Twitterings

Hello there!

Being very new to all this, I was just thinking about twitter....

And about how much people strategize with regard to who/how they follow...

Obviously everyone wants to be, and to appear to be, popular...

Especially if you have something to promote.

We are all trying to get more followers.

A few weeks ago, when I properly started trying to use Twitter effectively, I made a mistake, I now see.

I read somewere, afterwards, about how following loads of people all in one go is not the wisest move to make...

This is precisely what I'd just done. And I'd not just followed a load of random people...

With me being in the writing game, and developing a new online project that I was about to embark upon and start promoting, I started by searching for UK literay agents. I followed every single relevant one. Those I'd previously had dealings/contact with, those I'd simply heard of, and everyone in my genre in between. Then I turned to the publishers and did the same thing...

I thought that this was a very good move, a great way to start! A smart move, in fact. Knowing nothing of how Twitter really works, I had no idea whether anyone would follow me back. I didn't really think too much beyond networking and connecting with the right people straight off. I hadn't even got the new blog up and running at that point.

So, not very surprisingly, none of this group followed me back. :0( 

But I continued to bide my time. I started tweeting and trying to raise my profile and to just get myself out there...

And people - writers, readers, promotors and businesses - started to follow me, very gradually.

Which was absolutely great. I was amazed at how it all works. How people find you! Suddenly it seemed to all be coming together....

I've since noticed though, that most of us (unless we are famous celebs) have roughly the same amount of followers to followings, and this seems to be about right, to be fair and to be understandable...

Not in my case though.

It seems that, because I followed SO many literay professionals who are not likely to follow me back (until/unless I manage to grow my blog fan-base beyond the scratosphere) my ratio will be severely unbalanced, left wanting.

This, then, makes me look unpopular.

It makes me look... what exactly? Well, this is what got me wondering about all this..

What do people think of twitter profiles who don't have much of a following? Or who have a number of followers that is significantly less than the number of people they follow?

Personally, I think people think there is something wrong with that person. That perhaps that person is strange or deranged or plain old boring. It's like being the misfit kid at school again, who doesn't get a partner for the barn-dance... 

Is this what people think? Or is this just me being cynical? Am I thinking too deeply about it? What is the average number of new followers that people bag per week? I'd like to know if those with equal following/follower ratios attract more new followers than I do?!

How many of us would look through the unbalanced loser's following/followers listings to try and ascertain what their problem was? You might just think 'weirdo alert' - and leave them well alone.

And this is what I'm worried about. Because this is where I currently stand. And hardly anyone will read this post because I'm newly starting, I'm already in this negative-ratio-twitter-following dilemma and I don't yet have the readers to pull me out!

In a slight panic, about a week ago, I went through the list of people I was following and started unfollowing as many as I could reasonably do, to try and level out my numbers. Ridiculous? My dilemma also means that I've had to be far choosier about who I follow back, right now. (And I feel really crappy about that!) (I've kept a list of them and will follow them back when my ratio is equal :0)

But how f**king stupid is all this?!

Well, I just wanted to air this particular POV. Whilst also explaining to anyone who might listen/read that I am NOT a WEIRDO. I hope I'm not a bore either.

I'm a writer who has been striving for publication for far too long, and who is just trying to get her current Words Out There!

http://novel-by-sjs.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/AbnormalANovel?ref=hl

Thanks so much for reading!