Hi. Grandma Mary here. Thanks Carole, for letting me do a guest post on this lovely blog. It’s nice to get out and about once in awhile! For those of you who don’t know me, I have a social media blog over at www.GrandmaMaryShow.com and I try to spice up my social media tutorials a little and make learning fun.
As you know too well as an author – marketing your book has changed. It’s mostly up to you. How can social media help? Twitter is a great place for you to be. Here are four big ways you can use Twitter.
1. Talk to other authors on Twitter
Being at home writing can be lonely. And frustrating. Twitter is a great place to meet like-minded people who know your frustrations and can provide resources. Twitter is like a big cocktail party where you can go to take a break. Get advice quickly by tweeting directly with other authors using the @ symbol.
You can find authors to connect with by going to www.Twellow.com (the “Yellow Pages of Twitter”) and searching for author in their bio. You can also go to www.Listorious.com and find people who have already made Twitter lists of authors. Then you can either follow that entire list, or individually follow people on the list.
2. Connect with publishers on Twitter
Twitter has leveled the playing field when it comes to connecting with people. You can talk to anyone just by using the @ symbol (you don’t have to be even following them or have them follow you – you can still talk to them). You could tweet to @Oprah all day long. She may not talk back and then she might block you but you could.
So use this opportunity to talk to publishers. Don’t spam them. But connect. Respond to what they are tweeting. Say hello. Do what you would do at a cocktail party – you would just walk up to them and say “Would you like to publish my book?” No.
You can use Listorious again or here is great list of publishers that are on Twitter.
3. Virtually go to trade events
Twitter is a great way to virtually get in on the action at trade events. Don’t have the money to travel to that book seminar? See if they have a hashtag for the event. A lot of events now have hashtags so that everyone can communicate and find each other on Twitter without having to follow each other (although you should start following people at that event)
For example, the Sydney Writer’s Festival used #swf2010. If you can’t make it to Sydney, just go to www.tweetchat.com and put that hashtag in. You will see all the people tweeting about it, and you can add your own two cents every once in awhile.
4. Market your book
Of course, this is the grand poobah – the marketing. Gain interest by tweeting about it. Link to sample chapters or direct people back to your blog. Just make sure that’s not all you are tweeting about. Talk and offer resources about 80% of the time, market your own stuff about 20%.
Find out who is asking questions about what book to read by going to www.search.twitter.com. Enter the exact phrase “what book” and another keyword “read” (play around with those keywords to see people asking in different ways).
You will get people asking about what book should I read next? You could reply to them and say “How about mine?” or you could just follow them as a potential interested reader and get to know them a little. Again, try not to be spammy, but helpful.
That’s it. Easy peasy! Twitter can be a great tool for authors. Just take it one step at a time!
5. Check out my new ebook: How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
Editor’s note: Grandma Mary is apparently too shy to tell you this, but she just wrote two ebooks to help you extend your reach and grow your author platform:
How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
How to Use Facebook to Grow Your Business
Go and check them out. I had the pleasure of reviewing them before they were published and Grandma Mary has done a really wonderful job in explaining just what you need to know to use these tools to sell more books. And yes, those are aff links.
How are you using Twitter to market your book? Grow your platform? Extend your Reach? Get yourself known?
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