Optimizing Twitter

Now that you’re on, it’s time to start optimizing Twitter.

Lists

What are lists on Twitter?

You may have noticed people who have a rather different follower to following ratio than you do. What do I mean by that?

Let’s say you follow 100 people. And 1000 people follow you. The ratio of follower to following is 100:1000, or 1:10. This is fantastic. Celebrities often have ratios that look like this, or even better, where they might be following 100 accounts but there are 100,000 people following them.

Newbies often end up at the other end of the spectrum, with 1000 people they are following and 100 are following them, for 10:1.  If you want to just read for the most part, this is perfectly fine, except it doesn’t mark you as a thought leader.

Now, most people don’t sit down and calculate ratios. But they do glance at profiles. Sir Patrick Stewart, for example, might be following some 200 people but he’s followed by 2,000,000. Hence people will really notice if he starts following them.

Does he (or any other celebrity, major or minor) have a sparse news feed? Probably not. Because he might be using lists.

Go to the profile of someone you want to follow but, instead of hitting follow, pull down on the gear wheel and select Add to or Remove from Lists. Your lists will show up, and you can add someone to several at a time, or make a new list. You can even decide whether you want your list to be public.

Go to your own profile (e. g. click on your profile rather than your settings) and you’ll see whose lists you are on.

Why use a list rather than follow? You’ll still see that person’s tweets in your feed, but your ratio won’t change. Furthermore, a public list tells everyone what you’re interested in. How about lists for indie authors, agents, or publishers?

You can also follow others’ lists. Maybe someone will find yours to be definitive and will follow it.

Who to follow

Who should you follow on Twitter?

Sometimes you want to publicly follow someone, rather than add them to a list. So long as you keep these people special, then this is perfectly great. I tend to keep friends as open follows and anyone more business-related on lists. But you may prefer otherwise.

Follow fellow indie writers (this is a community, after all), or publishers, or agents. Consider who can help you, and who you can help, and follow accordingly.

How to hashtag

What’s a hashtag, and how do you make one that isn’t lame?

A hashtag is a means of searching on Twitter. Hashtag something as, say, #amwriting, and click on that, and you’re led to a slice of Twitter of everyone who used that hashtag. Hashtags don’t look good if you use a ton of them. Don’t just indiscriminately hashtag! Also, keep them short. #ILovePuppiesAndDolphinsAndUnicorns is probably not going to be something used by anyone else, or at least not that frequently. But #ILovePuppies is pretty popular.

Experiment by searching before you hashtag. Beware, your innocent-looking hashtag might already be coopted for an unexpected usage. Just do a search on #NeverForget or #IStayedBecause and you’ll know what I mean.

Your Elevator Pitch

We have all heard of what an elevator pitch is. It seems like it is the kind of stuff for overly eager new sales associates looking to make an impression on the big boss between floors.

But there is more to it than that.

Someone has just turned to you and said, “You’re a writer. What’s your book about?”

Don’t just stand there! You’ve got to be ready.

Your Verbal Elevator Pitch

Try something like this on for size.

Imagine if animals started talking, and they told you what to do in a topsy-turvy world.

My book is about Alice; she’s a young girl, a little bored on a sunny afternoon, when she spots a white rabbit. The odd thing about this rabbit is, he’s wearing clothes and talking. She follows him down a rabbit hole, but then she can’t get out.

That’s less than seventy words, and the person asking has the basic plot, the name of the heroine, and a reason to want to know more.

Your Pitch in Writing

Yes, you need one of these, too. But but a written elevator pitch a little different.

Even if readers know you for writing sweeping, epic sagas, you should still write some short stories. They can be in your universe, or not, although it might help with both marketing and your own personal creativity if they can fit somewhere within your universe.

They do not even necessarily have to be sent out for publication, but they could be good for anthologies. Don’t knock that; this is exactly how a lot of people get their starts. In fact, if you are having trouble breaking in, or want to impress a publisher, try submitting to anthologies. You can get a published credit and impress the publisher of the anthology. There’s a win-win right there.

Point them there, if someone wants to read a sampling of your work. Don’t make them commit to a 100,000 word novel.

On Balance

Finally, have fun with it. Is your main character funny? What about quoting one of her best zingers, assuming you don’t need to explain the joke? Now there’s an idea for a pitch.

Demystifying Facebook

How can demystifying Facebook help you, the independent writer?

Reviews

It’s not just for Candy Crush anymore.

Demystifying Facebook for Independent Writers

Like other small business persons (for that is what an indie author is, right?), you have two separate lives on any social network. One is as an individual. You have friends, you have opinions. You might play games or write about politics. Or you might post memes or videos. You have fun, you express support or sympathy. And, let’s face it, you give and receive attention.

Your other life is as a writer. A writer who might need help marketing. Maybe a writer who might to bounce ideas off other authors. A writer who might need some help with a plot, or at least a sympathetic ear. You might want to talk to others who have been where you are. Plus you might want to connect with people who can help you improve your craft. Those are beta readers, cover artists, and editors. They might be writers you admire, or even publishing houses which interest you.

Demystifying Facebook and Socializing

As a writer, there is no reason for you to stop socializing online. On Facebook in particular, hanging out with other writers is a great idea.

But Why?

