If you are a self-published author, you have likely discovered that you need to become your own marketing expert as well. And if you are marketing in 2016, you understand the importance of tapping into the amazing resource that is social media.
There are some basic tips every author should know about Twitter before they begin marketing their books there. There is an etiquette to follow and there is a way to Twitter wrong. Use these tips to rock your marketing approach on Twitter.
First, do not spam the Twitterverse. Yelling “Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book” every five seconds into the public square is not going to help you. In fact, you’ll repel an audience rather than attracting them. So no spamming. For every one or two posts about your book, you should have between 10-15 other tweets that are useful to your target audience. If you aren’t sure who your target audience is, then you might benefit from the marketing course. Whatever marketing efforts you make, they should be strategic and focused. The marketing course can help you find direction.
Second, use images whenever possible. Images are much more powerful than simple text. We all know a picture is worth a thousand words and you only get 140 characters so take advantage of those images. Anything you can do to capture your audience’s attention will help you.
Third, take advantage of scheduling software like Hootesuite and Buffer to schedule your tweets. Some social media experts recommend tweeting as many as 22 times per day. Layer your tweets with a good combination of today’s new content, yesterday’s content, last week’s content. Chances are the two posts you made with yesterday’s content weren’t seen by a lot of people so it is definitely okay to repost. Remember, don’t overdo the “buy my book”. Use a variety of content like fun, lighthearted materials and useful or curious info that might be relevant to your book topic.
Pro Tip: Spend some time (even if it’s only 15 minutes) every day engaging with your Twitter followers. Send messages (not to buy your book!) and actually talk to them.
Bibliocrunch and LearnSelfPublishingFast.com offer some awesome courses on book marketing on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. Not sure how many hashtags to use on Twitter vs. Instagram? Wondering how you can utilize Pinterest to promote your book or series? You probably wonder how to successfully utilize 3 or 4 different social media platforms without giving up all your writing time. If you are in charge of your own book marketing, Social Media for Authors is the perfect course for you. We’ve done the research so you don’t have too!
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