Who are the first customers to buy our self published e-books?
Friends, family, and the occasional acquaintance.
Why?
Because they can say, “I know the author!”
But, how can we broaden our reading audience and increase our e-book sales? There are many ways; however, one of the most prevalent platforms today is by utilizing social media.
As writers in today’s market, we’re told that in order to sell books, we should blog and join Twitter and Facebook: all things social media.
A great social media teacher once said that if someone likes a writer as a person, they are more inclined to buy that author’s book once published, whether they have met in real life or not. That’s believable, right?
So, how do we build friendships using social media? Today, we’re focusing on Twitter.
Twitter can be a bit intimidating. Most of us are scared to type that first tweet and our fingers freeze on the keyboard. What do we say? It’s a common fear that no one is interested in what we have to say. We all feel this way, so here is a simple equation for using Twitter as a social media outlet:
Twitter Success = 1/4 Socializing + 1/4 Promoting Others + 1/4 Promoting Our Products + 1/4 Provide Information
1/4 Socialize– interact with others, chat as if you have known them all along. Tweet about favorite topics such as television, movies, books, sports, recipes, and vacations. Join groups and popular hashtags (#).
Think of hashtags as a chat room, only on Twitter. A writer can interact with other writers that they have never met before or follow in their live stream by joining hashtags. A few great groups for writers include: #MyWana, #amwriting, #pubtip, #blogchat, and #bookmarket.
1/4 Promote Other Writers – encourage others, cheer them on, and RT (retweet) their blog posts and some of their favorite messages that we also enjoy. Have they recently released a book, reached a milestone, or received a new rave review? Tweet it! Congratulate our fellow writers.
1/4 Promote Our Products – Do we have a blog? Tweet recently published posts. Do we have a self published e-book on the market? Tweet links to our personal websites where the Kindle, Nook, and i-pad conversions are available for purchase by utilizing protected shopping carts, like the one Digital Content Center provides.
Has anyone reviewed our e-book? Tweet the reviews. Has anyone blogged about our e-book? Tweet a link to our friend’s site, linkage is popular and very much appreciated in the Twitterverse.
1/4 Provide Useful Information – Someone has just posted an article, whether via a popular news outlet or even a blog post, about common errors to avoid and recommended techniques for writing a strong manuscript. Tweet it!
We just read on article on how Digital Content Center can help us convert a manuscript to all the proper e-book formats – tweet it!
By following this simple equation, we’re undoubtedly going to make friends. What do friends do? They buy our books!
Remember these simple steps on how to use Twitter to increase our e-book sales: Socialize– chat for fun; hashtags – join fellow writers and engage in conversations; promote otherswriters, retweet and encourage their products and successes; promote our products, provide linkage for easy sales and any positive reviews from our fellow writers; be informative, share information that will benefit all writers.