Twitter and Angry Birds (Yahoo Image Search)
People are scared of Twitter for some reason. At least those that haven’t tried it and even then there are various levels of interest. The social media site has a reputation for being inane and pointless because of how it gets presented. Truthfully, much of it is inane and pointless because it’s highly limited. I don’t really understand how it got so big with only 140 characters to work with. Then again, I say a lot and don’t use a lot of text lingo, which would make it easier.
A very useful trick with Twitter is that you can tweet directly from your book’s Amazon site. All you have to do is add a hashtag or two along with a hook. It takes a little time to get into the hang of writing catchy hooks. Make it catchy and give a hint of what will happen. Utilize your subplots and teasers for this because the Amazon link takes up some of the space. I don’t always include the book title since it’s either in the link or there’s a connected pic/blurb from that link. Try to create a handful of tweets that you can repeat through over time.
Unfortunately, Twitter feeds can be clogged even more than Facebook Groups. You could make hourly tweets, but people will stop following you because it’s just too much. Others simply won’t pay attention. I try to make a promo post every 3-4 hours, but I don’t stress if I’m thrown off. Hootsuite is another site that you can use to prepare Tweets in advance, which can help if you’re going to be away for a day or two.
Perhaps the most powerful ‘tool’ on Twitter is the hashtag. These are the words with # in front of them. You can use it for your genre (#romance, #fantasy), the reader (#nook, #kindle), various Twitter groups that retweet specific hashtags, and anything you think people will search for. The more general the better because your average person might not look for #hobgoblin or #romanticboatridedowntheriver.
The big downside and danger of Twitter is that people will get bored if all you do is promote your books. Connecting it to your blog can help mix things up, but some people want to see a human being there. This is where I fail because I can never think of anything to say within 140 characters. I write, spend time with the toddler, and do things that I don’t want to announce to the world unless I can tell it like a story. So, this is definitely a social media site that works very well for the less verbose.
Just like with blogging and Facebook, it’s very useful to Retweet the promos of other authors. The goal is to promote books that you find interesting and get a retweet in return. I’ll admit that it doesn’t happen as often as one would like because some people are busy and others simply don’t even try. Again, that’s not a good pitch for Twitter, but it’s exposure. Let me just say that NONE of the other social media sites has the same level of networking and genuine interaction that blogging has. At least in my experience.
Legends of Windemere 
If ever I actually get around to publishing my works, I’ll let you know, because I’ve determined to do an experiment –
Hypothesis – “Can you successfully market a self-published work and gain some measure of good sales without utilizing Facebook and Twitter as all the self-publication guides say you must?”
LOL
I Facebooked for awhile – prior to 2010, when I deactivated my account – and could never find a way to successfully delete it –
I have a Twitter account I don’t use – but it was useful in following the Black Forest Fire last year, until about 36 hours into it, when all the “buy cheap purses” people started clogging the feed – – 🙂
Guess I better get moving on publication – for the simple reason of conducting this experiment! 🙂
I’m with you – Blogging is the ‘social media’ home I feel best at!
🙂
LikeLike
Interesting experiment, but I have seen people attempt it. They either give up and use the platforms or give up and stop writing. You could probably get away without doing anything on Facebook, but Twitter can be very helpful.
I guess a key point I want to say is that I wouldn’t do an experiment like this with a book that you have your heart set on succeeding. Maybe not even your first book at all because your reputation will stem from that release. You and your books only get one debut. So I do hope you’re careful with that kind of experiment. Again, I’ve seen it destroy a good amount of authors over the last year.
LikeLike
🙂 all good advice/experience, but I didn’t convey exactly right what I was trying to – Maybe this will be more accurate:
“Aha! I’ve written a masterpiece! Off to the presses!”
then
“(Whine) You mean I have to do all this marketing/social media stuff too! – Maybe I’ll stick to my day job” – – LOL
to
“Maybe I can make my laziness/aversion to Facebook sound like a good thing – a scientific experiment…maybe….”
🙂
I do appreciate all the articles you and many others here write regarding the multi-faceted world of self-publishing – even if I sometimes try to be funny in the comments area about my own failings and it falls flat! 🙂
LikeLike
To be fair, it’s been a hectic week for me. Most jokes have gone completely over my head. 🙂
LikeLike
No Worries – heck of a week here, as well, which means my jokes probably launched from ten feet underground and you never even felt the tremble of the earth as they passed by – – LOL
LikeLike
Probably not, but I’m the walking dead right now. You could hit me with a truck (and that nearly happened twice during my morning errands) and I wouldn’t feel it.
LikeLike
Best to stay home and take a nap, then! 🙂 Best wishes for us both for a better week on it’s way – TGIF!
