I'm still taking baby steps on Twitter. My little experiment has plateaued. This past week, I tweeted a question about another blogging series idea I have and although some nice person re-tweeted it, I only received one response. A re-tweet is when someone forwards your tweeted message to anyone in their circle of followers. It is an easy way for your information to be spread to new audiences. Guess it wasn't of enough interest to anyone else though. Or else it got lost in the chatter...er, tweeting.
More people signed up to Follow me which is nice. I have reciprocated most of them to build up a base of sorts - very similar to the process it takes when starting a new blog. My time on Twitter is very minimal. Less than an hour for the week generally. Because I'm not following too large a chunk of people, and now that I have them categorized into Lists, it doesn't take me long to check in and get out. I do like to explore links and categories that the people in my little circle are sharing. And that is how I watched my first Twitter grassroots movement develop and grow.
A cluster of book bloggers on Twitter were lamenting their inability to venture to the Book Expo America (BEA) conference in NYC this month. And one of them decided to organize an online gathering for anyone not able to attend. After a variety of names were suggested, ArmchairBEA was decided to be the best of the bunch. And so by simply placing the handy hash tag (#) in front of the name in a search on Twitter, it will bring you to the collection of all tweets tagged with that name. A sign-up sheet was linked to and now over 50 people have joined in to take part. Pretty cool.
So I signed up and now maybe I'll meet some new people via Twitter who enjoy the world of books, conversation and blogging as much as I do. If nothing else, it's enough to keep me hanging in there with Twitter for another week. Which is longer than I thought I'd ever last.
My Tweet for the Week was to announce my joining of #armchairBEA. And then I sent another one out looking for bar recommendations in Philadelphia. I've got a road trip next weekend and I need inside opinions. If Twitter can give me that too, I might just become a believer after all.
Our Twitter handle (is that what you call it?) is @thebumblesblog - or at least I think that's how it is expressed. So for God's sake - go follow us there so we're not all alone.
6 comments:
If I still used Twitter I would add you but I have not logged in some time now.
I had some stalker-azzi issues at a Jim show because of Twitter so I stopped posting there.
I thought I was following you on twitter but it turns out I needed to add you. I did. Not that I spend much time there.
Last year during the BEA I joined a twitter party. It was just crazy. I gave up after an hour. It went so fast that it was impossible to follow. It seemed like everyone was talking at the same time but no one was listening or responding. I threw in a couple of tweets but - nothing. Maybe this year it will be better?
Glad you're joining us for Armchair BEA! It's probably going to include a Twitter party, but there will be many other (calmer!) activities too. Margot's right - the party was just CRAZY difficult to keep up with.
It's fun to watch something materialize on Twitter; it's another variety of crazy sometimes!
I'm pissed and bummed that I am not going to BEA. It is a long story, and one that everyone else is really tired of hearing. But some day I will go. I will not be joining the Twitter party though. I get confused just with general chatter!
Thanks to you, and thanks to you being on Twitter, I know about Armchair BEA and I've signed up.
I find out about things like this a lot on Twitter.
Although only one person Retweeted you, more may have looked at your blog. I use bitly.com to shorten my urls and also to track how many people clicked on them. Often when I post a blog or pass along news, bitly shows me that people have clicked on my links.
I do get a lot more click throughs on my Ashley Ladd twitter account where I have 8800 followers than I do on my other Twitter account where I have only about 300 followers. Build up your number of followers and you'll see the numbers rise.
As per not going to BEA, I've never been. I didn't go to RT or Epic and I'm not going to RWA national this year either. Unfortunately, I can't travel much. I can only go to Lori Foster's Reader's and Writer's Get Together this year, and online events like this Armchair BEA. I'd like to see a lot more online events. I know I'm not the only one who can't travel a lot.
Post a Comment