How to (and why you should!) rock Twitter
POSTED BY stephanie ON November 11, 2010
Twitter is hands down the most essential networking tool for authors. Yet, we get so many questions from the Twitter-resistant: Why should I be on Twitter? So what should I tell people? This seems futile, why am I doing this again?
Twitter is like blogging, but it’s interactive. You post bite-sized updates and converse with people. In 140 characters or less, you are one-step closer to people who share things in common with you, people you aspire to meet and reach with your book. It’s all about building your name in the public domain, elevating your platform, and hopefully, your book’s platform. Perhaps Twitter is best explained through its success stories — personal examples of regular people rocking it on Twitter.
Achieve Twitter greatness by following in the footsteps of Twitter Rock Stars.
Photo credit: Erik KastnerTwitter Rock Star: Gary Vaynerchuk, @garyvee. Gary got his start as host of a podcast about wine, and earned a reputation for his unpretentious approach to wine appreciation. He was YouTube’s first wine guru. He was one of the first to reach Facebook’s friend limit and has accumulated more than 850,000 Twitter followers. Gary is the author of Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion (Fall 2009), which debuted as a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Today, he continues to lead the charge as a social media expert and business consultant on programs such as CNN “Your $$$$,” Fox Business’s “Your Money Your Questions,” and “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.”
—-> Here is what Gary is doing right: He is personable and responsive. Study his Twitter feed and you’ll notice that Twitter is not an every-so-often occurrence for Gary; it probably serves as vital a function as email to him. He Tweets recent media interviews, thanking them or mentioning how much fun he had. He uses Twitter as a platform to directly engage with his readership, and successfully drives them back to his podcast, blog and website where he is always at work with fresh content. Twitter serves as home base for Gary’s many going-ons.
Twitter Rock Star: Billy Coffey, @billycoffey. Billy is our “Social Media Poster Child.” He’s a first-time author who used Twitter to build his platform and even drive sales. Even though Billy has only been blogging for a year, some of his posts get more than 40 comments, which is absolutely phenomenal, even for bloggers who’ve been at it a while. His online popularity (he has 2,300+ followers on Twitter, and many fans of his aforementioned blog) actualized into killer online sales. His book Snow Day hit #74 on Amazon Fiction during release week. Because his Twitter activity has attracted such a huge audience to his blog, we’ve been able to leverage that blog for pitch purposes, landing guest post opportunities and contributed article placement in a magazine with a 300,000+ monthly circulation.
—-> What Billy is doing right: Most of his Tweets are interactions with other people. Meaningful interactions, too: Questions, excited responses, RT’s of interesting things that people are saying. In other words — it’s not all about him. Yes, he does Tweet his latest blog posts. But the takeaway lesson from Billy is this: Twitter users will get more popular, more quickly, if they don’t use this tool as a pure megaphone. Rather, take turns, be a listener, build other people up, and when the moment is right (and there are several “right” moments a day), mention something that you are doing. Billy is a master at it! Billy also proves that you can be a regular person and still build up your following on Twitter…and eventually become quite a well-known person.
A Twitter true story. (We’ll remain nameless here to prevent this person from receiving a barrage of messages.) A man in Denver half-jokingly approaches a certain social media-savvy cyclist via Twitter asking for a ride to his event in Austin that weekend. Celebrity athlete responds with an invitation to accompany on him on his private jet, gets his number, and has his assistant dial him up that evening with instructions (also to make sure they wouldn’t be in flight with a stalker). The next morning, the two of them are flying from Aspen to Austin on an $8 million Gulfstream, and then back to Aspen Monday morning. See, there are real people behind Twitter — and it happens to make a lot “impossibles” in life attainable — but you have to be engaged first.
Convinced? Ok, here’s how to get started.
Sign up for a free account at Twitter.com. To help build your personal brand, use your real name along with a headshot, rather than a creative handle. Regular, frequent updates are the key to using Twitter. Chime in with your thoughts on breaking news item, post details on your upcoming book events, host a book giveaway, join “Tweet-Ups,” or discussion groups on topics in your area of expertise. Get the most out of Twitter by interacting with your community of followers, and remember Billy’s “megaphone tip.” Use the Direct Message feature to send a brief note to compliment or congratulate someone on a big announcement, or even to make an introduction with someone you might not know personally. Use smart phone applications like OpenBeak, TinyTwitter, Twitterific or Echopon so you don’t skip a beat.
Who should I follow?
Clicking the follow button will likely cause them to follow you in return, as long as you prove to be a legitimate Twitter-er (with a track record of regular, frequent posts). Here are a few places to start.
- Follow your publicist: twitter.com/prbythebook.
- Follow the newsmakers you want to feature you in turn (ex. books editor at the Dallas Morning News: twitter.com/mmerschel).
- Follow the radio host who just interviewed you and you’ll show them you respect and appreciate their work enough to keep in touch.
- Follow your fans. Use the search box to find mentions of your book or your name to find out who is Tweeting about you.
- Follow industry trendsetters and bloggers who cover your area of expertise, and engage with them.
Learn more about Twitter at:
- Mashable.com – Twitter Guide Book
- Twitter.com – Twitter for Business
- Editor Unleashed – “Authors on Twitter: Who’s Getting it Right?”
- The Book Publicity Blog (Penguin Publishing House publicity) – “How Twitter works and why people in the publishing world should consider using it”
- HuffingtonPost.com – “Best Friends Forever: Authors and their Readers on Twitter and Facebook”
Tags: Billy Coffey, book publicity, Gary Vaynerchuk, social media tips, Twitter
{ 2 } COMMENTS
I’ll be the first to say I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of social media, and I’ll also be the first to say that it’s made all the difference in my success. It’s taught me that readers want to know the person behind the words, and that’s easily achieved by nothing more than using the manners your mama taught you.
Thanks so much for the shout out!