Book Marketing & Twitter: How to Effectively Tweet About Your Book

By Erin MacDonald-Birnbaum

In the last few years, social networking has become a big part of book publicity and marketing and none more so recently than Twitter. In 140 characters of less, authors can network with media, publishers, distributors, book buyers and of course, their fans.

However, before you get Twitter happy, there are a few things to keep in mind before you start tweeting:

• Your twitter page is going to be a reflection of you and your book. It is important that you stick to tweeting about relevant topics. You may want to consider having a separate twitter account for personal contacts like family or friends and keeping your author/book twitter page and content separate from that
• Make sure you are creating a presence on Twitter by following the right people – a lot of media now use Twitter to find story content. Search for editors, writers and producers who cover topics related to your book and expertise. Find people who share the same interests as you and the topics in your book – most likely they will be interested in learning about your published work.
• In that same respect, be careful who you do follow and who follows you – your Twitter page, while should be a fun experience, is also a professional tool you are using to promote you and your book. You don’t want to have spam, off topic content and especially anything that could be deemed inappropriate on your page. That is a quick way to lose credibility and potential sales.
• Make sure you are providing your followers worthwhile Tweets – alert them to relevant news that relates to your expertise and book, any scheduled interviews you have coming up, links to any book reviews or articles and comment on timely topics related to your book’s topics.
• While you are providing interesting Tweets, don’t forget to comment on other people’s tweets – this is where the great networking aspect of Twitter comes in. Just by commenting on someone else’s tweet, all of their followers will see your reply, which could in turn provide you more great contacts.
• Tweet on a regular basis – if your followers know that they can expect interesting tweets from you on a regular basis, they will make sure to “follow” you more closely and will be more likely to help you get word out about your book.
  

Bottom line: Twitter is another great book promotional tool. Easy to set up and use, spending just a few minutes a day can bring you and your book a whole new audience.