Marketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 2)

Now that you have a general idea of what Twitter is, you've got an account on Twitter and your interface of choice like Hootsuite lined up, and have monkeyed around with at least a few of the Twitter tools out there, let's talk in a bit more detail about the people you might choose to follow, and those who might choose to follow you.

The goal of all this is to connect with people who might be receptive to scoping out your books, or who can help spread the word, and weed out the chaff.

First, let me share a couple of my personal definitions with you (these aren't official, just what I use in my empty head):

- Broadcaster. A broadcaster is a person, business, or just an account that tweets the same thing or set of things over and over. These accounts are basically one-way communicators, and they don't interact with their followers (that would be you). They also tend to have a huge number of followers, which looks impressive, but is often about as meaty as a big bag of styrofoam peanuts. Most of the time these accounts are set up and run automatically without any further human intervention. They'll follow people willy-nilly, expecting you to follow in return, and they almost always have their accounts set to automatically follow people back. Tweet, tweet, tweet, blah, blah, blah. And that's it.

- Promoter. A promoter sends out promotional tweets, many of which might be canned or repetitive in a given span of time, but they also actively interact with their followers and other people in the Twitterverse in a positive manner (you can be a promoter and be nice, or be a promoter and be a wiener-head; I block the latter). These are real people who both talk and listen on Twitter: the communication is two-way. These folks are often a source of helpful information and can also be good connectors for you to reach other readers through retweets (i.e., they're someone who passes on your tweets to their followers, which is a HUGE source of leverage). Yours truly falls into this category.

- Good ol' Tweep. A tweep – for purposes here – is basically Johnny or Jean Public, one of the many people who may give you an opportunity to touch their lives through Twitter. Some of these folks you may be interested in; others, you might not. But for our purposes here, the tweeps you want are potential or existing readers of your books.

So, here's the deal. A lot of folks who want to promote something, like books, get on Twitter and right away are entirely focused on building a huge following as quickly as possible.

"Well, hey," says you, "if I don't get 100,000 followers in a week like the social media gurus say I should, Twitter won't do me any good! I'll be riding the failboat!"

Hold onto your rubber ducky. It's true that you could rack up a ton of followers fairly quickly, just like I was doing for a while. But eventually you'll realize that a huge percentage of those "followers" – whom you're also following back – are just broadcasters. That's kind of like being in the room with a few thousand copies of your old Aunt Gertrude. You know, the one who just loves to talk and talk and talk, but who never lets anybody get a word in edgewise?

Now, do you think whoever owns those broadcaster accounts gives a hoot about your tweets? You don't have to be a member of MENSA to figure that one out: the answer is a loud and resounding no. Unless you just happen to enjoy the content that's put out by a broadcaster (and you very well may, and that's fine), hit the "block" button on these weenies. That way you won't have to worry about accidentally following them again later when we get to some of the more advanced tools we'll talk about.

"How do I tell if somebody's a broadcaster?" Very easy: just look at their tweets in your timeline, or pop up their timeline, and all you'll see is post after post, by them, almost always with URLs to their product or site. And that's it. They don't reply to anybody (or there's maybe a token reply in there somewhere), and they don't retweet things – that's a HUGE no-go. Block 'em.

Moving on to promoters. This is the group you want to be part of. You'll mainly want to connect with fellow authors, but don't limit yourself to just that group: you might hook up with people in music, film, etc., and through them you may find more readers. But hooking up with other authors is good for a couple reasons. First, you can learn a lot from other authors on Twitter – different ways of doing things, ideas to try that you haven't heard of, a great editor, link exchanges, etc. These folks can also be powerful motivators when you're writing new material, or have hit a roadblock and you need someone to help shake the gray cells loose. Or just to yak and have fun! Check out the hashtags #amwriting and #pubwrite, as a couple examples.

The most powerful thing you can get from fellow promoters – and give back, in return – is retweeting. When you tweet about your book and other promoters (and sometimes readers, as well) retweet it, you just gained enormous leverage: you're reaching your own tweeps, and theirs, too! This leverage can be exponential, and is one of the most powerful aspects of Twitter.

"But hey, if I retweet their stuff, that'll be competition! My tweeps might buy their books and not mine! I'm not gonna do it!"

Stop being such a pansy. It's about coalition, not competition. Readers are going to buy what they like, but they're more likely to buy books from nice people who like to help others than from selfish ninnies. There's another old saw that applies here: a rising tide floats all boats, while selfish ninnies ride the failboat and sink. Don't do dat.

So, get in with a good group of fellow promoters/authors who are willing to help each other succeed and leave the ninny-filled failboat behind.

On now, to tweeps, otherwise known as potential readers! You want to let folks know about your books (without annoying them to death with promo tweets), but you also want to share your personal experiences with them and get a glimpse into their lives. You don't have to make any terribly pithy comments, just be neighborly! Go through your timeline and look at the tweets people are making, and find ones that you'd like to comment on. Don't make those tweets have anything to do with your books! They'll get that from your promo tweets. Keep your "personal tweets" personal – be nice and fun. Help people if you can, rejoice at their happiness, offer support in hard times, have a bit of fun (but watch what you say and how you say it: off-color jokes,etc., are NOT cool), and just try to be someone that other folks enjoy being around. Don't try to be the center of attention: just be you.

Now let's look at a few do's and don'ts that'll also hopefully give you an idea of a few things you can do if you're new to this whole tweeting thing:

DO feel free to promote your books through your tweets! Just don't overdo it. I recommend sending out promotional tweets maybe once an hour, but not more than every 30 minutes. That way your tweets don't form an obnoxious intestinal blockage in your followers' timelines.
DON'T send out nothing but promotional tweets! Otherwise you're just a broadcaster, and the people you want to reach will largely ignore you.
DO post stuff about your daily life and your interests. That's what Twitter is all about: sharing life.
DO keep your personal posts upbeat. Find the silver lining in things. People are attracted to sources of inspiration and encouragement. Nobody wants to be around a sourpuss.
DON'T tweet the same thing ("Hey, have you read my book???") to fifty people in succession. It looks really stupid in everyone's timeline, and your own!
DO NOT EVER get into an argument or pissing contest with anyone (reader, reviewer, your Aunt Gertrude who won't shut up, etc.). Twitter (and Facebook) can be very unforgiving about the old adage, "If you don't have something good to say, don't say anything at all." Even if you're in the right, it will come back to bite you.
DO toss questions out periodically to help drum up some yakking. "Hey, anybody going out for ice cream tonight?" "Who has a pencil sharpener?" You'd be amazed at the responses.
DO – ABSOLUTELY! – your very best to answer every tweet or direct message (a "DM," which is a form of message in Twitter that only you can see) you get from people. If they're tweeting to you, you're getting some action! Respond!
Send out a welcome "shoutout" (#ShoutOut using hashtags) to new followers to welcome them to your little Twitter circle.
DO feel absolutely free to unfollow people whom you wouldn't want to be seen with in public. There are a ton of folks on Twitter who can't seem to write anything that doesn't have mostly four letter words or say stuff that would make a porn star blush. Don't feel compelled to keep these folks around if their language or behavior offends you. Unfollow or block 'em without a second thought.
DO retweet things from other people, both authors/promoters and your tweeps! If something good happened to somebody, pass it on! If someone needs some support, pass it on. If a fellow author hit the bestseller list, pass it on and celebrate their success!
Last but not least DON'T eat too many salt and vinegar potato chips like I just did. Otherwise you wind up writing a post like this.

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