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Twitter is a powerful social media platform that can take your book launch from “meh” to amazing.

Using Twitter to supercharge your book signing is a great strategy and can have incredible results.

However, before you do, make sure you are leveled-up on your Twitter knowledge.

Refresh your memory with these four articles:

1. Start Growing Your Following Ahead of Time

Great things take time.

One mistake many people make is getting on Twitter at the last minute, hoping to make a big impact. The problem is that often, these last-minute tweeters don’t have followers. They are tweeting to an empty pocket of cyberspace.

If you want to make an impact, you need to think ahead.

Here are 7 quick tips on growing your Twitter following:

  1. Follow other twitter users related to your topic or passion.
  2. Tweet & advertise on related hashtags.
  3. Add tweetables to your blog.
  4. Place a Twitter icon prominently on every page of your website. 
  5. Put a link to your twitter account in your email signature.
  6. Put your Twitter @name in your bio within your book and speaker packet.
  7. Watch for which of your tweets get retweeted and tweak to get more retweets.

For more about growing your twitter following read:

2. Infect Your Followers

You can’t start tweeting two days before your book launch and expect hoards of people to show up at the book store, hungry for your book like a zombie is for brains.

You need to infect your followers months in advance. That’s right, months. Creating hysteria over your book takes time. Have a book coming out in a few months? Start tweeting now.

3. Create Tasty Tidbits

Tease your followers with teasers from your next book. You can use quotes, passages, or whatever else will fit in 140 characters or less. Use the hashtag for your book in your tweets.

Create 50 – 100 promotional tweets. Load them up on Hootsuite, Twuffer, Buffer, or whatever application you use to schedule your tweets. You want to get people excited! The best way to do this is make each tweet helpful, the kind of thing people would want to retweet. Feel free to recycle these tweets as needed.

Make sure you take the time to look and see which ones are getting the most interaction and retweets. You can re-purpose those tweets and create images with them…which you can share almost anywhere.

Tweetables –

  • Learning how to supercharge my book launch with Twitter @AuthorMedia. – Click to tweet.
  • Who knew throwing a book launch party could be so easy?  – Click to tweet.
  • Your readers want to feel special. Think of them as people, not numbers. – Click to tweet.
  • Do you like it when authors talk back on Twitter? – Click to tweet.
  • 5 steps to supercharging my next book launch! Wahoo! – Click to tweet.
  • I want to try these for my next book launch party. – Click to tweet.
  • Has anyone tried these book launch suggestions from Author Media? Do they work? – Click to tweet.
  • Having a book and a twitter stream does not mean you have your own reality tv show. – Click to tweet.
  • @AuthorMedia is giving out some tweet templates for authors. Hurray! – Click to tweet.
  • @AuthorMedia talks zombies, hashtags, and Twitter parties in this post. – Click to tweet.

4. Talk Back

Talk to your followers! Listen! These people care enough about you to invest in your life by purchasing a book. You should care enough to say hello.

Ask questions of your followers. One easy way to get a conversation started is to ask something simple like, “Suddenly have free time. What classic movie would you recommend?” Or “Finished one book. On to something new. What book do you recommend?”

Feeling uncreative? Try one of these:

  • Hanging out in (insert city name). Where’s the best place to get food?
  • Just finished (insert book title). Ready for something different. Ideas?
  • My Amazon page is open and I’m in a book-buying mood. What do you recommend?
  • Going to the movies this weekend! Don’t know what to see yet. Any thoughts?
  • Help! I’m going to (insert city name) next week and don’t know what to do in my free time.
  • Has anyone ever tried (insert item)? What did you think?

5. Invite Them to Join You at a Book Signing or Launch Party

Before you go to an event (even if it’s not yours), let your followers know. Interact with the ones who are there. Take pictures with them and tag them when you tweet. The days of being a mysterious author died with the birth of the internet.

Jon Acuff is an author who invites people to his events all the time. So does Bob Goff and Michael Hyatt. People come from all over to meet up with them. Why?  These men are genuinely likable from their tweets and are thinking of their fans as people, not numbers.

Here are some template tweets. Feel free to steal them, tweak them, and personalize them to your heart’s content:

  • I’m having a book signing in (insert town name) next (insert day). Come join the fun! First ten fans to find me get (insert prize). Spread the word! (insert link) (insert hashtag).
  • Hey (insert town name)! I’ll be seeing you (insert day). Come say hi at (insert store name) to brighten my day and get an autographed book. (insert hashtag)
  • So I’m having a book launch party next week in (insert town name). Care to join in the fun? I’ll bring doughnuts…(insert link) (insert hashtag)
  • Let’s see how many people we can fit into the bookstore next week. I have a book launch and want it to be memorable…in a good way. (insert link) (insert hashtag)
  • Do you know what would be cool? A book-launch flash mob. Let’s try it. (insert link) (insert hashtag)

You can use the power of social media to send your Twitter followers to a special landing page on your website or a Facebook event page that will give them all the information they need about your book event. All of the information they need won’t fit in 140 characters.

6. Remind People

It’s okay to send out reminder tweets. Or to post the same thing two days in a row. Encourage your followers to invite their friends. Or to dress up if your book is in the fantasy or sci-fi genres.

Preschedule your tweets so you can streamline your time before the event. People want to feel special. They want to feel wanted. Make sure that you tailor your message so it’s not all about you. Having a book and a twitter stream does not mean you have your own reality TV show.

Being proactive instead of reactive will help calm your nerves and allow you to have fun. Use Twitter as a tool to supercharge your next book signing party or book launch party.

 

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