Twitter and Blogging Tips

There are a number of ways for businesses and companies to reach potential customers online, even if that business or company is technically just one author 🙂 Having a Twitter account has its own potential. An author, for instance, on Twitter could follow “influencers” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 31) to get an idea of good methods of tweeting, or insight on writing tips in general. Blogging, too, is a possible means of communicating with an audience, one that could keep followers up-to-date about news and upcoming products. Not too surprisingly, there are tips that can help a blogger or Twitter-user get more from his or her online marketing experiences.

For these tips, let’s start specifically with Twitter, where a tweet could get lost among a crowd of other tweets. This idea could be a good reason to set up lists on the site. Setting up those lists and organizing what you do and don’t see at any given time could help you focus on the accounts that you feel are the most significant to you, and help you maintain the strongest relationships you’ve built on Twitter. Since “these lists can be shared” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 199), building them could also help you interact with new people who are interested in a list.

Those interactions in and of themselves are related to tips, because Twitter (and other sites) should potentially be about “building relationships” (Ashlock, 2016). In fact, one writer says that the “most important tweets are [a person’s] replies” (Ashlock, 2016), not his or her main posts. Why? That writer argues that “[p]eople will remember you more for responding to them, than for the most clever tweet you could possibly write praising yourself” (Ashlock, 2016).

Beyond those aspects, hashtags can be helpful with book marketing as well. Simply adding “#newbook” to the end of a tweet about your latest release can make a random person looking for a “#newbook” come across your work. Hashtags are also central in being a part of Twitter chats, where people are communicating because of a “common interest” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 133). If you attend a Twitter chat for horror books, for instance, you might assume there’ll be a good number of horror readers and writers participating. If you write horror books, this chat could be an opportunity to interact with fellow horror writers, and to potentially introduce yourself and your books to horror fans.

There’s also the idea of going through a site like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule tweets. Doing so could allow your account to be active, even when you’re away from the computer, and possibly reach more of an audience. As Schaefer points out, “[i]f you’re only spending 20 minutes a day on Twitter, do it at different times of the day, so you have the chance to interact with a broader range of people” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 102). Having pauses between those tweets could further increase your effectiveness on Twitter (Schaefer, 2012, p. 53), and allow those posts to “fan out…throughout the day” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 101) without having to sit at the computer so long.

These ideas, to me, might be some of the main tips for using Twitter. As far as how well the people in the book-publishing world do with these tips, I’d say success can vary. Maybe one author tweets and replies with a level of comfort that another author doesn’t quite have with the site. But I think the existences of book-related hashtags and potential book-centered chats might show that authors are using Twitter in effective ways and using the platform to get to know people while showcasing their crafts. So, all in all, Twitter seems to possibly be an effective tool for some.

For blogs, there are still options to build relationships and draw an audience. One tip is to make sure “people can find the blog” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 116), which can be assisted through a detail as small as “post[ing] comments on [other blogs] to lead people back to you” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 117). Basically, “the blogosphere is a conversation” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 117), and you should arguably find ways to make sure people know you’re taking part.

There’s also the issue of making sure you’re blogging enough. If your blog goes without an update for six months, a person who just happens upon your blog might not feel inclined to invest himself or herself in the page. As one writer says, “[b]uilding an audience for your blog is based on trust. Just as you’d show up to school or work, you need to show up to your blog” (Stauch, 2013). Your posts don’t have to come every day. In fact, “see[ing] an author blog weekly or every other week and be consistent” (Stauch, 2013) is actually okay, since there’s “a pattern” (Stauch, 2013). If readers can be familiar with a certain schedule, they’ll have a better idea of what to expect from your blog and from you. That way, they don’t think you’ve “gone MIA” (Stauch, 2013) because you go so long between posts.

How good are authors with this part of the equation? I suppose the success rate could vary, but for me, I kind of stink at it. Blogging is a pretty low priority for me, to be honest, and if I don’t have something to post, I often won’t. Truthfully, even if I do have something to post about, I’ve been known to still not post. This flaw is something I admit, and if I want to make the most of my blog, it’s something I should potentially fix.

