I’m talking from a promotion point of view. According to some marketing information I’ve read, they rate way down on the scale of promotional value. Now, that’s not to say don’t do them. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m just saying, be realistic about your expectations.
Just because you build your friends and followers to a multitude of thousands, the truth of the matter is they will not translate into sales. If they did, then someone with 62,000 followers on Twitter would have 62,000 books sold the minute it hit the shelves.
I don’t have many tweet followers, not even a thousand, and of those, I know of only one book sold.
Facebook is a little different. I attended a seminar on marketing a few months back and heard Rusty Shelton speak. (He’s terrific by the way, and I’d recommend you follow him on Twitter @Rustyshelton) Anyway, he described Facebook like a family reunion, where everyone there already knows and likes you, whereas Twitter is more like a cocktail party. You walk up to someone and speak to them for a few minutes, then move on. At only 140 characters, that’s about all the time you have. Don’t turn them off by trying to sell them something!
Take into consideration, every person on Twitter has an agenda. They are all selling something just like you. I think I mentioned in my last post not to promote your book over and over again on Twitter…or anywhere else for that matter. Nothing turns me off more, than to see a tweet, or email constantly saying…buy my book…buy my book….buy my book.
My author friends and I have discussed this and they do the same as I when we see those…delete…delete…delete.
Instead of hawking your book like a carnival con man, tweet something of interest, tweet something funny, tweet a recommendation of someone else, and interesting article you’ve read, a blog you like, etc. Those considering following you will look at your bio and that’s the place you need to mention your book, blog, or whatever you want to put out there.
It’s fine to tweet or Facebook an event, like a book signing or some type of earth shattering news like you’ve just received the cover for your new book, or it’s just been listed on Amazon, or hit bookstore shelves. Those are newsworthy.
So why bother, you ask? Good question. The truth is there’s a lot of great information on twitter. Also, you can build your SEO by hash tagging there. So, just tweet your heart out, but don’t expect to set the world on fire with sales.
