© 2019 Corabel Shofner

Writers of a certain age panic when told we must develop a social media “presence.” Okay, we learned Facebook, but no, Facebook is not where it’s at for writers. They’re calling it Mombook now.

Let’s focus on the scary wild rodeo: TWITTER.

How do I begin?
Create your profile and explore. Check our your favorite authors. Get your bearings.

How do I interact?

• Heart, comment, retweet, retweet with comment.
• Post carefully.
• #Hashtags help join people with shared interests. Also tag people (@SoandSo) so they will see your tweet. But beware. I accidentally started a fight between a couple of famous @SoandSos.Yikes!
• Avoid hard selling yourself or your book. Just like a dinner party. Don’t be a bore. Have a genuine interest in others.

How do I get followers?
The same way you get friends. And please don’t buy them. Follow people who interest you. They may follow you back, assuming it is not J.K. Rowling. You do not need a huge following.

How do I cut through the chaos?
Use the lists feature to create groups. Lists can be private or public, and you can add anyone on twitter. Some of my lists: Writers, Conferences, Librarians, Teachers, Bloggers, People Who Make Me Laugh. You can read others’ public lists for ideas.

Pros and cons?

• Believe it or not, I have met some of my best friends on social media. Four Mississippians bumped into one another on Twitter and became friends: Ellen Morris Prewitt,  Diane Cox McPhail, the extraordinary Linda Williams Jackson, and me. It turns out that Linda and I grew up on nearby farms. We now do presentations together where we share notes and friendship. Linda is a special blessing I never saw coming.
• The shelf life of a tweet is a head-spinning 40 seconds.
• Beware. Twitter activists are a force to behold. They are focused, committed and powerful. Do not engage casually or defensively because if you say the wrong thing, you will be ejected from the aircraft and float in space forever.

Really, is this necessary?
I don’t know.

Does it improve sales?
Indirectly.

But I don’t want to do it.
You could say the same thing about paying bills.

Rule of thumb: Give it time. Be yourself. Have fun but don’t get sucked into the rabbit hole.
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Born in the early ‘50s as the youngest child of whimsical parents, Corabel Alexander Shofner was raised in a family of judges, farmers, and colorful women. She is the author of the middle-grade novel, Almost Paradise (A Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth: 2017), and her shorter work has appeared in many other publications. A Mississippi native, former attorney, and mother of three, Corabel now resides in Nashville with her husband.