References

Ashlock, C. (2016, February 19). “Twitter Tips for Authors.” Ask the Agent: Night Thoughts about Books and Publishing. Retrieved from: https://andyrossagency.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/twitter-tips-for-authors/

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies (Expanded and Revised ed.). Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Schaefer, M.W. (2012). The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time. [Kindle Version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Stauch, S. (2013, October 15). “Author Blog Posts: How Long, How Often?” Where Writers Win. Retrieved from: https://writerswin.com/author-blog-posts-long-often/

For an author, social media can be…

For an author, social media can be something that is effective and useful. I imagine, anyway. My successes have been somewhat limited 🙂 But even with my lack of success in regards to social media, there are a couple of things I still recognize as pitfalls, whether through personal experience or by hearing warnings from other people.

One example can be linked to a woman I used to follow on Twitter who not only posted solely about her book (at least I can’t recall seeing any other tweet from her), but seemed to post the exact same tweet over and over. As a follower, seeing the same thing repeated that much, maybe hourly, became kind of annoying. As an author, I realize annoying people probably isn’t the best way to go about gaining and keeping an audience.

Even if Twitter were conducted in a face-to-face “industry conference or a chamber of commerce meeting” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108) kind of way, the aforementioned author’s strategy wouldn’t necessarily be the best option. Why? Simple. A good number of people might not want to “stand there and read press releases” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108) at such an event. They might want more interaction, which is a human quality to apply to my online accounts (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108).

Possible bottom line: If my audience isn’t ever interested in what I post, they might not stick around for when I do post about my books. I might want to get people to buy those books, but I know from experience that the beating-people-in-the-head approach can backfire since I ended up unfollowing that person. And if I’ll unfollow someone for it, I should assume my potential followers would as well.

Similar criticism could be given for authors who automatically PM a person after a follow to ask said person to buy a book. I’ve done the PM thing, and I’ve been on the other end of it as well. Arguably, the approach is like meeting someone for the very first time, and asking for five dollars within the first three minutes. Doing so could offer an instant, bad impression of the person making those requests.
Basically, the mentality for the person reading the buy-my-book request could be something like, “I realized you exist about two minutes ago, and you already want something?”

Rather than doing something so instant, an author should ideally build a rapport with people *before* asking for favors or promoting books. As Schaefer claims, “[i]n an always-on, real-time, global world of business communications, the priority is on human interaction that leads to connections. Connections lead to awareness. Awareness leads to trust. Trust is the ultimate catalyst to business benefits, as it always has been” (2012, pp. 19-20).

That concept is why tweeting about more than just your book over and over is a good idea. Otherwise, there’s not necessarily a definite rapport or relationship between the followed and the follower, so why should the followers care about the followed’s book? Even after waiting though, pushing a book via PM could still be an intrusive idea, since you’re singling out one person at a time for it. Personally, at this point in my career, I’d advise against it.

But beyond the idea of bombarding readers and followers with too much business, an author can do something potentially worse to his or her online image. What is that something, you might ask? An author can react to a negative comment about his or her book, like a negative review.

I don’t know that any author legitimately likes seeing that he or she has a bad review. I’ve seen an author or two mention they want people to review their books, even if those reviews are negative, but I might doubt the sincerity behind those requests. After the writing, editing, proofreading, promoting… Who wants to read someone say mean things about something you put so much effort into? I don’t, and I admit that.

But negative reviews can be a part of the career, too, and an author should know how to deal with them. As one writer said, “[y]our book, written with the labor of love and handled like your baby, is still a book, a product” (Kealey, 2015). In the end, “it’s part of the business” (Kealey, 2015), and authors should accept that fact, however much we might not like it.

The strategy to dealing with these bad reviews and comments? Don’t deal with them. At least not publicly. You can rant and rave to your friends all you want (Kealey, 2015), but don’t go on Twitter to verbally attack someone for negatively reviewing your book or to defend your work. A person is allowed to give his or her opinion, just like that person was allowed to pick up your book in the first place. To one writer, “[e]very reviewer has an opinion, and all opinions are valid to the person who has them” (Kealey, 2015).

