Twitter is a Must for Associated Content Contributors

Associated Content recently issued "The AC Twitter Challenge," in which its Contributors were to try out Twitter.com or use it more often than usual. Since I already am a very active Twitter user known as @momietullottes, I decided to take on the challenge. I didn't know how I was going to step up my already strong Twitter presence, but I love a good challenge. Here's what happened during my personal AC Twitter Challenge.

Interacting With AC Friends
Interacting with @acnews (Associated Content) friends is something I enjoy doing on Twitter. I decided to do so even more during the challenge and will keep that up even after just because it's fun. There are many people I interact with on Twitter. It matters not to me whether they are new to Twitter or AC or long-time veterans or friends.

In fact, that's one of the neatest things about Twitter. There are so many different personalities on there and for the most part, the AC writers all seem to work together to help each other - regardless of differing views. I think that's awesome. It says a great deal about both the community spirit of AC and Twitter.

Seeking out and Interacting with AC Contributors
A habit of mine is to seek out new AC members on Twitter, especially if their writing is good. One such person that I found via Twitter is @ruby3881, known as Kyla Matton on AC. She Tweeted her very first article on AC, which discussed education - a very important topic to me. I checked out her page and had to subscribe. I've been reading and Tweeting her articles since. I even did an interview of her, which I published on AC. A funny coincidence is that shortly after I came across Kyla, I found out that she's a close friend of another AC friend of mine, Angie Mohr. Small world, eh?

During The AC Twitter Challenge I also came across a great AC poet named April Higney, who goes by @PoeticHeart34 on Twitter. Both April and Kyla are awesome at tweeting and re-tweeting the work of fellow AC friends. Plus, they are fun to talk to. Other great AC friends and followers I interacted with during the challenge include @LangleyCornwell, @morgan2dope, @SabahK, @PeterFlom, @lisaswrite, @writingdivas, @Gregoriancant, and so many more. I have over 1300 followers on Twitter, so it's impossible to list everyone. But, know that even if I didn't include you in this article, you all mean something to me. There is no way I could pick just a couple favorites. You're each awesome in your own way.

Using HootSuite to Manage My Twitter Account and Help Fellow Writers
Now let's get to down to content promotion, one of the main aspects of The AC Twitter Challenge. There are several ways I promote content on Twitter. I use HootSuite.com for all of them. I highly recommend HootSuite to anyone who is going to be posting more than a few Tweets a day. One thing I do is use HootSuite's RSS feature to auto-post articles from AC. I do this for not only my own articles, but others as well. How? Since the explanation on that is a bit complicated for some, you can read "How to Create an RSS Favorites Feed on Associated Content ." That article not only explains how to create a specific feed to promote other writers, but also how to use it with HootSuite.

In addition to using those feeds, I have special tabs set up on HootSuite with search terms such as "Associated Content," "aclnk" and more that will show me when someone has posted something relevant to AC. This makes it easier to find things to retweet and to find new people I may not find otherwise.

Overall Thoughts on Associated Content Contributors Using Twitter
I think that all AC Contributors would benefit immensely from using Twitter. It helps with promotion, but also adds even more to the community aspect of AC. I have found people on there I may not have found directly at AC. Also, I have done experiments to compare page views on days where I didn't use Twitter versus days where I did. There is always a noticeable drop in views when I do not use Twitter.

Sources:

http://twitter.com

http://twitter.com/momietullottes