Online presence is crucial for all authors whether they’re independent publishers, have gone down the traditional route or are just starting to build their platform. There are lots of tools available to help you create your online presence, but one of the most popular has got to be Twitter.

Twitter has a lot of uses. You can use it to promote your work, network, meet other writers, procrastinate… Getting yourself a Twitter account can be a huge help when it comes to marketing yourself – here are some Twitter tips for writers.

Make sure you’re identifiable

If you’re using Twitter as a writer, it helps if people are able to identify you properly. This usually means avoiding ‘wacky’ account names; stick with your own name or something close to it where possible. And make sure you mention that you’re a writer in your bio.

Don’t go overboard on advertising

Sure, Twitter is great when you’re promoting a book, but if all you do is put out tweets saying things along the lines of ‘buy my book, pleeeeeeease’, people are likely to ignore it and/or unfollow you. There’s a fine line between beneficial promotion and what looks like spam, so make sure you’ve got a good balance of content.

Use useful hashtags

Twitter hashtags such as #amwriting and #amreading can be very useful. However, avoid hashtagging every other word you use, if only because it makes what you write harder to read. One or two carefully chosen hashtags on relevant writing posts should be all you need.

Look out for tags such as #writingtips and #badwritingtips – and whenever you see something relating to writing trending on Twitter, it’s worth having a look and seeing if there’s anything you could either learn from or input to it.

Reply when people @ you

If someone sends you a tweet or an @ reply on Twitter, make sure you respond to them (unless they are clearly spamming you/are unnecessarily rude etc). Twitter is all about building relationships and conversation, not just sending tweets out into the ether.

With that in mind, engage

It’s also worth being proactive about engagement on Twitter, particularly when you’re just starting out. Reply to tweets you find interesting, retweet interesting viewpoints and follow interesting people. It can take time to build up your Twitter profile, but it’s worth it.

Remember useful links

Twitter is short and sweet. When you’ve only got 140 characters per message to play with, you need to keep things to the point. If you’ve got something that you want to say that won’t fit into the space, consider blogging it instead and then just tweeting the link.

Don’t just talk about writing

Of course, as a writer, your Twitter account is likely to be focused on that, but don’t forget that you are allowed to tweet about other things. Mix it up a bit.

Remember #ff and #ww

Follow Friday (#ff) and Writer Wednesday (#ww) can be a good chance to recommend people you think others should follow, and also find recommendations from others that you want to follow. This can be a good way to build up your network. When you’re recommending people, it’s useful to put a little bit about why you’re recommending them.

Don’t ignore it

Twitter is something you have to work at. Tweet regularly to keep yourself visible and to give people a reason to keep following you. That said, don’t go too overboard with the tweeting either, as you’ll just end up clogging up everyone’s timeline and not everyone is a fan of that (unless, of course, you are consistently hilarious).