Lashing out over a bad review won’t necessarily make it go away, and acting in such a way could come across as unprofessional and childish. In addition to that not-so-pleasant representation, one post claims that “[e]very response gives that review more momentum” (Kealey, 2015). What that equation could add up to then is that you look bad, and you could be promoting your criticism until it potentially reaches even more people. Which sounds like a lose-lose, to me.

Need proof that reacting in such a way can affect your online image? How about an apparent directory for some moments when authors were less-than-professional? Pocketful of Books has one! In fact, the post claims the concept of “Authors Behaving Badly” (“Authors Behaving Badly,” n.d.) is a “weekly feature” (“Authors Behaving Badly,” n.d.). I, for one, wouldn’t want to make that kind of list!

Personally, I’ve tried to not broadcast any negative feelings I’ve had about negative reviews to everyone following my accounts, taking the advice from others to heart. Overly public remarks like that could be a giant pothole, and I don’t want to jump in 🙂

References

“Authors Behaving Badly.” Pocketful of Books. Retrieved from: http://www.pocketfulofbooks.com/p/authors-behaving-badly.html

Kealey, A. (2015, March 15). “10 Ways for Authors to Handle Bad Reviews.” Indie Author News. Retrieved from: http://www.indieauthornews.com/2015/03/10-ways-for-authors-to-handle-bad-book-reviews.html

Schaefer, M.W. (2012). The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time. [Kindle Version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

The truth of the matter…

The truth of the matter is that I don’t necessarily think very far beyond the general aspects of social media when it comes to book promotion. This detail might be why I’ve had limited success with the overall marketing thing, but it’s an honest insight. I think in terms of the bigger categories. For instance, I might think, “I should have a Twitter account,” but then not really know much about Twitter or its potential before I dive in.

I apparently have done the same thing with technology as well in regards to mobile phones. I think of writing/publicity assistance from a phone coming in the form of being able to tweet randomly, or to take a picture to post on Instagram. And these possibilities are legitimate uses for a mobile phone (or other mobile device) for an author.

I didn’t know though about some of the other mobile app possibilities available to authors. For instance, one site reports an app called “Story Tracker” that allows an author to keep track of submissions and such things (Enders, 2015). Though this ability might seem unimpressive to some, for an author, it could be a big deal. I’ve recently stepped into freelance working, so keeping track of what I sent and when might be a bit easier with an app like this. Even submitting books to publishers, or sending promotional details to bloggers, could be less cluttered with an app that stores that kind of information. In my experience, depending on my email inbox can be pretty disorganized and inaccurate. As the article stated, sending the same piece “to…the same person twice” (Enders, 2015) can be an awkward thing, and this app could help prevent that from happening.

The article goes on to explain apps that could help with brainstorming, editing, and finding inspiration (Enders, 2015), all of which could be important before a book is even released. This aspect is important for marketing in this situation, because if there’s no book to market, then there’s no book to market. Which sounds redundant, but is honest. The product should be integral in book marketing, so apps that help create that product are arguably assisting in marketing from the very beginning.

There also seem to potentially be phone-specific apps (or at least brand-specific) an author could use. One site shares a series of possibilities for those using Androids (Denton, 2014), but it’s not necessarily clear if those apps are all brand-specific, or if they’re just brand-accessible. In any event, the apps include links to popular social media sites and Evernote Hello, which allows the user to keep better track of “individuals, encounters and shared experiences” (Denton, 2014). But if these apps truly are brand-specific and others aren’t, the circumstance seems a bit lacking to me since simply having to change your brand of phone could ruin your best-acquainted methods of social media marketing at any given time.

But then again, I’m hardly the expert 🙂

On a more generic scale, I’d say something as simple as a planner on your phone could be useful when dealing with book marketing. I’ve had a physical planner to keep track of blog dates and such, and I would think being able to store that kind of information on a phone might be even more useful, since it would come with its own possible alert system, and maybe the option of automatically sending information at a certain time.

