Trust me, Twitter is more more scared of you, than you are of it. Or, wait, is that spiders? Either way, you might think of Twitter as a vast overwhelming sea of people telling you what's in their sandwich (grilled steak and onion jam, since you must know) but it can actually be pretty useful for comedians, especially if you're not so well known yet – or if you want to chart your adventures through the Funny Women Awards…
Basically, Twitter is a giant cocktail party where you can meet interesting new people, but you don't have to dress up (or dress at all) to go there, and you can always Unfollow that bore who just won't stop talking about their sandwich fillings!
So, what is Twitter good for?
Promoting Gigs
If you've got something going on, and you want your friends to let their friends know ,stick it on Twitter and watch the Retweets roll in! Quite a few local listings papers and websites are on Twitter too, and they'll often Retweet you if you ask them nicely, too.
Selling in New Gigs
Want to get a spot somewhere a little bigger than upstairs at your local? You can point at your loyal following of thousands on Twitter and before you know it, you'll be Live at the Apollo.
Finding out about gig venues
If you're following lots of other comedians, and they tweet constantly about their gigs, you'll find out about gig venues you've never heard of before, and they're probably on Twitter too. See if you fit with their style, ad drop them a tweet!
Showing Gratitude
There's nothing people like more on Twitter than being asked for their opinion…except for being thanked. Sending out a quick 'Thanks @venue for a great night! I especially enjoyed @othercomedian's set!' will probably gain you a retweet from the venue, and few more followers to boot!
Getting noticed by comedians, venues, events
If you start retweeting other events which you think sound funny, jumping in on #hashtags, and generally chatting with people (and don't be afraid of responding to famous people!!!) then people will start to notice you. You might find your mundane ramblings on the world being retweeted, as well as your gig promotions. You might suddenly find yourself Twitter famous. Of course this means that all your stand-up jokes will have to be in 140 characters (or less), but that's the price you pay for fame.
Practising your jokes
Test how how funny you really are, on the internet, where once something has been retweeted, it can never be deleted. No pressure!
To get you started, here's a few people to follow on Twitter! @FunnyWomen, @FunnyWomenLynne, @SocialAmelia (that's me!), @SarahMillican75, @mermhart, Funny Women Awards Winner 2012 @best_gabby, Funny Women Variety Award Winner @soozuk, Funny Women Awards Finalists 2012 @tattygladrags @VivGroskop @LucyFrederick @KateTracey1 @LuSay @SofieHagen @niamhmarron1 @thatpaircomedy @cerysnelmes @gabpeople!
Glossary of Terms:
Twitter: social networking site
Followers: people who hang on your every tweet
Tweet: 140 character (or less ) status updates
Twitter Handle: e.g. @FunnyWomen. Use these in a Tweet to get someone else's attention
Timeline: the Tweets of the people who you Follow i.e. if people Follow you, your tweets will appear in their timeline.
Retweet: i.e. the Holy Grail of Twitter. This is when another account republishes your Tweet in their Timeline, thus exposing your wit to all of their Followers.
Hashtag: e.g. #FunnyWomenAwards. Use these in a tweet to join in on conversations seen by many and make it easy for your Followers to search that topic on Twitter
Amelia Wells
Pictured: Gabby Best as Marijana, Sooz Kempner