Because writing is, by definition, a solitary pursuit. Even collaborators and co-authors don’t trade the article for the noun for the verb for the adjective for another noun, or sentence for sentence or paragraph for paragraph. Instead, collaborators will generally write their own portion of a work and then give it to their partner, as the partner does the same. They beta read for each other and combine the pieces, whether those are chapters or sections or the like. The details may differ, but it’s pretty inefficient to hang out together for the actual writing process (although they may get together to discuss plot).

Hangouts for Indie Writers

For independent writers, you have a few places on Facebook where you can hang out.

• NaNoWriMo group online – if you compete to write 50,000 words in November or April, then this is your scene. The group is large and generally friendly, although there are sometimes stretches of people stepping on toes. It’s best to hang back at the start and see how things go before you plunge in. There are also groups for local NaNo groups.
• Wattpad – if you belong to Wattpad, check them out on Facebook. While this is a games page, you can still get a handle on who is who. Befriend fellow Wattpadders? Why not?
• Queer Sci-Fi and other specialty genre groups – do some research; these can have varying activity levels.
• Services trading groups – your mileage will vary. Some are more active than others. And some might be more spammy than others.
• Advertising groups – these tend to be bottom-feeding. If they are just a bunch of ads, and no one is liking or replying to the ads, then you know how effective they are.

Have I missed any groups? Add them in the Comments section!

Of course there is a lot more to demystifying Facebook. I’ll get to it soon. Stay tuned!

Giveaways

So giveaways can be helpful when you are first starting out. Because people do not know your writing, they might not be inclined to spend too much on your work. Rather than pricing down to nothing, do one better: give your book away as a prize. Amazon, in particular, makes it easy. And on GoodReads, this kind of a promotion costs you even less.

Prizes

A lot of the internet is gamified these days. So, what do I mean by that? Essentially, instead of simply telling you that your LinkedIn profile needs work, that site gives you a completion percentage. And it also pits you against your fellow job seekers. So never mind if they have your qualifications. The competition starts even if you don’t want it to. And this kind of competing tends to spur people to action.

Hence you can provide your work as a prize for really anything. I provide it as one of the prizes for the 24 Hours of G & T Fundraiser, and I’ll even send a signed copy if the winner is in the United States (where the shipping costs less; otherwise, I try to order my work directly through whichever Amazon applies to them and then pay the exchange rate). So if you have some sort of event, there’s no reason you can’t raffle off your book. Do it for charity, even. Just, get it out there, and into the wild. The more copies out there, the better.

Advance Review Copies

Now, Amazon has been cracking down on this a bit so proceed with some caution. However, no one is stopping you from giving away your book for free. The issue arises when writers provide a copy of their work in exchange for a review (generally referred to as “an honest review“, as the intention is to get the truth out of the reviewer and not bribe them to shower you with unfounded praise). Hence instead of doing an even exchange, your best bet is to simply provide a copy and ask that someone review your work if they see fit.

Spoiler Alert: for most people, if they have a free copy of your book and they liked it at all, they’ll usually leave some sort of a review. This is even if it’s just in the form of stars.

Impulse

Furthermore, you can always give things away on an impulse. Or during the promotions day at various writers’ Facebook groups, I will offer my book for free. All a person has to do is show me their receipt for purchasing another group member’s work. To make my life easier, I limit the time, usually to just one week. I ask if someone will review both our works if they want to. And then I send the book and leave it. By the way, I’ve gotten three reviews this way. That might not seem like a lot, but I have also made some friends. And that helps in ways that go far beyond promotions and marketing.

Takeaways

Consider opportunities for giveaways, prizes, and gamification of your work. Yes, yes, I know you want to make money from your work. I get that; I really do! But sometimes you need to lay out some of your own funds to make it all work. Don’t be cheap about this. When the time and conditions are right, give away at least a few copies of your work. Because nothing builds goodwill and relationships better, or faster.

Creating a Facebook page

How do you go about creating a Facebook page?

Pages versus Groups

Why do you want one over another? Why does it matter?

Groups, as might be expected, allow for more discussion. However, everyone is on a more or less equal footing in terms of presenting content. And if that is what you want, then of course that is perfectly fine. However, if you are looking to essentially market your own wares, then a group is not going to help you very much. Instead, your own messages will be lost in the shuffle of everyone else’s content and messaging. As the administrator, though, you can eliminate any discussions you do not wish to see. This can get tedious, plus you lose the entire discussions.

With a page, you are the site owner/administrator. You create the content, which others react to, which can include commenting, and those comments can include links. If you want those comments and links gone, you can eliminate them – an activity which is also bound to become tedious. But at least the generalized discussions would remain.

Look and Feel

We have all noticed branding for our favorite commercial ventures, whether it is the shade of green for Starbucks and its products, or the use of a mascot/spokes-character like Flo from Progressive Insurance. Or it could be the backward ‘R’ in the Toys ‘R’ Us store signage. For your Facebook page, your website, your Twitter stream, and your background image, it pays to brand these items. Branding can be subtle, such as a color scheme, or more sophisticated, with the creation of a special logo for your page.

How to Create a Facebook Page

Facebook is constantly changing the means of performing tasks, as it is continuously A/B testing (e. g. it tests which layout or color scheme, etc. gets you to click more).  Currently, the way to make a page is, click on Pages on the left side of your feed and then click on Create a Page. Then select the page type. Select Artist, Band, or Public Figure, and pick either Author or Writer. Add your name and then click Get Started.

Seriously, it’s that simple.

Now go make an author page!