Social Media.
It is the new way to market anything. LinkedIn,
Facebook, Google+, there are more. But Twitter is rapidly becoming my favorite.
If you’ve read this blog before, you know I am a
writer.
Chain of Evidence, my debut
effort, released last August. Since then I have been promoting the hell out of
it on every platform I can access. I have several email addresses, a website, a
blog, accounts on Google, LinkedIn, Crimespace, Goodreads, Gravitar, MARsocial,
Meetups, Stumbleupon, YouTube, WordPress, Pinterest, two Facebook pages, (breath)
and Twitter. Out of all these, Twitter is rising to the top as far as product exposure and branding, a word I seem to be hearing a lot lately.
I found not long ago that my on free Twitter
account, I was limited to Following Two-thousand others. Up to that point in time,
I was adhering to Twitter etiquette by Following everyone who Followed me. Made
sense, since Twitter is all about numbers of Followers, and that it was only
polite to Follow those who Follow you. The problem is, though, once you reach
two thousand, that’s all you can Follow unless you want to pony up a few bucks,
which I don’t. I gotta sell a few more books before that happens.
So I began looking at the Twitterers I Followed with
a more discerning eye. I realized that most of the folks I Followed were
writers like me, but some were artists … singers, actors, pretty faces … no one
who could actually help promote me or do me any good. And after all, isn’t that
what Twitter is supposed to do for you? So I began Unfollowing those who could not help me
promote the book, to make room for those who could. Then one day, I saw it.
@AuthorAlliance Follows You.
Authors Alliance? I’m an author. Maybe they’ll ally
with me.
So I clicked their link.
Author
Alliance
@AuthorAlliance FOLLOWS YOU
Wow! They promote books. I have a book. Let me
Follow them and see what they’re about.
I went to their website and discovered that they
did free book reviews. Long story short, I asked a young lady named Marlena H if
she would be so kind as to
review my novel. She accepted and posted it on the
AA website. That was in September. She, and Author Alliance, and their RT’ers (that’s
Re-Tweeters for you non-Twitter type)
Tweeted the hell out of it, and still do. But that’s not all. Marlena tweeted
that she was looking for authors to interview on her blog. I raised my hand and
became
her first interview. She still tweets that as well. If you follow me @dbcorey, you’ve more
than likely seen a few.
That’s how it all started between Twitter and me. Following
(no, not Twitter Following … just regular
following); following you’ll see all the contacts I’ve made via Twitter in
just two short months. All of the following (he-he-he) either reviewed the novel,
or interviewed me on their blog, or both. Daria DiGiovanni interviewed me on
her BlogTalk Radio show for an hour
talking about Chain of Evidence and
the writing process, and she Tweeted that for weeks leading up to the show.
Alana
Munro
@AMauthor
Author, Blogger, Book Marketer,
Mummy, Support-a-holic - counting my blessings, following my dreams and sharing
inspirational insights.
We
publish Women's Fiction from a feminist perspective because every girl deserves
a little fiction in her life.
Bravebird Interview
Basically,
it’s “Ask and Ye Shall receive.” Look for these folks. Search them out. Ask
them to review your book and interview you or have you on their BlogTalk Radio
show. It’s good promotion, and it’s just plain fun. Plus you get to meet a
whole bunch of really cool people. I think you’ll find they are eager to help.
If you think about it, they are promoting themselves by promoting you. They
want to be known, and they want to be known because of books. Without you,
they’d probably have to blog about food, yard work, or automotive repair.
Oh …
Don’t overlook LinkedIn. A lovely
woman named Marni Graff contacted me to “Connect” with her. She also reviews
novels and conducts author interviews, and posts them on her blog. Look for
mine come February 9
th at
AuntieM Writes.
Best Regards,
DB
