Week 4 on Twitter as @SandieWillWrite

My growth on Twitter has continued during week 4, and I have used many of the same techniques I mentioned in the last two posts as well as some additional ideas.  Currently, I have 860 followers which means I have gained 200 since last week - this is still incredible to me at such an early stage, and I owe numerous Twitter friends and Jill Celeste (@Jill_Celeste) at Your Branding Power for much of this success!

Since last week went so well, I decided to keep going with many of the same methods I've been using including:

1. Thanking followers and those who retweeted any posts on a daily basis
2. Following back those who follow me with the exception of a few
3. Thanking any followers who added me to their lists
4. Rotating my science blog posts four times a day
5. Posting my last week's blog twice a day
6. Posting interesting news articles on writing or publishing
7. Posting on anything I thought would be interesting outside of the science or writing realm (I posted a few of these but need to focus on doing this more next week)
8. Continuing with the 21-day Personal Branding Challenge by Jill Celeste

The only task I did not perform this week was to seek out new authors or writers - I only followed a couple.  I wanted to see if I was gaining followers without provoking the followers, and it appears this is the case, since my followers grew by almost the same amount as last week.  I've also been keeping an eye on my website hits.  Since I started www.sandiewill.com four weeks ago, I have had 405 new visitors, and during this week, I averaged 52 new visitors a day with the highest amount being 146 following my blog post last week.  In comparison, my www.rockheadsciences.com website has been live since October 2013 and only averages 3 new visitors a day.  Since posting the science blogs under @SandieWillWrite, there has been more interest, but it hasn't been significant.  I'm not sure if this is due to the subject matter and/or my lack of using the same methods for this website as I do for www.sandiewill.com, but it would be interesting to see if using the same techniques on my Twitter account for my science blog (@RockHeadScience) will generate more visitors.  I'm not planning on doing this next week, but maybe in the near future I will as a test.

There were also a couple of additions this week as follows:

1. I set up Google Alerts.  So, now an email is sent by Google once a day to let me know of any new science, geology, writing or publishing articles that have been released.  This saves me hours of searching online for articles to add to Twitter.  Another good source for articles is Flipboard which I have also been using for several weeks.
2. I posted a picture of my desk on Twitter and asked for pictures of other writer's desks; however, this did not generate any interest.
3. I received comments on last week's blog on my website and replied.
4. I was asked to participate in a blog tour on my writing process by a fellow author on Twitter named Rachel Stirling (@StirlingWriter).  I am very excited about this opportunity to say the least!  The idea is to write a blog and refer three additional writers for the next week to keep the blogs going.  Rachel is a talented writer and her blog post can be found at http://stirlingwriter.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/how-do-i-write-a-writing-process-blog-tour/. Mine will be posted on 4/21/14, so I'll let you know how it goes next week.
   
5. As I mentioned last week, I was referred to Einstein in a Box (@EinsteinInABox1) to possibly assist with a geology box to be send to children whose parents subscribe.  Last night, I had a conference call with the founders, Elaine Hansen and Monica Canavan - two talented business women with science and education backgrounds.  As it turns out, I'll be assisting them with a science experiment boxes on hydrogeology and solar energy, and I'm very excited about this opportunity as well!  They'll be sending me a few of their boxes, so I can see the concept and will follow up in a couple of weeks.  Again, having a social media expert like Jill Celeste has opened new doors for me!

Once again, I'm having a successful week, not just with Twitter but with other avenues that are opening up. The one downside I'm seeing is the amount of time it takes to keep up with Twitter.  I spend at least 2 hours a night during the week and several hours on the weekends keeping up with it.  I can't imagine how much time it will be to add other social media platforms.  Next week, I'd like to figure out ways to streamline my process plus continue sending out queries for my novels - I can't forget about them!  I'm sure as I become more proficient in social media, my time spent will be less, and I'll be able to juggle the needs of both better. In the meantime, hope you've had a successful week too and stay tuned for my update next weekend.  I can't wait to share the progress!  Feel free to share your successes or lessons learned in the comment box below.
--Sandie