Basically, there are options!

References

Denton, D. (2014, March 14). “The Ultimate List of Mobile Apps for Writers with Andriods.” Retrieved from: https://darlagdenton.com/2014/03/14/the-ultimate-list-of-mobile-apps-for-writers-with-androids/

Enders, E. (2015, January 22). “15 Of The Best Apps For Writers To Download Now.” Bustle. Retrieved from: http://www.bustle.com/articles/59211-15-apps-for-writers-that-every-aspiring-author-needs-on-her-phone

I’m an author

I’m an author. I like being able to say that, and I like having tangible/readable products I’ve written available to the public. I like getting book covers in my inbox. I like the excitement of signing a publishing contract.

But all of that is work, stress, and money bundled into an untidy bow if I don’t get the sales to back up what I’m doing. For the hours and hours and hours invested in a project, I like to know that someone is reading it, and enjoying it. So the question isn’t “How do I write a book?” Rather, it’s “How do I market this book?”

This year will bring the third anniversary of my very first published book, and I still don’t know that I have an effective answer. Truth be told, I’m not sure there is a specific answer to that question. As one article states, a “magic formula” (Reid, 2014) for marketing isn’t really an option, so blending elements and ideas we find along the way in an effort to create an effective platform for marketing seems reasonable to me.

That idea brings us to a new question: What are those elements and ideas?
The answer to that question can vary, but there do seem to be some similar traits scattered across the Internet—authors who use the same media sites, techniques that continue to be used, etc. Multiples authors may have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc., but just how effective are each one of those accounts and approaches?

One site I found discusses the results of an apparent “panel…[who indicated] whether they used a laundry list of social media and marketing tools” (DBW, 2014) and provided feedback on their opinions of those platform possibilities. For anyone wanting to truly consider their social media options in regards to these sites, I would advise you to take a look at the piece. Each of the four panelists were “book marketing executives” (DBW, 2014), and final tallies of who among the four used the sites are provided with additional remarks regarding each site. I cannot stress how useful I find this piece, because it provides results from what seem to be professionals in the business.

On that site, the social media opportunities that got a perfect four-out-of-four rating were the following:

• Amazon Author Page
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Author Websites and Blogs
• Videos/Youtube
• Google+
• Facebook Promoted Posts and Stories
• Instagram, and Goodreads (DBW, 2014)

Choosing these sites as the beginning points of an author platform then would seem a reasonable step. For me, personally, I have the Amazon Author Page, Facebook, Twitter, Website and Blog, and Goodreads that I typically employ. That list leaves quite a bit of territory left to explore in thorough detail.

Of course, there are ways to boost social media platforms—tools that can make your account easier to deal with and ideally make your business endeavors more successful. In my last post, I covered Hootsuite and Buffer, both of which can be used to schedule posts for you so you don’t have to sit in front of your computer all day to have posts throughout the hours. From that standpoint then, there’s even more room to grow than the unexplored territory from the list mentioned earlier. I hardly know all the ends and outs of each site I use, so more territory could be covered to help expand my platform’s reach. For instance, I’ve never even used the paid advertisement feature on Facebook.

One technique I have tried is the giveaway feature on Goodreads. Of all of the marketing I’ve done for my books, those giveaways stand out to me because they *did* get my book attention. They were easy to set up, and they were provided by a site whose target audience is the reading community. Basically, Goodreads had an audience waiting for me, and they made it easy to contact that audience. However small my promotional reach has been, I do count Goodreads as one of my most valuable accounts.

As for the rest? Maybe I’ll get the hang of it. Eventually.

References

DBW. (2014, January 15). “Which Social Media and Marketing Tools Are Publishers Actually Using Successfully.” Digital Book World. Retrieved from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014/which-social-media-and-marketing-tools-are-publishers-actually-using-successfully/

Reid, R. (2014, July 2). “There Is No Magic Formula for Small-Business Success — Only This.” Entrepreneur: Success Strategies. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234924