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Named to "Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites," this #SharingwithWriters blog is a way to connect with my readers and fellow writers, a way to give the teaching genes that populate my DNA free rein. Please join the conversation using the very tiny "comment" link. For those interested in editing and grammar, go to http://thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dana Lynn Smith Gives You 21 Things to Tweet About





This guest article from Dana Lynn Smith is part of the virtual book tour for her new book, The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing. See the complete tour schedule at http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/booktour/.


Twitter is a great way to meet people, develop relationships, and promote yourself and your book. But it's important to avoid being seen as someone who just promotes themselves.

Most of your tweets should be about helping others, but you also need to inject some personality, to put the social into social networking and help people get to know you. Here are 21 ideas for tweeting:

1. Link to helpful or entertaining articles, websites, and blog posts. Add your own comments or ask for feedback.

2. Re-tweet good posts by other people, but don't go overboard—most of your tweets should be original. Include "re-tweet" or "RT" in your post to indicate that you're re-tweeting someone else's post.

3. Another way to re-tweet is to add a thank you to the previous tweeters at the end of the message. This works well if you have edited the original post.

4. Comment on someone else's tweet by hovering your mouse over it, then clicking the arrow. Be sure to refer to the original message in your reply, because your followers will not be able to see it.

5. Invite people to subscribe to your ezine, blog, or group, and offer an incentive.

6. Announce your live and virtual events, such as book tours and teleseminars.

7. Introduce other authors or experts in your field who are also on Twitter.

8. Teach a mini lesson in 140 characters.

9. On Fridays, recommend your favorite tweeters by using the #followfriday hashtag along with their user names. It's best to say why you recommend them.

10. Send congratulations to other Tweeple when they share good news.

11. Link to your own articles and blog posts, but do it sparingly.

12. Link to photos or videos (yours or others) on Flickr, Twitpic, or YouTube.

13. Ask for advice or ask questions that encourage responses.

14. Comment on someone's interesting Twitter background or clever bio.

15. Offer a free downloadable ebook or sample chapter, with no strings attached.

16. Thank others for mentioning you on Twitter.

17. Recommend a book, product, or service, other than your own.

18. Mention your hobbies, pets, kids, or personal activities. Just don't talk about what you ate for lunch!

19. Talk about your writing or what you're doing in your business.

20. Post an inspirational quote or message.

21. Welcome new followers.


Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing, www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. To view other articles in the Successful Social Marketing book tour, visit http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/booktour/

To buy Dana's book go to: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/savvy_book_marketer/successful-social-marketing.html

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

6 comments:

  1. Great stuff as always, Dana.

    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and making authors terrific marketers!

    Angela
    http://www.marketmynovel.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:59 AM

    Perfect timing. I am trying to figure out this Tweet stuff. I am surprised by the difficulty I am having because I typically figure this kind of thing out quickly.

    Getting there. But it's a process.

    Am picking up followers, which is nice. And of course, following my own list of folks to live, learn and prosper (okay so I did go to see Star Trek recently...maybe doing so influenced my last statement. :)

    Allyn

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting ideas Dana...
    Thank you for sharing... :)

    - Freya
    www.freado.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your kind comments Angela and Freya! Hang in there Allyn, it takes a while to build momentum on Tweeter, but it's a really awesome networking tool.
    Dana

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, Dana, for these great tips. We're just starting out with our Twitter efforts and are really excited about how quickly the momentum grows. What's great about your tips is that we can quickly see what we're doing right (and wrong) in our Twitter efforts.

    Best,
    Shannon
    @PitchRate

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Dana for reaching out to me. I'm glad to provide great article on book marketing. I know your readers will like the one on Turning articles into an eBook. I just did this with 2 different eBooks to give a way. Will keep you posted.

    I'm also here to help writers with fast chapter writing that really engages their readers.

    Cheers,
    JUdy Cullins

    ReplyDelete

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