Twitter longer than there have been lists, and I originally just followed everyone. When I started listing them, I began coming up with people who I didn’t know at all, at least not on the surface.

Hence I created a list just called Who Are These People? and began investigating them further. I kept a lot of them, but a lot were sent to the great Twitter post in the sky. And that’s okay. Because it goes back to an original principle: follow who you want to follow, and don’t just auto-follow.

Get Personal With Your Twitter Followers

(7) Welcome your new Twitter followers. Personally, I’m not a fan of this one, as I have seen all manner of automated “thanks for following me” messages. There’s nothing wrong with a “thanks for following me” tweet every now and then. Those can be nice. Just try not to be too mechanical about it.

Oh, and don’t make your first direct message all about sales. Seriously, just don’t. It’s a poor look no matter who you are.

(8) Integrate, integrate, integrate. That is, like with any other form of social media engagement, put it everywhere. How many times do people have to see something online before they take action? Seven? Nine? Then get your twitter handle out there. Use it in signature lines, on business cards and, heck, even write it on name tags.

Does it all work? Sure it does. And it’s a lot more in the spirit of Twitter than just getting some generic and spammy auto-following list to add your handle, briefly, to their list of who to follow. Don’t be that guy. Be someone who you would want to follow.

Twitter Followers: Takeaways

Getting followers is not the be-all and end-all, so don’t make it that way. Rather, interact and engage. Be encouraging and positive. Being funny helps as well.

It’s not all about the numbers.

Want More About Twitter AKA X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then check out my other articles about Twitter/X. While it’s now got a new name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work—and often with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)
• Conquering Twitter (visual elements)
† Optimizing Twitter
• Conquering Twitter (metrics and timing)
† Conquering Twitter (offsite connections)
• Getting More Twitter Followers

And, if you’re a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter

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Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 16, 2022

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)

Verbal elements? Twitter/X is, of course, utterly verbal. It’s just about all text. But not all of that text is tweets.

One piece is the profile. There isn’t a lot of space here. The good news is that these verbal elements are searchable. If you want to make it clear that your company is green, you can put that here. Separate short messages with delimiters like pipes (|) or asterisks (*). Don’t use semicolons as they can end up being converted to code.

This is an easy section to change, so consider changing it as needed, perhaps as special events come up. Just keep track of the older wording so you can more readily recreate it if you ever need to.

Another area is the site URL. In order to be better able to track traffic coming in from Twitter, how about using a unique URL here, say, https://www.yoursite.com/twitter? That page could contain a customized welcome message to Twitter users. This is another readily editable area of Twitter, so why not switch it up as circumstances change?

This is also a useful way to help to better segment your audience. Anyone using the /twitter link is bound to have some sort of affinity with the microblogging service.

Your location is another verbal area. Of course it need not be a real place, but for a commercial Twitter account you can’t get too whimsical here.

However, if you’ve got a multi-state presence (and want to get that across but not create separate Twitter accounts for each state), there’s nothing wrong with making your location something like United States or New England or Great Lakes Region.

Verbiage: Names

Another area is the name behind the account. This is a searchable field. A company can add a tiny bit of additional information here, such as the general company location. Hence the user name could be Your Company but the name behind it could be Your Company, Cleveland.

Yet another area is the name(s) of list(s) that your company uses to follow others. Does a company need Twitter/X lists? Not necessarily, but you can still use them to make certain accounts stand out.

What about lists like customers or distributors? Perhaps not very imaginative, but these could prove useful in the future if Twitter ever makes it possible to send certain tweets only to certain lists.

Finally, although it is an issue to change it, the username is another nugget of non-tweet verbiage. Instead of changing it, what about creating a few accounts to cover different eventualities? Able2Know used to do this well (although some of these feeds are abandoned these days).

Years ago, Able2know used to split off a few feeds as follows:

† The Generic feed
• New Topics
† Popular Topics and
• Unanswered Topics.

A user could follow any or all of these and see a different slice of that site. The individual user names for the accounts make it abundantly clear which cut of the site you’re following.

But we dropped it, as automatic tweeting meant we were tweeting spam and porn before the moderating team could zap it out of existence.

Takeaways

So, what do you want to get across? I mean, really. What image do you wish to project? Peripheral information can support or obfuscate your message.

Make certain that the content and social media people (if not the entire marketing department) get a say in the wording. They may find things that you missed. Or at least they should be able to help you spot typos.

Choose what you really want your verbal elements to say. And then, say them!

Want More About Twitter AKA X and its Verbal Elements?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X. While it’s now got a new name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Conquering Twitter (visual elements)
• Optimizing Twitter
† Conquering Twitter (metrics and timing)
† Conquering Twitter (offsite connections)
• Getting More Twitter Followers

And, if you’re a fellow writer, you may want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter

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