Twitter can be a great way to promote you and brand yourself as an author. Writers are turning to Twitter as a way to connect with fans and promote themselves to millions of people across the globe. Twitter is not just a numbers game. Authors have already discovered how powerful Twitter is for finding and engaging their audience. Its low cost, immediacy and viral nature make it a favorite tool among authors who wish to build a loyal following.

Twitter is a network that contains an abundance of interaction between users and is the perfect platform if you wish to brand yourself as an author. An enormous amount of tweets are shared each day, and the majority of the world is observing these tweets. Despite this fact, if you do not devote enough time and effort to building your Twitter following, you are missing out on the zillions of eyeballs that could be gazing your masterpiece. With this social media platform it is essential that you make sure you are using the proper strategy to brand yourself. Twitter is a large network, but it is composed of many smaller communities.  So in order to efficiently create a community that is composed of people with a shared interest, it is vital that the content you choose to post has a single core focus. The key factor to gaining followers on Twitter and building a brand is ultimately building a following comprised of readers who have a genuine interest in you and what you have to offer as a writer.

Create a Profile

The first step to building a Twitter following is to build your profile. Your profile should be clear so that you can be certain readers will want to follow you. Creating your profile does not take a long time. When creating your Twitter name, you should truly give a lot of thought to how you want to brand yourself as an author and make it as simple as possible. Since tweets only allow 140 characters, it is important to remember that every character counts. You should also take in to consideration the ease or difficultly in which you Twitter name can be found. By keeping your name simple, your target audience will be able to search and find you with ease without having to hunt you down.

No Brainer Tip - You can use your author name, which would make it relatively easy for potential followers to find you!

Follow People

One you've created a profile, search for communities that your target market is following, and start following the followers of that community.  An effective strategy is to find a profile of a professional author, preferably one who is in the same genre as you. You should then “view” their list of followers. From there, take some time to follow the people who follow them. Naturally, these people will commence to following you back. In order to successfully brand yourself and build a Twitter following, it's also a good practice to follow those that start following you. This is the most effective method to accumulate more followers who are interested in you and what you have to offer.

Use Hashtags

Using hashtags is also an important aspect of building a Twitter following in your quest to brand yourself.  Just in case you are super new to Twitter and unfamiliar with the lingo, a hashtag is the tic-tac-toe looking character on your keyboard.  Ending tweets with hashtags creates a community in and of itself of people who are tweeting on the same topic.  Thus, hashtags allow your target audience to easily find your post. You should therefore give careful consideration to the topics your potential followers may be searching for when choosing a hashtag. Try to compose tweets where you regularly hashtag a trending topic at the time. This will significantly increase your exposure and help you brand yourself as an author.

Tweeting in moderation is important when building a Twitter following. If you don't tweet enough, people will lose interest, and if you tweet excessively, people will lose interest. Tweeting twice a day tends to be the ideal sweet spot. You should tweet once before 9 am and once after 5 pm, as these are the hours that most people check their Twitter feed. By tweeting at these hours, you increase the chances of your posts being seen. Try and vary the content between the tweet you post in the morning and the one you post at night, and avoid posting content that is

When using Twitter as a platform to brand yourself, the most important step is to respond to your followers. Thank them for following you....Thank them for their retweets....Thank them for favoring your tweets.  Remember that your followers are utilizing Twitter as a social networking tool. So the more you interact, the more successful you'll be in developing a community of loyal followers who are eager to read your latest tweets on your next book release!