5 Tiny Tips To Promote Your Book with Twitter

Have you implemented social media marketing or even better what I call the “Big Three” in your book marketing plan yet? Now is a great time to jump in and start promoting your book. But wait! It will help if you know a little about the “Big Three” and how to effectively promote without making people want to hide or delete your posts. Hence, this is part two of my Social Media Marketing Success for Authors & Writers Series.

Twitter (Twitter.com) is a micro-blogging website that allows people to follow one another and post minute messages of 140 characters or less. “Tweeting” and answering the “What’s Happening” question is like updating your Facebook status, subtracting all the apps designed especially for Facebook. Some say Twitter has become the new Facebook (but remember Facebook become the new MySpace, which was the new Friendster, and the list could go on.)

Recently, Experian published their 2011 Social Media Consumer Report. Notice the following trends that helped paint a picture on how we are using social media.

Experian estimates that 91% of online American adults (approx. 129 million) access some form of social media each month. They also recorded 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds access social accounts monthly which confirmed that college towns log on to Facebook the most. Twitter comes in a distant second.

The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on his or her account during each visit. But one out of five social network users is likely to visit another social site after leaving one. So, To effectively use Twitter:

1. Follow businesses and tweeters that make great offers. That offer may include entertainment, information, promotion advice, inspiration, coupons and discount on stuff you want, news, and more. Remember, publishers, agents, authors, editors, publicists, marketing experts, coaches, celebrities and others are tweeting. Do a search on Twitter for “book trade” and you’ll discover a growing list of publishing professionals. On a personal note, I love following my favorite restaurants to pick up coupons or special offers. It works the same way, when people start following your tweets and grow to love and expect great announcements and special offers from you periodically.

2. Follow others to receive more followers. It’s a great example of the reciprocal law. Give and you shall receive. It’s an unwritten Twitter etiquette rule that when you follow someone, they generally respond in kind. This is true whether you’re following your brother or the New York Times. Twitter has fixed it where you can’t send a direct (nonpublic) message to a fellow tweeter if you’re not following her/him.

3. Post according to your goals. Are you tweeting for pleasure or just to engage a potential readership? You might even be posting to drive traffic to your website or blog? Post to spread the word about a newest giveaway, book release or event? Your goal could be a mix of one or all of these and more.

4. Use the link shortner. Use Hoosuite.com or tinyurl.com to shorten long URLs into more manageable ones, helping you fit links into the 140-character limit. Well, use the link shortner for most of your tweets. There are times when I shorten my tweet just to be able to include a branded short link or a targeted tag. For example,  when I include hash tags for #bookwriting my tweets have to be even shorter.

5. Use Search.Twitter.com to scout out tweeting topics. You can search for anything; the site will pull up recent tweets containing the words you chose.

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Earma Brown is an expert in book writing, publishing and marketing advice. She focuses on innovative and unique techniques to helping  others get their book written, published and ready to sell in record time. She has been successful in using new technologies in publishing her own twelve books and a growing list of others.