Tweet Tweet ... Don't Be Rude!

@Ghunibee

When I joined Twitter a few years ago, I didn't have a clue about the social connecting site. I could see folk were dunkin' donuts, or chasing Wallabies, and dancing Irish jigs. People from around the world shared their daily lives with me and thousands of others who eagerly awaited to see what time they were 'popping the kettle on', or 'shopping with six kids, and other exciting stuff.
I tentatively sent out my first Twitter Tweet, and it was probably, 'Hello. What am I doing here? I can't recall what it was, however, what I did know was I had to be polite to the person saying 'hi' back. I thanked them, they thanked me, and we moved back to dunkin' donuts.

After a while I felt I had nothing to offer Twitter folk, and moved over to Facebook. Slowly I noticed FB comments with Twitter #hashtags, and found a way of combining the two. Off I trotted and tried TweetDeck. It worked, then failed me, so I stopped singing on the wire. Then I found HooteSuite, got confused by it all, and left. I flew away from Twitter.

Then came launch day of Ripper, My Love, and I thought I would give it a go again, on the advice of friends. I said hello to the 804 followers, and told them of my publication. Some Tweeted out the links, and others offered congratulations, all received a thank you in return. Then the followers came flocking, the majority from the writing world, and other exciting places, and some -- well, some came from a trash bin in the back of beyond but we ignore them, anyway, new followers arrived and left their calling cards. Some kindly privately messaged me with their blog links, book links, links to their mother's book, their father's dentist and so on. Only a few gained the visit they eagerly sought, (not the dentist though). Some were forthright and rude. READ MY BOOK HERE. VISIT MY BOOK WEBSITE HERE. You get the picture. Good, they were #coldshoulderedandignored.

Slowly Twitter grew on me, and I found a way of combining tweets about my book, blog, and how I support others with New Book Blogger. Since May my followers have grown to just under 2,000. I enjoy reading the majority of tweets by my new Twitter buddies. Now comes the crunch. During one day of browsing around the options on HooteSuite, I came across a scheduled post button. It meant while I was sleeping I could tweet out a message to friends who were still partying. I tried it, and it worked. I noted a rise in sales when I did this once a month. I didn't want to get into the daily routine of bombarding folk with my sales pitch but noted others do. I don't mind, and good luck to them. What I do mind ... here it comes ...

Is that some (not all), NEVER SAY THANK YOU when I tweet out their scheduled post. At first it mystified me as to why not, they used to be there, waving. Yes, I am blonde, it took a while to dawn on me as to why. THE ARE NOT THERE!  They have set up a batch of BUY MY BOOK scheduled tweets and buggered off! They are shopping with six kids, hands free. They are enjoying time out with friends while muggings here is sitting at her desk tweeting out their wares, (and saying thanks to my lovely folk). They are not ghost writers but ghost tweeters. One of the rules of Twitter is to play nice, to say thanks for the tweet.

As I say, I am all for the scheduled postings, they work, and I might even pop one on more than once a month. I love the thought of being a helping muggins and sharing for my followers, I just wish now and then the few who do use the scheduled facility would pop over and notice that I have been there for them. Ah, well, such is life. #RantOver