A Quick Guide To Twitter For Newby Authors

Independent authors are generally on their own when it comes to promoting their book. It's time-consuming work setting up on various social media, getting a presence on book-club or reader websites, trying to get people to like a Facebook author/book page, connecting with people and groups on Google+, developing your own website and possibly a blog too, and so on. In fact, the amount of work involved can seem very daunting, especially when it might only result in one or two extra fans or book sales. But persistence and patience are both required to make a success of your marketing plan. Hopefully, with a carefully thought-out campaign, and the ability to do all the right things whilst online, you should begin to build a following, increase your visibility and begin to shift a few more 'units' of your 'product'. Daunting as it is, there are many things you can do to make it easier to reach people. And one of those is using Twitter effectively. So, here's a few tips for using Twitter as an author for those who haven't yet taken the leap and for those who are still wondering what Twitter is all about.

Twitter is a social media platform on which users send and receive 'tweets'. A tweet is a short message of up to 140 characters in length. On Twitter you 'follow' other users and they may 'follow' you back. Tweets from users you are following show up on your 'feed' or 'timeline' which you can access through a webpage or on your mobile device. Your tweets show up on your follower's timelines and are also visible to anyone else on Twitter who looks at your twitter page. People you connect with on Twitter are often called 'Tweeps'.

When 'tweeting', Twitter users often include 'hashtags' which are short abbreviations or mnemonics used to label tweets so that other people can find them easily. Hashtags begin with the 'hash' character, #. For example, if a Tweet is about the Superbowl, it could be hashtagged with '#superbowl'. That way, anyone, even users who aren't following you, can find your tweet just by searching Twitter for the #superbowl hashtag. Hashtags are an extremely useful way of getting your messages (or tweets) to groups of people who may be interested in you or your work, or who may be able to help you promote yourself or your work.

Tweets can contain links to other websites or pages and can even contain images, but are always restricted to the 140-character limit. Luckily, Twitter itself will shorten long URLs (web page addresses) to 22 or 23 characters so you don't have to worry about this. Images attached to tweets will take up another 23 characters. Think of a tweet as a very brief information dump aimed at your followers, embellished with labels to define what your information is about.

You can respond to other people's tweets by 'replying', 'retweeting' or 'favoriting'. Replying will attached your own tweet to the other user's so that several people can hold the equivalent of a Twitter conversation. Retweeting means you will share the other person's tweet to all your own followers. And favoriting lets the original tweeter know that you like their tweet. It is a useful way of getting that person's attention, saying 'thanks' or simply endorsing something you like.

You can also direct your own tweets towards specific people by including their Twitter username preceded by the '@' symbol. So, if you want to directly refer to the President of the USA you would include @BarackObama in your tweet. You do not need to be following someone to use the '@' capability. But, beware, do not assume that celebrities will read your tweet, or even be aware that it exists, since they probably rarely (if ever) use Twitter themselves. Some do, of course! Being able to tag people in this way in your public tweets is very useful for an author. You can also send direct messages (which are like emails) to other users on Twitter and these are not visible to the outside world.

It's very easy to set up a Twitter account. You'll need an email address to link to the account, a profile picture (normally a photo of you, 400x400 pixels), a header or banner image (that appears at the top of your page, 1500x500 pixels) and a bio of up to 160 characters. It is a good idea to use the same or similar images, and the same short bio, that appear on your other social network sites (Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon author pages etc.). This means you are presenting a consistent brand image to the online world. Once you've set up your account you can link it to your other social network accounts and your own website/blog. This is important because you generally want your tweets to automatically appear on all your other social network sites.

How do you get Twitter followers? The first thing to do once you've set up your account is to search for and follow a few people/organizations that you like. These can be news websites, book blogs, other authors; anything that you have an interest hearing about and possibly interacting with. Hopefully these Tweeps will follow you back. Another option is to find an author similar to you and follow some of their followers and hope they return the favor. But, be careful; there are limits to the number of people you can follow in a day and if you aggressively follow thousands of users you run the risk of having your account suspended. Go slowly, add a few tens of people per day, stick to people that are relevant to you and be courteous and reasonable at all times. You can also 'import' people from your other social networks or invite your friends and contacts to connect with you by email.

