Dear WordCount: Do I need to use Twitter to do the Blogathon?

Dear WordCount:

I enjoy your website and newsletter. I’m thinking of signing up for the Blogathon but have a question. Do I need to have a Twitter account? I don’t have a smartphone and don’t plan to get one in the immediate future. — D.W.

Hi D.W.:

Thanks for writing. To answer your question, no, you don’t need a Twitter account to participate in the 2013 WordCount Blogathon. During the event, bloggers use Twitter to participate in the May 29 kick-off chat and the July 1 wrap party, and also to share links to posts or retweet links to posts from other blogathon bloggers. Whether you choose to participate in any of that is 100% optional.

Using Twitter

One thing I want to make sure you understand, though, is that you don’t need a smartphone to use Twitter. Twitter is a web-based social network that people can use on their desktops, laptops or smartphones. You can use Twitter from your home or office computer. You can also use it from a laptop or tablet computer.

Here are posts I’ve written about getting started on Twitter, and how bloggers and writers can use it:

• How to join a Twitter chat
• Why writers and bloggers should use Twitter
• Why do writers need lots of Twitter followers?
• There is no such thing as a dumb Twitter question
• A writer’s guide to getting the most out of Twitter
• The use and abuse of Twitter to flog your blog
• Guest post: Blogging and Twitter, the perfect match
• Lessons learned from a year on Twitter

Blogging and Community

Some people sign up for the Blogathon, put the badge on their website, write their daily posts, and that’s the extent of their interaction with me or any of the other bloggers in the event. That’s a perfectly acceptable way to do the blogathon.

However, after almost six years of running this event, it’s become apparent that getting in the habit of writing every day is only one reason why bloggers sign up. Many also join to gain a sense of community and fellowship with other people doing the same thing. It’s the whole notion of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole.

As a result, I’ve continued to add options for bloggers who do the Blogathon to create community.

One way to do that is by finding a partner to swap posts with for the June 12 guest post exchange. You can read all about guest posting here: The WordCount guide to guest post basics.<

Another way to create community is by reading and commenting on other bloggers’ posts – you’ll find that they’ll start visiting your blog and commenting on your posts. Read more: Blog comment tutorial – attract the good, deal with the bad.

You can also build community – and followers – by sharing links to what you write. That’s where Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social networks can play a major role.

Finally, during the Blogathon you can build community by using the WordCount Facebook page I created this year to replace the Google Group that we previously used as an online forum for bloggers to ask questions, get help and generally support other bloggers.

That’s a really long way of saying, when you sign up for the Blogathon you don’t need to do anything but write one post a day. But to get the most out of it, you need to dive in!

Register for the 2013 WordCount Blogathon here.