Talking Back

One of my mutual twitter followers recently posted about a follower milestone they'd achieved. 9,000. I was blown away. I consistently hover around the 60 follower mark and then inevitably lose a few just as soon as I gain them.  

I, at times, have not understood what I was doing wrong. I was putting out messages true to my heart. I was branding myself in a specific way to showcase my viewpoint and voice. I post at least once a day and make sure to tag the trending tags. These are not fail-safe ways to get followers but I had hoped they would be enough to generate something.

In some ways, they are. These methods have grown a small base of followers where before, I'd had nothing. But to reach 9,000? These are heights that I, even my wildest dreams, couldn't imagine reaching out of nothing. While I'm sure that my mutual follower didn't grow this base out of thin air, I know people who have grown wild bases in little time. What was the secret?

I congratulated Diana Voxerbrant on her accomplishment and then jokingly commented, "Teach me the ways." Her answer came in the form of an article she'd written for The Story Desk, a collection of storytellers brought together by their passion for stories and the mediums of telling them, and this article opened my eyes. 

It is not enough to be active, to tweet a consistent message, to hit popular tags. You must also participate in several conversations, in areas that you find of interest. You must follow, like, and retweet back, even outside of the small universe of people who follow you first. In short...you have to be not a message, brand, or a persona. You have to operate as a person, first. (I'm cringing right now on how obvious this should have been in the first place). 

When you're a writer, or a storyteller of any kind, you tell stories. You want people to have something to say about these stories. But you're still a writer. Your story has the heart you gave it. If others don't find the heart in your message, it reveals no truth, and has no resonance. Aside from that, there are other people out there writing stories too! They want comments! They want attention! You can build a brand but you can't do it in a vacuum. 

Suddenly, my efforts on twitter became focused, not on my efforts as an author, but on the community that all niches of twitter are built around. I have often avoided posting personal things on my author twitter simply because it didn't have anything to do with the art and craft of writing or to do with my personal beliefs about success, motivation, and positivity. In this, I was missing out on the one crucial thing that makes engaging with anything worth it: the human element. 

With this revelation I felt free. 

I could now retweet stuff about Grey's Anatomy, or respond to #SPNFamily posts, or maybe even live tweet the next Harry Potter weekend (happening this weekend, in fact). If I lose certain writer followers because of this, that's part of the process, and I have to accept that my message won't be pleasing to all people all the time. I'll still connect with people who do appreciate the things that interest me, and isn't that better?

Now, when I'm talking, I can also be talking back; and despite what your parents told you? You should too. 

Grey