Which means nada to the self-employed – – LOL
LikeLike
I would, but I’ve lost a bunch of time this week. I really want to finish writing this book by next Friday and it’s coming down to the wire. Besides, naps seem to make me feel worse.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Great post Charles. I can honestly say that I have never formally used twitter for anything, probably because I have never spent the time to learn to use it in any meaningful way. There may come a time when I do, but I’m not sure when that will be. As you say, you only have 140 characters of space and I tend to be much wordier than that. I guess I’m going to have to learn to trim it down. Heck, even this comment wouldn’t fit into a twitter post…I guess I still have a lot to learn. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m still figuring it out too. I see people having conversations on there at times, which I haven’t gotten used to. I’m kind of like ‘all of us can see this’, but it probably isn’t much different than comments. I have done a few short poems on it. Just 3 line 5-7-5 things when I’m bored.
LikeLike
Thank you for the twitter information. I never thought of tweeting from my book’s Amazon site.
LikeLike
You’re welcome. I was surprised when I noticed that teeny tiny button too.
LikeLike
I fail at twitter most of the time.
LikeLike
It’s a challenging medium. Reminds me of getting onto a highway with a very short on-ramp.
LikeLike
Haha. Charles that is exactly what it feels like. Similar to too much butter on the knife and not enough bread. Or visa versa depending on your opinion of butter.
LikeLike
That’s why you spread it on two pieces of bread and have a sandwich. 😀
LikeLike
But I only have one piece of bread…
LikeLike
Cut in half and make a smaller sandwich?
LikeLike
Same amount of butter…but it works!
LikeLike
Save the butter for a rainy day. I won’t tell the ‘Butter Cops’ if you won’t.
LikeLike
Perfect!
LikeLike
I think Twitter is a very powerful tool that is actually more powerful than Facebook in terms of spreading info as fast as possible. It’s a little bit hard to cope with at the beginning, but once you form your own community and followers, your words and info will spread as fast as fire in a woods. But it sure needs a lot of patience, and the results are totally worth it.
LikeLike
Agreed. Twitter definitely holds a lot more influence than Facebook. I wonder if it has to do with it being a condensed medium. It moves very quickly and with precise information due to the 140 characters. Might be very appealing to those with short attention spans.
LikeLike
True. It’s more forward and to the point, and yeah, very condensed and really fast. Which serves its purpose perfectly. Unlike WordPress for example, which is, I think, more concerned about things in detail, Twitter will just give you the headline, and you’ll have to go look for the details somewhere else.
LikeLike
Nice way of putting. I think even writing tweets and blog posts, you focus differently. As you said, tweets are usually just a headline, so one would focus on making that catchy. Blog posts go more for interesting content and the headline can be mildly focused on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely, you couldn’t be more correct. It’s all about being catchy at first glance with just the 140 characters you have. But as I said it becomes easier as you form your own community of followers. Some people write absolute bullshit and still get retweets. Gotta say, there are some tricks to being famous as quickly as possible, like spending more time tweeting, regardless to the subject. Tweet about yourself watching TV, or writing your new novel, or stuck in traffic for example. Another trick is to reply to famous people on twitter, one of them may reply back to you, and hence your account will be seen by the number of this famous person’s followers.
LikeLike
Funny thing is that I’m so busy writing my new novel that I forget to tweet. Also, I kind of find tweeting my daily actions rather boring and strange. It’s like I’m narrating myself. Should try that reply to a famous person thing one of these days.
LikeLike
I tweet till I twop
LikeLike
You tawt you taw a puddy tat?
LikeLike
We love to write, so we write books. Writing a short blurb is so challenging. How in the world can we limit ourselves to just 140 characters? Maybe we need some 140-character writing challenges for practice…
LikeLike
For authors who are doing promos, it’s even less. I lose about 30 characters with the link if I use a ‘tiny url’. Maybe we should just write ‘BUY MY BOOK! PLEASSSE!’ and be done with the pressure. 😀
LikeLike
I can see Twitters uses and how it could be a great platform, but I still struggle with it! 😀 Great post.
LikeLike
Same here. I’m sure I only use a fraction of its functions and usefulness.
LikeLike
Thanks Charles for the info…don’t know if I’ll ever get into twitter but the info you gave is interesting.
LikeLike
You’re welcome. 🙂
LikeLike
I have actually seen short stories published through Twitter. Just in 140-character sections. Now that would be a challenge.
LikeLike
That’s really impressive. Must take a lot of discipline and patience.
LikeLike
The author must have written the story, then decided where to make breaks, then started tweeting on some regular schedule. Possibly used a hashtag so people could search if they missed a tweet.
LikeLike
You’re probably right. Genius idea.
LikeLike