Twitter and the New Art of Self-Promotion
Posted by Erin Brown in social media trends on September 30, 2009
I’ve been doing some reconnaissance reading about Twitter—why people use it and what they perceive its value to be. I am interested in what seems like an inherent paradox: Twitter is so widely and gleefully embraced as a tool for self-promotion (boost your audience, boost your sales, build your personal brand), and yet the prevailing wisdom on how to be an effective and popular Twitterer always seems to warn against being too . . . self-promotional.
The truth is, your followers want more than reminders about your upcoming public appearances and links to your glowing publicity (or merchandising tie-ins). In other words, they don’t just want to consume your product, they want to be connected to you. It seems they want what London-based blogger Leisa Reichelt calls Ambient Intimacy:
Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible [. . .] Twitter tells me when [the people I follow are] hungry, what technology is currently frustrating them, who they’re having drinks with tonight.
Who cares? Who wants this level of detail? Isn’t this all just annoying noise? There are certainly many people who think this, but they tend to be not so noisy themselves [. . .] There are a lot of us, though, who find great value in this ongoing noise. It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances.
Knowing these details creates intimacy [. . .] It’s not so much about meaning, it’s just about being in touch.
In keeping with this idea that the most appealing and satisfying Twitterers are those who offer their followers some form of genuine two-way engagement, plus thoughts, ideas, and content that are not directly related to the Twitterer’s personal gain, check out this Mashable mega list:
Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter
*As a side note, it’s great to see that two of the general fiction authors mentioned are not-so-distant graduates of the MFA program here in Missoula, Montana.
Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Story of a Marriage (2008), The Confessions of Max Tivoli (2004), The Path of Minor Planets (2001), and How It Was for Me (2000):
Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Love Stories in This Town (2009), Forgive Me (2007), How to Be Lost (2005), and Sleep Toward Heaven (2004):
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