Book Marketing Makeover: Using Twitter to Promote Your Books

Guest post by Coleen Torres

Before the onslaught of social media promotions, book marketing was done through more traditional routes such as book tours, mailing book copies out to be reviewed, and radio or TV interviews.

However, while those are still great ways to get word out there, utilizing the different social media platforms is an even more effective way to promote your latest book venture because of the magnitude of people they allow you to reach all at once. And while most people turn to Facebook first for marketing purposes, Twitter is an equally efficient and easy way to spread the word.

1. Create your own hashtag.

Having a unique hashtag (e.g., #HarryPotter) makes it easy for people to find all of the conversations ensuing around one particular topic – in this case, your book. The hashtag should be something pertinent to the book, such as the title of the book (if it’s short enough) or a prominent and well-known character from the book (if it’s from a series).

2. Have a custom landing page.

Your Twitter homepage should be a custom created Twitter page and not one that is a basic, run-of-the-mill page. Having a custom page is more visually appealing to people and shows that you are a professional and not just some random person.

Your Twitter profile page is essentially your first impression, and you want it to be one that encourages people to stay and learn more, not something that gets lost in the crowd. Be sure to include a link to your blog or book website so that interested people can easily locate your book.

3. Make your tweets real.

Don’t only send out automated-sounding tweets that are designed to sell your book. Send out tweets that help personalize you as well. People thrive on feeling a connection with others through social media, so you have to straddle the line between promoting your book and still being a real person. When you can learn to balance the two, you will find yourself infinitely more successful.

4. Market everything.

If you’re doing a book tour, having a book signing, hosting a Twitter chat, writing a blog or anything else that relates to you and your book, then you should be tweeting about it! This will help your expand your exposure.

5. Network!

Follow authors within your genre, reporters, book reviewers, booksellers, literary agents, etc. Twitter allows you to follow anyone and everyone, so you can connect and form relationships with people who can help you move forward within your profession. Once you form a relationship with them, you can use that as a tool to help you in your book promotions.

Twitter allows you to form more intimate relationships with people than other traditional social media platforms because it allows you to create a professional and yet personal persona. Use this the right way and you can escalate your book promotions to a whole new level of exposure and success.



About the Author

Coleen Torres is an editor with http://www.phonetvinternet.com. You can find more about her at her profile for the home phone service.

Networking Miracle

The following blog post was originally written by J. Steve Miller, author of Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It. He offered to let me repost it here.



Get out there. Keep meeting new people. Take an interest by asking what they do. Offer your assistance or help. It's called networking, and there's something very mysterious about it.

So last night I almost skipped a networking event - a local alumni gathering for the university my wife attended. But I went because I always seem to meet someone I need to meet at these type meetings. Also, they offer free food.

So the first few people I met were interesting, nice, and I felt like I was able to encourage or offer some direction in their pursuits. We exchanged business cards. It's always fun to be useful to someone.

The fourth and last person I met was a financial planner, so we naturally hit it off - my latest book is on personal finances. He mentioned that he was raising two boys, trying to help them toward independence, so I mentioned that getting my own 7 boys independent inspired my recent research and writing. Finally, I offered him a free copy, thinking he might find it useful. And, who knows, he might could recommend it to clients or when he teaches seminars or something.

So he says, "Hey, my wife works with a textbook distributor to schools. I'll let her see it."

I thought, "A textbook distributor to schools? A TEXTBOOK DISTRIBUTOR TO SCHOOLS!!!"

It just happens that my top marketing goal for this year is to figure out how to get my book into schools. I don't have a distributor to schools. I need one.

This is so bizarre that it almost defies imagination. On the way home, after giving him a copy (always, always, keep copies of your books in your car), I looked at all the lights of stores in Kennesaw and thought, "Out of the 30,000 people in Kennesaw, Georgia tonight, what are the odds that one of them works for a book distributor to schools? And what are the odds that I would meet that person's husband at a random event that had nothing to do with book marketing, and that the meeting would occur in the very month I was prioritizing marketing to schools?"

Coincidence? Because of my faith, I have to believe that this was a God thing. As someone once said, "a coincidence is when God works a miracle and decides to remain anonymous."

On the other hand, there tends to be a human part in miracles - someone prays, someone is out helping the needy, then God shows up. Networking gurus would say that miracles tend to happen more around people who are out there doing something, rather than to people who are sitting on the couch eating nachos and watching TV.

Whatever you make of this, I think it pays to get out there and meet people. I help them; they help me. That's when miracles happen.

-- J. Steve Miller, President, Legacy Educational Resources

Author of Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It

The money book for people who hate money books.

http://wisdomcreekpress.com/press_kits.html

The Law of Networking

Here are a few excerpts from Jochem Klijn's The Law of Networking. As you know, I highly recommend making friends as a key way to market your books. To make friends, you need to learn how to network. Check out these excerpts:

Excerpt from page 4:

If you want to make a difference in how you network, try showing genuine interest in other people and listen attentively to what they have to say. If your focus is on them and not on yourself, people will notice and appreciate your character. Mark my words, people will not only notice how you present yourself, they’ll begin to gravitate to you because they want to be around someone like you -- a person they can trust and whom they can take seriously.

Excerpt from page 51:

It has been my experience with networking that there are two types of entrepreneurs. First, there are those who consider it important to meet people and try to establish business contacts. Then there are those who don’t see the necessity of it. The former are generally ahead of the game when it comes to getting positive results from their efforts. Conversely, the latter often see no results because they put little or no effort into cultivating a network.

Excerpt from page 68:

I heard a story once about a well-known soccer player on his first visit to Barcelona, who took a taxi to the soccer stadium and on the way, tried to give the driver directions on the best way to get there. It’s a rather silly little anecdote but it’s also a splendid example of pride.

Pride always has to know better and loves to show everyone. So don’t be this way. Even if you are smarter than everyone else, be modest about it because eventually others will figure it out anyway.

Excerpt from page 98:

Get to work with these steps and the rest will take care of itself!

1. Sincerely believe that networking is essential for doing business; it is a fundamental ingredient for gaining success. If you don’t see results as quickly as you would like, ask yourself what could be the reason. Be conscious of the fact that you might be wrong. If you think networking hardly works, if at all, realize that this idea has a cause. Probably you haven’t seen very many results or it doesn’t mean much to you yet.

2. You must truly believe in the principle of sowing and reaping and be convinced that with the right attitude, you will gain by it as well.

3. Take action. Decide to start networking. Make the decision to begin and trust that it’s the right one. Make a plan and get to work. Don’t just decide to change things, go do it!

For more information, go to http://www.thelawofnetworking.com.