Tweet Like an Eagle!
Write Reader-Friendly Tweets
That Get Attention and New Followers
by D. Arthur Watson
aka Xunez
Smashwords Edition
* * * * *
Published by:
David A. Watson at Smashwords
Tweet Like an Eagle!
Write Reader-Friendly Tweets
That Get Attention and New Followers
Copyright © 2011 by David A. Watson
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
* * * * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE — Eye-Catching Avatars
CHAPTER TWO — Reader-Friendly Tweets
CHAPTER THREE — Useful Internet Sites
CHAPTER FOUR — Internet Twitter vs. TweetDeck
CHAPTER FIVE — To Follow or Not to Follow
CHAPTER SIX — Good & Bad Twitter Behavior
CHAPTER SEVEN — Focusing Your Twitter Account
CHAPTER EIGHT — Conclusion
"Tweet Like an Eagle" is for Twitter users who want to write reader-friendly Tweets — Tweets that attract attention, get read, draw new followers and retain the old ones. You will also find ideas about avatars, Twitter etiquette, and helpful Internet sites. This book assumes you have some experience with Twitter. Relative newcomers will find information that could take weeks or months to discover on their own. Veteran Tweeters will find many ideas they will want to try.
What qualifies me to teach about effective writing? Although my Twitter experience only goes back to September 2010, my writing experience goes back decades. One of my first jobs was to create direct mail appeals for a major publisher.
An important assignment was writing blurbs (short descriptions) for books sold through Doubleday’s Book Club Division. The requirements for a blurb were very strict. The maximum number of characters in a blurb was specified by an art director. The copy had to make readers want to buy a book. This was before computers. Everything was done on typewriters, so I would make "rulers" by typing "12345698901234567892 …" and so on, cut the ruler from a piece of paper then use the ruler to help quickly count the number of characters in a blurb.
Perhaps because of this experience, I don’t see Twitter’s 140-character maximum as limiting. In fact Tweets are a path to good writing — writing that is pithy, thought-out, appealing to the eye plus (in tune with today’s demand for speed) quick to read and understand.
Feedback from followers shows that others do enjoy my Tweets:
"Hon, you have great Tweets."
"I look forward to your Tweets."
"I am enjoying your Tweets! Thanks for following back!"
"You’re right. To put big ideas into little words is an art."
"Just a note to express that ‘You Are Amazing,’ Very Much Appreciated & of course Admired!"
Happy Tweeting! The Twitterverse is breathlessly awaiting your powerful new Eagle Tweets!
T-W-E-E-T!
Eye-Catching Avatars
First impressions are important, which is why this book about writing reader-friendly Tweets begins with a brief discussion of avatars. Your avatar, the unique image representing you on Twitter, is the first thing a potential reader notices. An attention-getting avatar will draw people to a Tweet even before they actually start to read its message.
This is like the concept of "curb appeal" in real estate. The appearance of a property from the road is the first thing a potential buyer will see. The seller wants to be sure the "curb appeal" is as attractive as possible.
In Twitter, your Tweet’s curb appeal is determined by the appearance of your avatar. That is the first thing a reader will notice. You almost certainly have an avatar already, but here are some ideas you should consider:
Avatar Do’s and Don’ts
1. Don’t use a complex photo or drawing as your avatar.
What is a complex photo? A picture of a forest would be complex. A picture of a single tree would be simple.
Complex photos can cause confusion among your fellow Tweeters, something that may stop them from ever getting around to reading your Tweets. Avatars are small. When you reduce a picture of a scene to the size of an avatar, the original image may become difficult or impossible to decipher. The avatar becomes more of a Rorschach Test than a coherent picture.
Let’s say you can’t quite figure out what a person’s avatar represents. Rather than read their Tweet, you enlarge the avatar to get a better look. Surprise! The enlarged avatar shows a kitten on a sofa! In the meantime, you have spent more time trying to figure out what someone’s avatar is than you have reading the Tweet.
Patterns or designs are an exception to the rule of not using complex photos as avatars. Patterns must also be reduced to avatar size, but the smaller image usually won’t puzzle the viewer.
2. Avoid using the generic "egg" avatar provided by Twitter.
When you first join Twitter you are assigned a generic avatar, a pastel colored square behind a white egg. Unless you want your avatar to get lost in the crowd, don’t use Twitter’s generic avatar. Spammers and trolls (in brief, troublemakers) often use the generic Twitter avatar because they are more interested in causing trouble than they are in having unique avatars. You do NOT want others to mistake you for a troll!