Promoting Your Book Through Twitter: It’s Easier Than You Think!
Among the overwhelming amount of social media platforms, Twitter offers authors the most direct means of communication. However, grabbing your followers’ attention can be difficult, even if you’re already familiar with Twitter.
In this article, I will outline the basics of Twitter for self-published authors and in a follow up piece I will address how to effectively operate Twitter by using a platform called TweetDeck.
First, create your Twitter account here. Once you’ve entered the Twitt-o-sphere, read below to learn about how some essential features can significantly boost your publicity:
Twitter Handle: Your username on Twitter is called a handle. It always follows a @ sign.
Make sure that your Twitter name relates to your author name or pen name. And try to spread your handle far and wide. If you have any sort of author site, link up your Twitter handle there. If you regularly post on a certain site, make sure that your readers are aware of your Twitter account so they can hear the latest on your work.
Tweet: Every time you post on your account, you are composing a Tweet. A tweet is equivalent to a Facebook status update. However, a tweet is public to everyone (unless you change your privacy settings). Twitter only allows 140 characters in each tweet.
In my follow-up piece, I’ll mention the appropriate amount of tweets you should post per day, the times of the day that most tweets are read, ways to schedule your tweets to automatically post…etc.
Header: On your profile page (click “me”), you’ll see a place where you can post a picture of yourself (or your book) and add a bio to your page.
This space can help you market yourself effectively so everyone knows what you’re all about. Read about different ways to market yourself through your Twitter header here: http://www.wchingya.com/2012/09/twitter-headers.html
Retweet: Every tweet can be retweeted by another user. When you retweet, you forward another’s tweet to all of your own followers.
You want your tweets to be retweeted! If someone retweets a tweet that promotes your book, that means that all of that person’s followers can see what you have to say. Within your own tweets, you could even shamelessly ask for retweets. That’s totally allowed. If you tweet something important, don’t be afraid to follow up with “Please retweet!” You should also retweet other people. There’s an unrwritten rule in Twitter: you retweet my content, I’ll retweet yours. Share others’ tweets, blog posts, videos, anything!
Favorite: Near the reply button underneath individual tweets, you’ll also see a favorite button. All of your “favorited” tweets are grouped together on your profile page.
Although it’s great to get favorites, retweets are definitely more important. When a follower favorites your tweet, the tweet doesn’t become available to all of that person’s followers, like with retweets.
@reply: Twitter allows its users to reply to others’ tweets. By writing out someone’s handle or by clicking “reply” below someone’s tweet, you can tweet AT the other person.
Interact. Interact. Interact. If a reader writes to you by using this feature, you’ll be notified. Try to @reply them back! Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to your idols on Twitter. You never know what might happen!
Hashtag: A hashtag refers to any word or phrase that follows a # sign on Twitter. Sometimes hashtags will trend, meaning that tons of people are using the same hashtag. (For example #TheBachelor always trends during The Bachelor season finale.)
Start a hashtag of your book title! Or, if you want to connect with other people, you can use their hashtags to support their cause. By clicking a hashtag on Twitter, you can see every post that used that hashtag.
The advice from this article has been extracted and simplified from Bookbaby’s exclusive guide, “Twitter for Authors in Ten Minutes a Day: How to Promote Your Book, One Tweet at a Time.” Download your own free pdf here for a more detailed explanation.