4 of My Favorite Tips for Twitter and More

Here are 4 of my favorite social media tips. Perhaps you could plan to implement one each week next month.

  1. Use Twitter’s 280 characters creatively. Now that Twitter has doubled their character limit from 140 to 280 authors have room to get more creative. Something I’ve done is to write a tweet related to a book’s topic, perhaps including a link to an outside source. Then after a space, write a short tweet mentioning that, say, Chapter 10 of my book addresses that topic.
    • As an example, one client has a self-help book with a chapter on how creativity is therapeutic. She links to an article at Huffington Post titled, Is Creativity Therapeutic and Can Art Make Us Happier. Then tweets, Chapter 6 of my book has a section on this very topic, Creativity is Therapeutic and Clears the Mind, and links to her book page on her website.
  2. Tag People. Use the @ symbol to tag people on Twitter. You can also tag people on Facebook and LinkedIn. Do this when you mention that person in your post. Perhaps you are sharing a blog post that includes a quote from that person. Tagging is a great way to let them know you’ve mentioned them and they may share what you’ve posted. On Facebook you can tag business pages if you’re mentioning them in your post.
  3. Use Twitter Lists. I’ve created and use several lists. One is a list of others who, like Ausoma, tweet about social media for nonfiction authors. I use that to find something relevant to retweet every day. Other lists are of literary agents, editors, and publishers.
  4. Use Analytics and Insights. As with any marketing, you want to see what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve. Use the analytics and insights provided by Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn to see what posts are getting the most likes, shares, comments, etc. and which ones aren’t getting any engagement. Then you can see what types of posts to keep creating and which ones aren’t effective.

3 Keys to Successfully Using Social Media for Book Promotion

  1. Social media marketing needs to be viewed as a long-term investment. Nonfiction authors successfully using social media to market their books realize that it is an investment and they are in it for the long haul. They realize they need to continually market their book if they want to keep selling copies of it.
  2. Social means engagement. Get to know your audience. Find out what they want and need. Converse with them. Offer valuable information. Then they will be more likely to choose to purchase your book.
  3. Review your social media marketing profiles and book marketing efforts at least once a year and update as needed. Mix it up. Do something different. Be Social. Get Noticed.

If you like this post, you’ll want to check out our Be Social – Get Noticed monthly service packages.

Interacting with Your Audience on Social Media – Dos & Don’ts

Interacting with Your Audience on Social Media
Interacting with Your Audience on Social Media

A recent article at Upwork notes that, “depending on your specific industry, if your company does business in the U.S., it’s likely that between 70 and 90 percent of your customers are on social media.” As business authors and entrepreneurs, readers of your book and your clients are also using social media. So it’s important for you to interact with your audience on social media.

Sometimes though things can get “ugly” on social media – and this can impact your reputation negatively. Here are some tips on how to interact with your audience on social media and avoid the “ugly”.

  • Start a conversation. Ask questions to engage your audience. If you see someone else’s post that is of interest to you and your audience, respond directly to that post and start conversing with people.
  • Reply to comments and messages from followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook. Your audience needs to know you are listening to them and any concerns they have. If you do not reply, they will go away – and may take other fans with them.
  • Respond promptly. This is especially important if your audience has a concern they need addressed. If they have sent you a message via social media about a potential problem in your business, ignoring it won’t make it go away. In this fast-paced world, you need to respond as quickly as possible to keep your audience engaged.
  • Ask for feedback. A great way to keep your audience engaged is to ask for their feedback – on a particular product or service, what they’d like to see from you next, what problems or concerns they have, etc. This is the part where it could get “ugly” – so be careful. If you get some negative feedback, don’t use social media to retaliate! This leads to my next tip:
  • Take it offline. That’s right – it may be time to take the conversation offline, away from social media, and make a personal connection with a personal message, phone call or email. Find a way to connect with the individual who has a problem and resolve the issue as quickly as possible – in a way that makes them happy. This is turn can lead to the next tip:
  • Share the feedback. Once you have a happy client, now is the time to share that positive feedback resulting from how you handled the situation quickly and in a way that led to a win/win. 

Interacting on social media can be a lot of fun. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time either. Plan to spend even 10 minutes a day on Twitter – start a conversation, reply to a comment, ask a question, share a fun story! Do something! You may be surprised where it leads.

Quick Tip: #Hashtags

#Hashtags are used to help someone search for a specific topic, person, business, etc. on social media. Search Twitter using #SocialMedia for a ton of tips!

Quick Tips: Hashtag

Tips for Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Social Media Networks

Hootsuite is a great tool to use to help you manage all your social media networks from one dashboard. Here are a couple of tips to help you use it effectively.

  • Create streams in Hootsuite to monitor Twitter mentions, retweets, inbox messages, keywords, competitors, and much more. Check your streams daily and reply to mentions, thank people for retweeting, respond to messages, see what your competition is up to, etc.
  • Use the “Quote tweet” feature in Hootsuite. When you choose to retweet it comes up with an option to “Quote.” Use this feature periodically and add a relevant comment to the retweet quote. This will also allow you to add 116 characters of commentary in addition to the 140-character limit of the quoted tweet. This can also be done directly from Twitter. When you click the retweet icon, simply add your comment in the box that appears.

Tips for Using Hootsuite to Monitor Social Media Networks

Hootsuite has just integrated Instagram as well. Please share your tips on how to use Hootsuite below in the comments section.

Tips for Growing Your Twitter Followers

Tips to grow your network of twitter followersGrowing your network of followers on Twitter will help you gain more exposure for your business, your book, your product. Here are some tips to gain more quality Twitter followers who are interested in what you have to offer.

  • Follow other people who are in the same industry or have similar interests.
  • When following, make sure their account is active and they have posted recently. There is no sense in following someone who hasn’t tweeted in the past 30 days or more.
  • Be sure they have a head shot image in their profile or at least their company logo. If their profile picture is of a flower, their cat, or some other image, they most likely aren’t someone you want to follow or have follow you. Do NOT follow anyone who does not have a profile pic at all.
  • Create a list in Twitter of people to follow that are influencers in your industry or area of expertise. Be sure to follow each of them and then start following people who are following your influencers.
  • Follow people who use the same keywords or #hashtags that you do in their bio.
  • Unfollow anyone who is not following you back after 30 days and any accounts that are no longer active. This is especially important if you’re just starting out and have less than 2,000 followers. Since Twitter only allows you to follow up to 2,000 UNTIL you have at least that many following you back, by unfollowing these inactive accounts and those not following you back, it frees your account up to continue following more people. So let’s say you’ve hit the 2,000 and only have 1,500 people following you. You check your account and realize you have 50 people you’re following who are not following you back after 30 days. You then unfollow those 50 and can now follow 50 more people.
  • On each of your other networks, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., post weekly inviting your connections there to follow you on Twitter. You could post a message such as “Come like my Facebook business page for more great tips!” [include link to your Facebook business page]).

I’d love to hear what other tips you have for growing your Twitter following. Please share in the comments section below.