Diary of a Book Marketing Novice: Twitter
I've had a Twitter account for two years and it's generally been a waste of time. Realizing that problem had to be me and not Twitter, I borrowed not one, but three, social media marketing books from the library.
The bad news: SEO and keywords were a blast compared to Twitter.
The good news: Anything is better than working on my novel.
The better news: There are still other lucrative careers that don't require book marketing skills or finished novels. For example, this company now has an opening for a field biologist.
According to the three social media marketing books, I needed to think about my online marketing as a hub with spokes. The spokes are Twitter, Facebook, SEO and other tools that drive traffic to my hub, which is this blog. Unfortunately, the 12,000 page views I drove to this blog last year generated $8 in revenue. But that's all going to change. So, I opened the books and began.
Step 1: How Much Time Should I Waste on Twitter?
The books recommend tweeting two to five times a day. That seemed do-able if you don't have a job, which I don't. For a reality check, I looked at how often some people with jobs tweet.
- Chelsea Handler has 4 million followers and tweets about two to four times most days.
- Steve Martin has 2.6 million followers and tweets about the same.
In the end I decided my role model should be Zach Galifianakis who has 1.8 million followers and tweets two to three times some months and other months not at all.
Step 2: Install Requisite Tools
The books recommended dozens of tools to make up for shortcomings in Twitter. I started with tools that make it easier to track of followers and their conversations. These included Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. Tweetdeck needed to be downloaded onto my computer. Hootsuite runs off a Web site. I hate installing programs on my computer, so I went with Hootsuite, which then required me to install a bunch of its own tools.
Next, I installed other tools that were supposed to automatically send a thank-you message to anyone who followed me. One product called Autoresponder claimed to be free and then tried to charge me $2.50. (Image 1) I cancelled it, but not before it got into my Twitter account and sent a message from me to my followers that said how much I loved the product. (Image 2)
I used Twitbacks.com to create a new background for my Twitter page that listed my Web sites and a more extensive bio. It looked like crap. I removed it, but not before it sent a message to all my followers saying how much I loved the product.
I installed more and more of the recommended Twitter tools. I couldn't stop, didn't stop, until my virus checker flashed a message that it my computer was being assaulted. Minutes later a tool for tracking my Web traffic mysteriously stopped working.
Six hours had passed and I hadn't added a single follower or generated a single tweet. I stand corrected: Twitter is not better than working on my novel.
(more)
I've had a Twitter account for two years and it's generally been a waste of time. Realizing that problem had to be me and not Twitter, I borrowed not one, but three, social media marketing books from the library.
The bad news: SEO and keywords were a blast compared to Twitter.
The good news: Anything is better than working on my novel.
The better news: There are still other lucrative careers that don't require book marketing skills or finished novels. For example, this company now has an opening for a field biologist.
According to the three social media marketing books, I needed to think about my online marketing as a hub with spokes. The spokes are Twitter, Facebook, SEO and other tools that drive traffic to my hub, which is this blog. Unfortunately, the 12,000 page views I drove to this blog last year generated $8 in revenue. But that's all going to change. So, I opened the books and began.
Step 1: How Much Time Should I Waste on Twitter?
The books recommend tweeting two to five times a day. That seemed do-able if you don't have a job, which I don't. For a reality check, I looked at how often some people with jobs tweet.
- Chelsea Handler has 4 million followers and tweets about two to four times most days.
- Steve Martin has 2.6 million followers and tweets about the same.
In the end I decided my role model should be Zach Galifianakis who has 1.8 million followers and tweets two to three times some months and other months not at all.
Step 2: Install Requisite Tools
The books recommended dozens of tools to make up for shortcomings in Twitter. I started with tools that make it easier to track of followers and their conversations. These included Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. Tweetdeck needed to be downloaded onto my computer. Hootsuite runs off a Web site. I hate installing programs on my computer, so I went with Hootsuite, which then required me to install a bunch of its own tools.
Next, I installed other tools that were supposed to automatically send a thank-you message to anyone who followed me. One product called Autoresponder claimed to be free and then tried to charge me $2.50. (Image 1) I cancelled it, but not before it got into my Twitter account and sent a message from me to my followers that said how much I loved the product. (Image 2)
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| Image 1: Free product with fee I overlooked. Click to enlarge. |
I used Twitbacks.com to create a new background for my Twitter page that listed my Web sites and a more extensive bio. It looked like crap. I removed it, but not before it sent a message to all my followers saying how much I loved the product.
 |
| Image 2: Two add-ins that inserted messages from me raving about their products. |
I installed more and more of the recommended Twitter tools. I couldn't stop, didn't stop, until my virus checker flashed a message that it my computer was being assaulted. Minutes later a tool for tracking my Web traffic mysteriously stopped working.
Six hours had passed and I hadn't added a single follower or generated a single tweet. I stand corrected: Twitter is not better than working on my novel.
(more)
4 comments:
I don't tweet, yet, but you're talking me into it. BTW, what is SEO?
Can't tell if you're joking. But just in case: SEO is search engine optimization. I did a blog on everything you'd never want to know about it. (check tab for Bad Advice for Writers at top of this page.)
Looking for ways to broaden the online marketing for my memoir, Twenty-Eight Snow Angels: A Widow's Story of Love, Loss and Renewal. http://outskirtspress.com/snowangels
I kept reading your Twitter comments hoping for the key to success. I ended up with a few notes about Hootsuite, Twitbacks and canceling options. So do you recommend tweeting or not? Would love to have 1.4 MILLION followers. :)
All the experts recommend Tweeting, so I'm trying it. But it takes patience, a lot of patience. What I'm showing here is some of the frustrations the average person will encounter. A good book for online book marketing: "Online Book Marketing" by Lorraine Phillips.
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