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
#AuthorAlliance is where #Authors & #Readers come together. We promote 4 & 5
star #books in our tweets for readers' delight. #reviews#interviews #promotion
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.
Daria DiGiovanni
@dariaanne FOLLOWS YOU
Passionate
Pisces, Patriot, Author, Blogger, Internet Radio Host, Founder of #Writestream Radio, Co-Founder #WBTN Radio. #CDA#WBTN #CLFA
Bravebird Publishing
@BravebirdPub FOLLOWS YOU
We
publish Women's Fiction from a feminist perspective because every girl deserves
a little fiction in her life.
Bravebird Interview
Best Regards,
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 9th at AuntieM Writes.
Best Regards,
DB
Website - www.dbcorey.com
Twitter - DB Corey
Twitter - Detective Moby Truax
DB Corey on Facebook - tinyurl.com/mltv6rs
DB Corey Author FB site bit.ly/DBCorey-Author
DB Corey on LinkIn - tinyurl.com/oftk7do
Meet Myster Write on Facebook – www.facebook.com/MeetMysterWrite
Guess I should use twitter more often!
ReplyDeleteTwitter takes some getting use to, and I still don't use it to its full potential, but if you set it to notify you by email, you can respond and tweet and all those other Twit things from there.
DeleteI loved your examples on how social media worked for you. I am perplexed about the 2000 followers though. I've only been on twitter for three years, never paid a cent but I'm following over 5K tweeters. Have you tried going over 2000 lately?
ReplyDeleteHi Joanne. Thank you.
DeleteCut & Paste ... who knew elementary school would prepare us for future life?
I don't know why, but when I hit 2011 Followers or Followings (no, not the TV show), Twitter stopped allowing me to make new contacts. I just ass/u/me/ed it was about the money. I will have another go at it. But to be honest, Most folks I followed didn't help me. And I couldn't read all that anyway. Too busy.
Thanks for the comment.
Hi D.B.,
DeleteGreat blog post, I'm delighted that you're on the Twitter bandwagon now! :-) To answer your question regarding Twitter followers, Twitter limits you to following 2000 folks until at least 2000 people follow you back. So, it's a pain, but go through your account and unfollow people who don't follow you back. Then, only add on new followers if you know they're going to follow you, too. Once you have over 2000 followers, you can add back anyone you dropped who's unlikely to reciprocate your follow (like Oprah for instance).
Thanks for all of the excellent shares. I've worked with Marlena and Author Alliance as well, and I love, love, love them!!! Keep up the good work using social media. :-)
K. R.
HI KR.
DeleteI remember the conversation we had on social media.
Looks like some of it sunk in.
DB
Great story and an awesome use of social media. You're so right about asking. Too often we don't ask because we're afraid someone will say no. Obviously not a problem for you. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Lori.
DeleteWell, I learned long ago if you don't speak up for yourself, who will?
Nothing ventured ... as they say.
Bernie, here's an article on how to break the 2000 limit. It's not about paying. It's about your following/follower ratio. http://www.nickykriel.com/blog/twitter/have-you-followed-2000-people-on-twitter-and-cant-follow-any-more/
ReplyDeleteNow this is interesting. I may post a retraction ... but maybe not.
Delete;-)
D.B., you've got a great strategy going on here about Twitter. I do a lot RTs when something grabs my attention. For fellow authors, I'll go and check out their blurb and "Inside" pages on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteNow, what's really cool is your interview links--we can never get enough of those. And I agree that if you don't ask and follow up, you might lose a great interview/review source that can be beneficial to your promo campaign. There are huge lists of genre interviewers on the web, and all you have to do is Google for those review sites. Pay heaps of attention to the guidelines before you submit anything.
Hey Chris.
DeleteThanks for dropping in.
You know, I never thought about Googling for review sites.
I let them come to me in Tweets, but I like your idea better ... IF I can keep up with them all.
Yes, there are a tone of them out there and it takes some time to sift through them all.
DeleteGreat information. Apparently there is a point to Twitter. I guess I'd better get tweeting.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya Pen.
DeleteYou and I are a lot alike when it comes to stuff like this.
But the future is here.
Don't get left behind for lack of learning.
xoxox
I'm going to practice some more on Twitter and see if I can use it to it's full potential.
ReplyDeleteChris