Twitter was designed as a tool to share what you are up to and while you can tweet about what you’re having for lunch, it’s really not 
relevant (or interesting!). The goal for authors should be to engage your target audience by being entertaining, sharing useful information, or serving as a resource.
Here are some examples:
- An author of a financial book could share tips for saving money and planning for retirement.
- An author of a memoir about overcoming adversity could share motivational messages.
- An author of a children’s book could share fun things to do with your kids.
- An author of a cookbook could share recipes or quick cooking tips.
- A novelist has to be a bit more creative and develop a unique presence online. You could send Tweets from the perspective of characters in your book or share interesting insights into your next book.
Remember that it’s all about cultivating your audience and sending tweets of interest to them. Here are some additional ideas for content to post on Twitter:
- Link to your blog posts
- Link to other people’s blog posts (Use RSS feeds to pay attention to interesting blogs and share the results with your followers)
- Link to articles (yours or other sources. Could be major news outlets like the New York Times or a lesser-known site.)
- Brief tips with links to additional information
- Brief tips without links! (It’s a good idea to share without links too.)
- Invites to upcoming events
- Announcements about conferences you are attending
- Announcements about speaking engagements you are conducting
- Recommended books, software, online resources or just about anything that your followers would enjoy
- Free give-aways. Use Twitter as a tool for giving away copies of your book, a free report or a ticket to your event. Get creative!
Twitter can be a powerful tool for authors who want to cultivate an audience of readers. If you’re just getting started, pay attention to how others are using Twitter along with what you like and don’t like about their posts. The more you watch, the more you can learn and ultimately develop a strategy that feels comfortable for you.
Thank you for this information. I’ve struggled with using twitter – it’s been a bit of a blur for me. You’ve provided specific examples that will help me a great deal.
Great article!
Hi Janice, I’m so glad you found this information helpful! I know that Twitter can be overwhelming, but it really can be quite valuable for authors. Best of luck on getting going with that!
Thank you for your incredibly educational,challenging insights. As a newcomer to twitter and an aspiring writer, your tweets are a lifeline! I’ve written an essay about my foray into the land of tweeting and once I figure out how to link it to my tweet, will send it for feedback from fellow writers. Thank you again.
Thanks very much for the compliment! I’m so glad to be helping you along your social media journey. Best of luck!
Dear Stephanie,
I am interested to read your articles throughout.. What to tweet on Twitter? is not an easy question for every twitter member. I always believe on Quality tweets rather to focus on Quantity. I always focus to built social contact on the basis of relevance. Quantity of followers doesn’t matter, the interaction of followers with your work is more relevant to communicate. As per my understanding, as we are all learners of social techniques enables me to communicate that relevant to our business to encircle niche based social contacts.
Do you agree with this approach??
Regards,
@NazHina (Lineage of TechInfo)
I do agree that interaction with your followers is important, as well as the quality of your posts, but Twitter can also provide a great source of traffic to your website. And remember that users aren’t all looking at Twitter at the same time so it makes sense to re-tweet your content. I share content hourly on Twitter (most is pre-scheduled, though I check in regularly to engage). This results in dozens of retweets of my content per day and a tremendous amount of traffic to my site. The bottom line: I think you need to test to see what works best for you. For me, sharing a lot of content has brought tremendous rewards. Good luck!
Stephanie, I’m a virtual assistant providing my services to small business owners and entrepreneurs, can you suggest me what type tweets I can share so I can get maximum benefits.
Hi Tufail, I’d suggest that you write posts teaching your audience how to do what you do. Then, when your prospective customers are online looking for answers, they can find them in your blog. While some people will go ahead and do the work themselves, others won’t want to be bothered and will view you as the expert they can then hire. Good luck!