Sharing with Writers and Readers

Q&A a la Ann Landers


Say That Again! Why does Twitter Work? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTON:

Fran Silverman asked me to respond to Twitter questions from a journalist for CarolRoth.com.

Fran is an author/on-line publicist and radio host. She has placed her 180 clients on hundreds of radio shows and is author of sixteen e-books full of resources that authors need to know before contacting talk radio show hosts. The descriptions and prices are at http://www.talkradioadvocate.com/ .

ANSWER:

Used right, Twitter can:
1. drive huge amounts of traffic to your blog and Web site. It's a matter of reaching your Twitter followers but also of interconnecting Twitter with your other social networks.

2. get you radio and other gigs. It's a matter of networking.

3. help you make direct-sales pitches because they are not something frowned upon on Twitter as they are at other social networks. (Though there are some techniques for keeping these kinds of tweets friendly and caring.)

BTW, when it's used correctly, Twitter is a great learning/information gathering experience. You may want to check out Frugal and Focused Tweeting (www.budurl.com/Tweeting4Retailers ) . It's written for retailers, but authors are also retailers. We sell books. And the essentials are the same. To make the transition, one must just substitute “author” for “retailer” as one reads.

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including 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. 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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: