We all know that X should only be used for self promotion for about one in ten of the Tweets you send out. But that still means you can send the occasional Tweet, as long as you have given value to your followers in your other Tweets, either linking to something they might be interested in, replying to Tweets you have received or ReTweeting.
When it comes to the moment you can Tweet something promotional there’s some important things you can do to ensure you get the desired response, and don’t annoy your followers.
Here’s my take on how to get this right:
#1 Include a hook early on. Your title alone is not a hook. Neither is the price. Your tag line (the short sentence you might put on the cover of your book) could be used or you could “quote” from a review. Without doubt, the stronger a hook is, the more clicks and visitors you will get. There is a real art to getting Tweet hooks right. Look at the Tweets that hook you and emulate them, but add your own twist. If you can’t think of a great hook don’t Tweet about your book. I mean it. I def won’t ReTweet anything without a hook.
#2 Include a short link. Use Bitly.com or Bufferapp.com or SmartUrl.it or one of the other services for creating short links. But please don’t link straight to an Amazon page without updating your Amazon page to the best it can be. We provide a five page guide to doing that for all members. A link to a blog page or review of your book is also good, as long as the post or page has prominent buy links for your book. I worked with someone who had no buy links on their book pages, and who wouldn’t put them in when asked. Then he wondered why he wan’t selling any books!
#3 Include a  #tag such as #Kindle, if it’s an ebook, or #mystery, #romance #literary #memoir etc if you want to identify your work with a genre. Don’t use more than two in any one Tweet. #tags will get your Tweet seen by people who don’t follow you.
#4 The reasons not to use a #tag are brevity and frequency. With shorter Tweets you’ll get more people reading your Tweets. You will also get more clicks on your Tweets if your Tweet is less than 100 characters. So don’t overload your Tweet with #tags. If you repeat a #tag laden Tweet in multiple accounts or at frequent intervals, you may find that repetition in people’s streams may be annoying. So be careful how you use #tags.Â
#5 Include a picture to make your Tweet more attractive. Tweets with images, which show on the Newsfeed, achieve a greater number of clicks on the links in the Tweet. Don’t do it all the time, but this is a good way to vary your Tweets. We Tweet pics every second week for all our Featured Authors for variety.
#6 That’s the next point. Vary your Tweets. Change the wording, the attached images and the links to keep things fresh for your followers.
#7 You can Tweet your excitement about where you book has reached on the Kindle chart, a review you have received or some other good news. This is a form of hook. It is also genuine and likely to attract real interest and create a buzz about your book.
I hope you found this useful. Getting your promotional Tweets right is important. You will get orders for your book and start conversations if you do.
Thanks for a great post Lawrence. I really like the 10-1 ratio. It is a tough balance because doing more on either side does not work. Love the blog.
big help
I think this is one of those articles you need to print, then thumbtack to wall above your computer.
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Thanks Laurence!
Great article, Great Advice, and Sound Encouragement! Writers (especially aspiring writers) should take heed in being aligned with such a list.
Peace…
Greg.
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Thank you, I see a lot of tweets with dense hashtags, I didn’t know 1 was enough. Great advice!
Thanks for the tips. It helps me to know what is more likely to be effective.
Please don’t link straight to an Amazon page… Can you explain why not? Is it okay to do something like this? It shows all books by me and has the buy me links
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kawanee+hamilton
Sure, that link looks all right.
Thank you for the information! I really appreciate the value in your tips. Great ideas and helpful suggestions.
Ellen
This advice is great, i am going to do my book promotion this way!
Many thanks, Laurence! Your precious tips will be very helpful! In sum, I guess that less is more when it comes to promote a book on social media. Cheers! 🙂
This is a very helpful article, with lots of great explanations. Thank you for sharing!
https://www.triskelereviews.com/
Very good suggestions Lawrence. I’m new at this writing and had to struggle a lot. I need all the help I can get. I greatly appreciate what you do.
Thank you for this advice 🙂 great blog!
Great post! I didn’t know about the 10:1 ratio. Yikes! I need to make some changes. I can hardly wait for your conference!
I disagree with #3. You want to design and use hashtags that point directly to YOUR book, not all three million books being advertised on #Kindle, or #romance, or any other generic tag. Don’t believe me? Check out the hashtag for one of my books, #KASIWC.
Go for brevity and uniqueness. Be a trend setter! 🙂
Kim, the reason we use major #tags is that people are searching for them in big numbers. They are highly unlikely to be searching for a relatively unknown #tag.
Somehow or other I find this whole gambit of promoting my books very frustrating, even if the results are positive.
Vipin, I understand. That’s why we created TheBookPromoter.com, so we can remove some of the burden from writers and do the promotion for them.
Very valuable guidelines. Thanks
Very helpful advice!
Thanks for this information Laurnce!
I see in your tweet examples you think people for buying your book on Amazon, how do you know they bought? Gives Amazon this information?
Why would I doubt them? I think most people are honest. Why would all these people bother lying?