When people think authors, they think of books hundreds of pages long—not tweets with character limits, and yet, thousands of writers have used Twitter successfully to build their platform: Joyce Carol Oates has over 185,000 Twitter followers; J.K. Rowling has over 14 million; Paulo Coelho has over 15 million. These writers aren’t just popular on social media because they have popular books—they’re popular because they’re actually saying things on Twitter that people are responding to.
Although Twitter is considered the cocktail party of social media, it’s a lot more serious a medium than its flighty name suggests. It’s a place you can quickly get to know readers and influencers, and to offer and receive up-to-the-minute news and information in real-time. Time usually doesn’t matter on Facebook—if someone reads your post today or next week, it wouldn’t really matter—but the instantaneous nature of Twitter may be more appealing to you. Content on Twitter is often less curated than other platforms and is good for authors who like to share quick thoughts with high frequency, because there is virtually no limit to how many posts are appropriate for you to share daily on Twitter. Tweets do have character limits though, so this is not the social media platform for authors hoping to share in-depth content (but you can link to it).
Twitter is nice for those who aren’t particularly visually-oriented because images are not necessary (though they can enhance post performance). Even without images though, there are a number of ways to get creative with Twitter that capitalize on its easy interface and news-sharing features.
Twitter is a good way to connect with readers, authors, book industry professionals, and journalists. People on Twitter tend to be younger, college educated, and earn more money. Because many media and professionals use Twitter, it provides authors the opportunity to stand out as a notable person in their field. Nonfiction writers would be particularly good fits for this social media type so they can connect with reporters who may like to have them for expert opinions.
The publishing industry uses Twitter as two things, an in-house messaging service and a kind of who’s who. As an author who wants to be found by readers and industry players, you want to consider the below tips to help "surface" your presence on Twitter and make sure you’re tweeting like a bestselling author.
1. Be Recognizable
Your Twitter name should be as close to your own name as possible. And just your name. Not "author" or "writer" attached to it. If your name is already taken, try an underline in the middle: @Jane_Doe. You want someone interested in finding you to be able to spot you, easily and without a lot of guesswork. If readers search you and get 10 people with the same name and not one of them can be confirmed as the right person, they’re less likely to put in the legwork to figure it out.
Another way you can help readers identify you is by making your profile picture one that is professionally made—not that party shot from three years ago with your husband's disembodied arm around your shoulder; and your picture: not your cat, your children, your favorite vacation spot, nor your book cover. Twitter is social media; social because it’s person-to-person. Be yourself, not your titles.
You can also identify yourself in your Twitter bio. Put the word "author" in your bio and include a title or two. You may want to consider writing your titles in all-caps to make them pop.
2. Be More Than Your Book
Hundreds of millions know J.K. Rowling for Harry Potter, of course, but the last book in the series was published over 10 years ago and since then Rowling has, in many ways, worked to establish herself as more than just a children’s author. She uses Twitter to feed her Potter fans with gossip and news, but she also uses it to voice political opinions and grow her fan base beyond the children who grew up with her series. Twitter is a place where you can show your fans who you really are; don’t be afraid to shake things up a little. Be funny. Be controversial. Be political—just so long as you’re being personal: be you.
3. Retweet
Your fans certainly want to see “you” on Twitter, but part of being “you” is showing your tastes; there is no shame in retweeting someone else. This is why being social means more than just saying things—it means being aware of what others are saying. Your fans will see them almost as recommendations—tweets screened by someone they admire and respect.
4. Stay True to Your Author Brand
Imagine you just found out your favorite romance author was on Twitter, and you navigated your browser quickly to his/her feed—then you saw it: hundreds and hundreds of tweets about politics. Being “you” is important, but don’t forget to give your fans what they expect. The voice and tone of your tweets should come close to matching the books that you write and be an extension of your author brand.
5. Talk to Your Fans
Your fans will love you even more if you acknowledge them. It may become time-consuming and even impossible to talk to everyone as you get more popular, but if you reply to even three or four fans a day, it will make their world, and they’ll support you even more. Your fans are your book evangelists, so make them feel special.
6. Mention Others
If you mention something or someone else who has a Twitter handle, use that handle (with its @ symbol). Why? Because then people can click on that and learn more. So, if you've published through IngramSpark, for example, and would like to say that, be sure you use @IngramSpark to boost that signal.
7. Look for Trends
Twitter’s trending hashtags are a way to join a community of thinkers and writers, and share your thoughts on what is on many peoples’ minds, whether that’s trending widely on Twitter or in niche groups related to your genre (e.g. a mystery writer’s group might all share their favorite way to write a villain and use #whodunit to connect this thought publicly. Clicking a popular hashtag like this can help you connect with other genre writers or readers.)
One of the most helpful features to help you determine your audience and what’s working/not working is the frequently overlooked Twitter Analytics offering. If you’ve never found this, go to your Twitter homepage, and click on your profile picture in the upper right. The dropdown you see when you click this includes “Analytics.” Once you’ve selected that, you’ll see your 28-day summary, revealing to you helpful data on your Twitter activity such as:
What else should you check in your Twitter Analytics? Everything. You’re looking at a whole page of intelligence about your social media marketing on Twitter and how your presence on this vast medium is playing out.
Scroll down, and you’ll see this set of top actions for previous months, too, so you can compare what was hot for you on the platform a few months ago in each category, as compared to what’s working for you now (another good way to start detecting trends in your social media marketing).
At the very top of the page, you’ll notice you’re on your Analytics “Home” page, but you also have the options for “Tweets” and “Audiences” to dive even deeper into your analytics and receive almost real-time tracking of what impact your social media marketing is having. These analytics are helpful as you cultivate your readership with community-building and engagement strategies to help your followers eventually find your books.
Knowledge is power and the more you know about how your tweets are performing and who is following you, the more you’ll find the effectiveness of your social media marketing on Twitter grow. You can’t help but learn from so much data if you just take the time to analyze it.
Take a test drive on Twitter. Search for yourself. How easy would it be to find you and are you sharing snippets that matter? Discoverability is everybody's biggest concern today. With Twitter as a go-to resource for networking in the publishing industry, many authors can take simple steps to make themselves findable on this platform.
It takes time to grow your Twitter following, but Twitter is certainly for authors. Getting retweeted by a person with thousands of followers can boost your profile immediately. Stay active on Twitter and participate in as many relevant conversations as possible. Be patient, don’t give up, and be sure to pay attention to your Twitter analytics in order to keep growing.
This chapter was compiled from the following posts on the IngramSpark blog:
What Social Media Should Authors Use by Sara Wigal, Senior Manager at JKS Communications
Social Media: Choose It and Use It, Self-Publishers! by Carla King, Founder of Author Friendly
How to Tweet Like a Bestselling Author by Scott La Counte, CEO of BuzzTrace
Twitter for Authors by Porter Anderson, Co-founder of The Hot Sheet
How to Use Twitter Analytics to Boost Your Social Media Marketing by Porter Anderson
