How Can You Use Twitter to Promote Your Book?

by Alessandra Pineda

Freelance digital marketer Camille Mari of camillesolutions talked to the MA Publishing students about the importance of social media—particularly Twitter to build a web presence online. While she said that Facebook is the most used social media platform right now, Twitter is more professional and can help you engage with your audience using a variety of paid automation tools. Camille emphasized that the platform allows you to check on your competitors: “Who are they? Do they have something you don’t? And if they do, learn from them—never copy, but do it better.

Camille Mari also emphasized that building a good profile on Twitter lies in these four things:

• A good profile
• The right profile picture and header (“If you’re a professional, you obviously don’t want a photo of you drinking on your header.”)
• A pinned tweet that reflects your business, with a call-to-action linked to your website, book, etc.
• Proper use of hashtags (“You want about 3-4 hashtags on your page—nothing more.”)

But what I found particularly useful in her talk were the automation tools that she constantly uses for her clients. There are a few paid apps, like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Social Oomph, to help you send automatic DMs and automatic welcome messages to your new followers. You can pre-program these apps to send a personalized message to your audience, which is great for building a following. A good auto DM should include a quick introduction, a short line about your book with a link to your website, and a thank you note for following back. But while this obviously builds one’s engagement online, Camille emphasized that you shouldn’t rely on a machine to do all the work for you.

“Twitter is all about engagement. People want to talk to you, not to a robot.” 

Edited by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 20 Mar 2017 around 11am

Last edited: 16 02 2018