Hey y’all!! It’s been a super long time since I’ve written a blogging advice post, and so today i decided to write about using book twitter. originally, this was going to be a discussion on the different aspects of book twitter, but then it turned into a rant and i was scared it might get me yelled at by a lot of other book bloggers so…. we’re going to teach YOU, dear reader, how to use Twitter instead!!

Twitter usage is pretty essential for a blog, and i would argue (after Instagram, if you’re into aesthetic photos) is the one that will get you the most blog traffic. If you aren’t using it yet, or maybe even if you are, here are some tips to get the most out of your followers.

(personal note: this is the longest post I’ve written in so long and i’m super happy about that so yay hopefully y’all don’t get ridiculously bored!)

1. Starting Up (Pinned Tweets, Header, and a Handle)

Okay, so you don’t have a Twitter yet and you don’t know where to start. Here’s a quick step by step that can get you going in no time.

First, create a twitter. you can use whatever email you use for blogging for this, and then you have to create a username. Your username should be VERY related to your identity on your blog. For example, I’m @writethrunight . If everyone knows you as “olivia olive”, maybe that can be your handle. You’ll have to add some underscores or maybe numbers in there, but remember that you want your twitter to come up on a search engine for your blog, so keep it close.

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Next, your profile. write something fun in the profile box (you can see mine above). It’s important to make sure you say that you’re a book blogger in your profile, but after that it’s pretty much up to you. I wrote “dreaming of the “one day”” because i thought it was accurate to my life and also poetic but now i’m really unsure about it.  I also included pronouns and the pride flag, because #inclusivity. There’s also a spot to add a link– put your blog profile here, unless you have a kofi or something that you want to include. If you have multiple links, you can put one in your bio, or make it your pinned tweet.

(NOTE: don’t make your birthday public, or at least not the year. there’s a lot of creeps out there, protect yourself)

what’s a pinned tweet, you ask?? Well, it’s basically the tweet that’s going to show up at the very top of your profile. For the most part, this should be either your most recent blog post, a list of blog links (aesthetically done) or, like I do, whatever the latest wrap-up post that you wrote is. Basically, you want it to be something that will catch everyone’s attention the second they click to your Twitter.

That brings us to profile photos. you can either do your blog logo or, to make it more personal, a photo of yourself / an avatar of yourself / a photo of yourself with your head covered by a book or something. Make it something you’ll be genuinely happy with, because consistency is important. You can also make a header photo. I think most people just do their blog header photo, but i decided to make a custom graphic that fits my personality more (edited with Canva) and I’m really ridiculously happy with it!!

After you’ve finished your profile, make a pinned tweet, and maybe tweet 1-2 more times just to establish a base. now, for the rest of the advice:

2. Follow Other Bloggers

Once you have a few tweets, it’s time for you to start following other bloggers in your niche. Assuming that you’re a book blogger, go find one of your favorite book bloggers (who you comment on their blog and they comment on yours!) and follow them. Then, go through the list of all the people that follow THEM, and add these people. Eventually you can cut out some of these people and unfollow if you find them annoying, but for the most part these will all be other bloggers and publishers, and you’ll find some really great content. Do this with a few bloggers that you know and would consider in your “circle” (or you would want to be in your circle, if you had one), and by now you should have accumulated a solid follow base.

3. Schedule Tweets

Use a free service like hootsuite to schedule your posts in advance! this way, you won’t tweet all at once, and your followers can get content throughout the day. this was super helpful for me because i would come up with 4 tweets all at once and then none for the rest of the day, but now i have tweets that come out every few hours (when i’m on top of it)

you can also sync your twitter to your wordpress account, and have it tweet automatically when you post something new. I do this, and then make sure to post about it 2-3 more times over the course of the next month, especially if it was a post that a lot of people enjoyed.

Just remember not to over schedule! don’t tweet more than 3-4 times a day about your blog, and make sure you’re not spamming. It’s tough to find a balance, but i recommend tweeting a maximum of 5 times a day. (if you’re making a thread, this only counts for ~2 tweets, in my opinion)

4. Hashtags

use key hashtags but don’t overload it! on any given tweet, stick to 2-3 hashtags tops. One of these should be #bookbloggers or something related, and then tag big accounts that retweet bloggers. I used to know a whole bunch of these accounts, but can’t think of them right now. Do some research to find these retweet accounts, because they’re seriously super helpful in expanding your blogging reach!

5. Join Book Clubs

This is very similar to the last one, but basically there’s lots of accounts out there that run blog hopping events, or book discussions, on Twitter. One of these is is #TeacupClub, where you post your blog link and then comment on 3 people’s and hope they comment on yours. I’ve always had a lot of success with this! There’s also lots of Q&A things where you just talk about books and life opinions and things, and it’s a great way to make new friends and get followers. If you have free time when bloggers run these, make sure to join, you’ll never regret it, and most of the time you’ll have a ton of fun!

6. Have Fun!

At the end of the day, people are going to follow your book twitter (and then your blog) if it’s unique and represents you. If you only post perfectly scripted: “Read this post:” content on your twitter, when on your blog you’re WiLd, you’re not going to be attracting the right audience on twitter, and so your blog will never really get more followers. So be yourself, don’t be afraid to tweet random things if you think they’re funny, and just sort of embrace being you. At the end of the day, it’s your twitter to do what you want, and with luck other people will enjoy that.

let's talk

Do you have any other advice for using twitter? Do you think Twitter is helpful for promoting your blog? Do you follow me on twitter? NO??? Go follow @writethrunight now!!

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