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Twitter is a social networking tool different from all previous social networking sites. With Twitter, users have the ability to update their status by answering a simple question: What are you doing? For those that already use Twitter, looking at many updates quickly shows that users do not always provide an answer to that exact question, but use this as a forum to send a message. And the message must be concise, because anyone ready to Twitter needs to stay within 140 characters of text.

So how can a tool like Twitter help writers? Besides using this tool to promote your writing, there are many other great and innovative ways to connect with readers and create literary magic. If you know how to utilize Twitter, you can easily maximize readership and profits.

One of the easiest ways to get a following on Twitter and use it to your advantage is to provide blog updates through Twitter. Almost all writers use a blog or website to promote their work, but there are many people who shy away from email updates because they don’t want to be spammed. By utilizing a tool such as Twitterfeed, you can provide your blog update to your followers on Twitter. This will provide two ways of promotion: directly on the blog or website and again through Twitter.

Twitter is also a useful tool for reaching out to existing readers or finding new readers for your work. Once a few loyal fans start following your updates, many more can follow. This happens through the old fashioned method: word of mouth. Every Friday, many users participate in #followfriday, a technique that works to suggest specific users to follow. And if you are creative with your tweets, users can also RT (re-tweet) your message to their followers, opening up a whole new world of potential readers.

There are many professional authors already maintaining their presence on Twitter, such as @megcabot, @Charlotttehughes, @jamesrollins, and @Patti_Oshea. These are just sample of some of the authors that use their creative and promotional skills to reach out to readers with Twitter.

And then there are authors out there that just like to have fun with Twitter, which can easily create a buzz across the whole social network. For instance, @arjunbasu uses his Twitter account to create 140 character short stories known to his followers as Twisters. @Twae is another brave soul producing 140 character short stories in the Twitter universe.

No matter what you have to say, Twitter can be the easiest outlet for your writing adventures. You can tweet about your day, struggling to come up with the next spectacular metaphor for your poem about oatmeal, or you can do something more conventional such as providing a link to purchase your new novel on Amazon. As long as you have a few loyal followers, your messages can be seen by hundreds or thousands of people. That’s a social networking tool that really works for the writer.