Page 23 - Social Media Marketing

21 Social Media Marketing Handbook
my books too, but as friends who became interested in what I did, not just as ‘customers’. Remember too, when tweeting about your
I have actually made some great friends on Twitter, They have bought my books too, but as friends who became interested in what I did, not just as ‘customers’.
book, or an event you are going to attend that if you use the @ facility you can include people, like @matadorbooks, who will then see it and, with luck, will retweet it to all their followers. And then there are # hashtags. I advise caution with those. One author I follow rarely uses less than 20 but I think that 1-2 is adequate. A hashtag will link you to sites about certain subjects, for instance for me
it would be something like #HistoricalFiction or #17thcentury where like-minded people might visit and would see your Tweet but I honestly find a great block of # addresses at the bottom of a Tweet quite off- putting.
I have also joined Facebook, which is slightly different as you can have a separate page for your books. Mine is called simply Judith Thomson Books, and it is there that I post about the books or any blogs I have written, keeping my personal page for friends and family, but I do sometimes post the same thing on both sites, in the hope that my friends and family will ‘share’ it for me! On Facebook you can join groups. For instance there is one called Lost in a Good Book, where people talk about books they like. Authors are allowed to occasionally publicise their books but, again, don’t overdo it and try to join in other people’s posts. I am also looking into a facility on Facebook which allows you to schedule posts, which might be a good
way to save time that could be used writing! Basically, don’t be too pushy, always be kind and do retweet other authors. We are all out there doing our best for our books, after all. Don’t feel you have to go on it all through the day, though, or even every day, but love it or hate it, at the moment social media is probably one of the best ways to reach an audience. So have fun with it!
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