It's very easy to build up a huge list of people that you are following. This normally results in an increase in your followers as some of those people will 'follow you back'. But, at some stage you will realize that you are seeing the tweets from hundreds of people that are not following you. You should then ask yourself whether those people are important to you. Do you want to see all their tweets but them never see yours? If the answer is 'no' you should 'unfollow' them. A useful rule is to try and keep your number of followers more than the number you are following. And do not be tempted by the numerous 'get Twitter followers fast' scams that you will inevitably encounter. Adding 2000 people that have no interest in you or your product isn't going to help you one bit. It may make you look popular, but looking popular isn't your primary aim on Twitter (actually, neither is it anywhere else!). Getting real people to take a genuine interest in you and your work is what you are trying to achieve.

There are numerous websites/apps which allow you to manage your twitter account more effectively. For example, justunfollow.com allows you to see which of your followers are 'inactive' or which people you are following who aren't following you back. Use these tools to regularly manage your audience, cutting out people that aren't interested in you or your product and refining your list of people who are. Other websites, such as hootsuite.com also allow you to manage your Twitter and Facebook accounts simultaneously. Look into these if you are a bit daunted by the amount of work required to maintain an active online presence. They can connect your activity together and make it easier to manage.

Although Twitter will shorten URLs automatically, many other websites give you the ability to shorten web addresses that can then be put into your tweets. In fact, some (like bitly.com for example) allow you to archive lots of shortened URLs and also track how many times they are clicked on. This is an extremely useful tool which you can use to discover how the content of your tweets affects the number of people that click on your links. Marketing is all about letting the public know your product exists (or, more cynically, making them think they want something you can give them) and finding the correct formula to achieve this is half the battle. So, spend some time getting to know your public and make sure you are tweeting what they want to hear.

What do they want to hear? Well, it's a common mistake to think Twitter is there purely as a stage from which to blow your own trumpet. Constantly yelling at the world to buy your book will not get you very far. The key is interaction. Keep your promotional tweets to a minimum, perhaps once a day, but fill your timeline with things that will interest your followers. Give inspirational quotes, reveal snippets of your research, your thoughts on your work process, your 'eureka' moments, connect with key influencers, share where you are and what you're doing, give your views on stories of interest (remembering not to offend or insult other people's beliefs); all these things will make you a more interesting Tweep, engage with your audience and increase your visibility. Be authentic, be yourself, explore, have fun. Most of all, don't think Twitter is an enormous billboard for you and your work.

But, be sure to make those occasional promotional tweets effective. Your aim is to get attention, so get the information across quickly and with the minimum of fuss. If you're tweeting about your book, start with its title and your name. Then give the shortened link to where you want tweeps to go next. Then maybe a quick attention-grabbing phrase or quote followed by the hashtags. Always include the hashtags. For example, you might want to include #romance, #mystery, #YA, #books, #Amazon or any number of other things that label your tweet for people to find. If in doubt, search twitter for appropriate hashtags, see how they are used, or invent your own and hope they become useful on the network. You can also use hashtags that explicitly ask other people to retweet you. For example #IARTG (indie author retweet group) or #SNRTG (social network retweet group). Do some research and identify hashtags that may be useful to you. Here's an example of a promotional tweet that I might put out for my latest book;

The Bergamese Sect by Alastair Gunn amzn.to/1r8o40D SHOCKING MYSTERY-THRILLER #ASMSG #IARTG #SNRTG #ebook #books #thriller #mystery

There are many other things you should use your Twitter account for. Keep up-to-date on the latest news in the publishing industry and get tips and suggestions from other authors (and the reading public) on publishing practice and the writing process. Use it for research, both for your writing, but your marketing campaign too. You need to use it to learn how to use it effectively.

You can find me on Twitter here: @AlastairGGunn