The HWA on Twitter – An Announcement
For the past several weeks, Jenn Mattern (A.J. Klein), Doug Murano, Angel Leigh McCoy, and JG Faherty, together with President Rocky Wood and Vice President Lisa Morton, have been putting the finishing touches on the HWA’s new Twitter goals, posting rules, and usage guidelines. In summary, they are as follows:
- Jenn Mattern will be managing the Twitter accounts/feeds. Under her supervision, select officers and page coordinators will be able to forward information for posting on the HWA Twitter pages (@HorrorWriters and @StokerAwards) and also create direct and send direct tweets. These tweets will provide updates on the organization, industry news and events, and other information of interest or value to writers, members, and fans of the genre.
- Automated tweets will be set up to promote the newsletter, blog posts, and other new material from the HWA’s website. Approved persons will also be able to provide special tweet material, such as links to industry news from other sources, including other writers’ organizations, etc. In addition, Jenn will be building Twitter lists to subscribe to within the publishing industry so that our feed tweets/retweets items of interest, such as editors changing houses, new agents/agent moves, major book deal announcements, and similar information. On occasion, there will be tweets relating to the HWA’s various missions – YA horror and readership, literacy, library news and partners, the Halloween blog, Women in Horror, and so on.
- The Twitter feeds will NOT be a tool for author self-promotion, even in a limited sense, unlike the Facebook page or even the IM/Newsletter’s sections for recent publications. But members will be able to pass on industry or genre news that they feel might be of value to the membership and Twitter followers. This information will, of course, be vetted before it is tweeted.
- Jenn will monitor tweet frequency and feedback to ensure we are not overloading our followers’ feeds nor overstepping Twitter guidelines for polite and proper use.
- Over the next couple of weeks, Jenn will be compiling a list of feeds to follow (suggestions welcome!) with the horror and publishing sectors, and also slowly begin the tweeting process at first, building to a level that strikes a balance between having a presence and not looking like a self-serving promotion machine. The idea, of course, will be to find the right level of tweets that pleases the current followers, brings in new followers, and adequately serves the needs of the membership and organization.
- As part of this program, Doug Murano, who is running the communications plan for the Bram Stoker Awards®, will be providing information and updates for the HWA and Bram Stoker Twitter feeds, creating a linked PR program to maximize information distribution.
