By Patricia Stoltey aka @PStoltey
Geesh! I can already hear the groans.
You hate social media.
You can’t stand the thought of adding one more site to your daily list of “must” visits.
And you would prefer to bury your head in the sand and make this whole business of marketing, networking, and engaging go away, especially if it involves blogging, Facebook, Google+, Goodreads, PInterest…..and Twitter.
Last month I posted about the benefits of blogging for authors in “To Blog or Not to Blog? Good Question.”
This month I want to urge you to try out Twitter, if you haven’t already done so. This is my Twitter banner. Isn’t it pretty?
If it turns out Twitter is not your thing, so be it. But I like it best of all the social media sites so far. Here’s why:
Lots of authors and readers and agents and editors hang out on Twitter.
If you have a blog, Twitter is a great place to link to your blog posts, especially when you’re promoting your guest authors. It’s also the perfect place for you to spot the blog posts you’ll want to read (especially literary agents’ blogs).
There are only 140 characters in a tweet, so long rants require more work.
Facebook and Google+ allow the user way too much space to post long, drawn-out updates you don’t have time to read.
Unfortunately, a few less-than-savvy authors use their 140 characters on Twitter to say “Buy My Book” over and over and over. I promise you, this does not sell books. And….you can ditch them from your lists.
Photos can be attached to a tweet (think book covers and more).
This is where Twitter starts to get interesting. A member of my critique group just had a new horror novel released, and he explained his Twitter philosophy recently on my blog. One of the ways he helped promote his book was to create colorful and creepy flyers that he could post on social media accounts along with a link to a buy page. Because he has built a huge network of Twitter friends, he can post one flyer one time and watch the information get rapidly sent around the world. A lot of those folks in his network are horror writers with a fan following. You can read his full post here: Creating a Twitter Book Promotion Campaign.
Photos are a relatively new feature for Twitter and a successful one. If you establish a pattern of posting certain types of photos (haunted houses, Provence, cute kittens) related to your books, it helps reach an interested audience.
You can build lists that limit what you see to exactly the people you choose.
Although I need to do some fine tuning with my lists, I built one for Colorado authors, another for blogger friends, and one for literary agents.
I can follow someone else’s public list, and others can follow mine.
I can make a list that groups political and/or news accounts together so I can look them when something big is going on in the world, but I don’t need to follow the accounts and see them in my Twitter feed every day…that would be way too annoying.
There’s a way to build a series of tweets on the same topic.
The hashtag-plus-topic-title groups tweets together so a reader can select that particular heading and see all related tweets in one place. Writers often post messages under the hashtag #amwriting. I use #RMFWBlog when I post the links to our blog posts. #Bookgiveaway announces an opportunity to enter a contest.
Our own Susan Spann, author and attorney, uses the hashtag #PubLaw for her Wednesday series on legal issues for authors. Those of you who are on Twitter can type #PubLaw into the search box and you’ll be able to see all those tips together in one place.
Finally, Twitter is another wonderful way to make new friends.
Take the time occasionally to engage others by responding to their comments or questions. Throw out the occasional silly tweet or fun question and see who responds.
Even though a lot of people like to make fun of those who post updates or tweet about food or the weather or what their crazy cat did today, you’ll find those are the little things that say, Here’s a real person and he/she wants to connect with other real people.
This tweet got me some attention recently: “I scroll Twitter and Facebook and see books I want to read, then look at the books all over my house, then buy another one anyway. #books”
So come on. Give me your best 140 characters (or less).
Good morning, Pat, and thanks for the helpful, informative blog! You are certainly the one to write this blog – you’re an enthusiastic participant on Twitter, and gracious and generous with your support of fellow authors and writing groups. I’ve learned much from your Tweets!
Thank you , Janet! I’m probably on Twitter too much, but that’s where I find new friends, new books to read, and new bloggers to check out.
Chirp chirp ! Good column. I think of Twitter as one big Times Square … and you can control who wanna bump into. You never know. Met a lot of friends on Twitter … friends I have yet to meet in person !
A great description, Mark. I’m hoping to meet some of the Twitter friends I’ve made, and that is most likely to happen at a mystery fan convention or conference. For some odd reason, I seem to have a lot of online author friends. 😀
I need to narrow my lists by making more divisions. One of those things I’ll get to. I used to despise twitter but I’ve made some great connections there and probably spend more time on it than all other social media combined.
I’m going to spend a bunch of time working on my lists, Susan. I get lazy and add new friends without stopping to put them in their categories. It’s much easier to do it right off the bat.
Great post, Patricia! Twitter is my FAV of the social media platforms because of the ease of use and quick ability to post or find information on a certain topic. There is so much on social media, you can easily get lost in the pool of distractions. Hashtags help to keep this scatter brain on one topic at a time. Yeah, love Twitter!
Birds of a feather….