Tag: hashtags

Hashtags 501 (The Graduate-Level Course)

The other day, the EM asked me a whole bunch of questions about Twitter hashtags. I guess it was because I always use the two or three I know, so he thought I knew what I was doing.

I don’t, but I know someone who does. So I kicked his questions to Kriss Morton, who blogs as the Cabin Goddess and who, together with Kai Wilson, runs the Finishing Fairies publicist service and an author promotion group on Facebook called I Dance with Books.

Within minutes, I had more info about Twitter hashtags than I ever knew existed. So here you go: Hashtags 501, the graduate-level course. Continue reading “Hashtags 501 (The Graduate-Level Course)”

Author Tips: Smart Marketing with Twitter

I don’t want to share my marketing genius!

Guest Post
by Nicholas Forristal

So, you wish to know my kung fu? No? Oh, you want to know what I’m doing with twitter these days. Fine, I guess we can discuss that.

What I’m doing takes a combination of a twitter account (preferably two accounts), a website with a solid front page, Hootsuite, and a little time. It doesn’t have to be Hootsuite, but it’s free and works really well, so that’s what I use.

If you haven’t heard of Hootsuite, it’s, among other things, a website to automate tweets. (Indies Unlimited has an article about Hootsuite that might help explain.) I have a text file full of different quotes from reviews, goofy statements and book related topics to use as tweets at any given time. With Hootsuite, using the “Past Scheduled” section under “Publisher”, it takes me all of ten minutes to set up a week’s worth of posts. That’s one post per hour from 4am to 8 or 9pm. Why 4am? The UK is five or so hours ahead of us and I do fairly well overseas. My latest book, released yesterday (at this writing), is #7 in Asian Myths and Legends and 66,813 overall. Not “OMG I CAN STOP WORKING” good, but it’s selling. Continue reading “Author Tips: Smart Marketing with Twitter”

How to Do a TwitterView

People keep talking about what a great marketing tool Twitter is, but some of us – call us the unhip, technologically-challenged generation – can’t help but wonder why. It all just seems like noise to us. Particularly if you’re following a whole bunch of authors who spam your feed with automated “buy my book!!!” tweets. (Of course, nobody here would do that, right?) Continue reading “How to Do a TwitterView”

Five Ways to Get More Out of Google+

We haven’t talked about Google+ for a while. In the past, we’ve touched on the importance of Google+ from an SEO perspective, but what about it being an actual tool for increasing exposure beyond the search engine?

Here are five things that can improve your Google+ visibility and leverage Google+ to bring more awareness to you or your writing.

1. Shling Bat schooner

If I would have labeled it Share Compelling Content, you would have skimmed right over this section. Let’s take this concept one step further and ask the question, “What is considered compelling and engaging content?” Continue reading “Five Ways to Get More Out of Google+”