Got Questions?

QUESTION
I have been trying to put a press release together and at the same time come up with a unique way to pitch my clothing to the press, and who ever is interested!!  Since most people are so busy to really take in all of the info you have to offer, is it easier for them to watch a short 2min. pitch/product video?

Katie - you have a few different Twitter names, right? So, when you changed over, how did you get people who followed you at name #1 to come over to name #2?  I didn't want to use my personal Twitter account for the book and so set up another one: @komcnees. I tweeted this change, but I don't think people got it.
- Kelly O'Connor McNees


Kelly, first of all, congratulations on your forthcoming publication of your debut novel, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott! Yes, I do have different Twitter names. The reason why I jumped ship from my original Twitter handle and didn't just change the name in my settings in the current account was because a snafu happened at Twitter and my account was no longer included in Twitter's search results, which meant I did not come up in searches for common words, nor in hash tag (#) conversations. So I wanted a clean start. It gave me cause to re-evaluate what I would be tweeting about, as you are considering that now. And I must say - it was kind of liberating.

One tweet is like one small, tiny pebble being thrown into the ocean. So, while many may see your tweet, several more will not. Here are things you can do to cleverly convert your old followers to be new followers on your new account:

• Tweet it more than once, but don't repeat the same tweet. The people who did see it and followed the new you may see it over and over again. We don't want to annoy them.
• Follow the people who you were following on your old account (or those who were following you). Have your name in your account be your actual name, or how people know you (not your Twitter name, but your name behind the scenes). They will probably see the notification and get the hint. Keep in mind, if you had followers who you were not following back, you would now see their tweets...so this approach might not be ideal.
• Tweet directly to people, gradually. Again, you don't want to say the same thing over and over, but hit maybe 4 people at once by saying something like: "Hey! I'm following you on my new twitter for my new book!  @collectivee @kjpixelated @bethschoenfeldt @sabinaredbranch" The purpose of this is to get seen in that person's @Replies area. Everyone checks to see if anyone publiclly talked to them in Twitter. I for one missed your original tweet that you moved. Had you tweeted it directly to me, I would have seen it days ago, and followed you.
• You could DM (direct message) them, but...that's a little more private and you can only do it to one person at a time. You're a writer - get clever with your repetitive messages!
• Write bog posts on your blook or any press that you get, and tweet about it on your new account. Then, RT (retweet) it on your old account, citing yourself as the RTer (retweet-er).
• Blog about it on your current blog or Facebook page.
• Facebook email your friends (but maybe do this if the above gets you nowhere with your friends, but does convert your Twitter followers who you don't really know). Again, we don't want to over-message everyone.

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To clarify, you are planning to register for a trademark, and you have checked with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) and have found that this name is not registered there. Or, you are wanting to file for your LLC, and you have looked it up and discovered that it not taken.