[Published in Romantic Times Magazine, 7/17/09]
Tweet With Readers
by Kathy Kulig
WHEN HEATHER OSBORN, romance editor at Tor, Forge, "twittered" that she had a hole in her publishing schedule and was open to submissions for paranormal romance, she ended up with 50 new Twitter "followers" in just three days and 56 new manuscripts on her desk shortly thereafter.
Called the "virtual water cooler," Twitter is a free instant-messaging service that uses SMS (short messaging system,) technology. It allows users to send and read other users' posts, called tweets, but the posts must be short—up to 140 characters in length. To use Twitter, you'll need to set up an account and profile. Then you can connect with other users, or tweeple, by "following" them. All the posts (tweets) from the people you arc following will be listed in a stream on your home page.
Can Twitter be used as an effective business or marketing tool? Angela James, executive editor of Samhain Publishing, thinks so. "I have found it to be a helpful business tool," she says. "I've made contacts with people from all across the publishing industry — not just romance but all areas, from magazines to nonfiction, fiction, from editors, executives, marketing professionals, authors, digital experts, etc."
Kelly Leonard, executive director for online marketing for Grand Central Publishing, says, "1 like to think Twitter is an effective marketing tool. A benefit is the one-on-one relationship that you develop in the community."
Members use Twitter to share news and reviews and chat with friends. "1 ask for opinions on books and get feedback on projects, like our monthly newsletter. It's a great source for information gathering. Plus, 1 like to just get to talk to the fan community," says Jen Hill, Internet marketing managor for Tor/Forge.
Members also use Twitter to post the topics they are blogging about elsewhere or to help draw traffic to their websites. Author Chris Redding, who has about 780 Twitter followers, says, "My blog hits are usually from Twitter."
It also draws readers to other social networking sites, as author Lori Devoti discovered. "The best thing Twitter has done for me is put life into my Facebook presence," says Devoti. "1 have it set up so when I post on Twitter, it also posts on Facebook, I get a lot more interaction from people now."
But how do people find you on Twitter so that they can start following you in the first place?
* KEYWORD SEARCH. If you have a good profile bio, your site will come up when people search certain keywords such as romance writer, erotica, romantic suspense, etc. Another way is when users view your replies to other people's tweets. Or members can scan through other members' lists of followers.
*YELLOW PAGES FOR TWITTER. If you're trying to find something or someone on Twitter, try out the search engine dedicated to all things Twitter, Twellow.com. Register yourself in Twellow so people can easily find you.
*TWITTER ALERT. If you're wondering who's twittering about you, check out TWeetBeep.com. It's a service that will alert you anytime your name, book title or product is tweeted about.
How do you decide who to follow? Samhain's James doesn't have any particular criteria. "I follow people who interest me or who are twittering fresh ideas, information and links about topics that I'm passionate about. I follow a range of people from publishing professionals to people I'm close to in everyday life."
''I'm pretty picky." says Eaine Spencer, a literary agent from The Knight Agency. "I follow clients, fellow agents, editors, publishers, news and review sources and people that I know on a personal basis. I try to be cautious to only follow those that I might come into contact with on a day-to-day basis, regardless of if Twitter were involved or not. This helps me not get too distracted."
Will Twitter help you increase hits to your website or blog, draw in new readers, make new contacts and increase sales? Kelly Leonard says Twitter is "a terrific two-way communication tool, but not good to use as a bullhorn blast."
Instead of twittering, 'I wrote a book about vampires.' try: 'Who do you think is the sexiest Vampire?' Then, provide a link to your blog where you'll discuss the topic in detail. Fans ask Tor/Forge's Hill for book recommendations all the time. "In one case," she says, "a fan went out and read the recommended book and had a review posted on her blog two days later."
"I had a woman come to one of my book signings from Twitter,"
says Devoti. "I've also had a number of invitations to guest blog."
The Twitterverse can also be used as a means to collect data. Hill locates book review blogs and puts their RSS feeds into her Google Reader. "I have more than 200 review blogs in there," she says. "Through Google Reader and twitterfeed, I'm able to post reviews back on Twitter with just one click. The response has been very positive, both from the fans and the reviewers. It's also interesting to see what gets retweeted." *
Tweeting at: Twitter.com/rtreadsmarter;
Twitter.com/kathykulig; Twitter.com/foreverromance;
Twitter.com/angelajames; Twitter.com/loridevoti;
Twitter.com/torbooks; Twitter.com/heatherosborn;
Twitter.com/elainespencer; Twitter.com/chrisredding
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