Introducing social media expert, Frances Caballo

Knowing our way around the social media is absolutely necessary to all authors. I’ve spent a lot of time on my computer socializing and marketing with my virtual friends and networks probably much more than I can afford to do and still call myself a writer. As such I’m so pleased to introduce social media expert, Frances Caballo, and her new book, Avoid Social Media Time Suck: A Blueprint for Writers Who Want to Create Online Buzz for Their Books and Still Have Time to Write.

WOW Women on Writing launched Frances Caballo’s blog tour on April 7. How great to have her here on Choices for her last tour stop. Please go to http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/search?updated-max=2014-04-09T00:00:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false to read WOW’s Renee Roberson’s interview with Frances and for a list of her previous blog tour stops. Any information you can glean from Frances’ social media expertise is well worth your time.

Today Frances talks about Twitter. Thank you so much.

10 Twitter Tips for Writers

by Frances Caballo

You wrote your book, uploaded it to CreateSpace or Ingram Spark, and scheduled your first reading. If you were lucky, the independent bookstore in your community accepted your novel or collection of short stories and you’ve been encouraging friends to buy it there.

Wouldn’t you like to enjoy even greater sales?

With Twitter, you can expand your potential readership to a worldwide audience. If you still haven’t used Twitter to its full potential, here are some tips to get you started.

10 Great Twitter Tips

1. Select a username that has 12 or fewer characters. On this microblogging platform, every character including spaces counts so keep your username as short as possible.

2. Don’t use the default blue background with clouds. Upload your book cover and find an appropriate image for your header image. If you can’t find an appropriate picture for your header image, use a solid color that matches your book.

3. Resist falling into the routine of only tweeting about your books or stories. Adhere to the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time tweet content pertinent to your niche or genre; 20% of the time you can tweet about your blog posts, books and giveaways.

4. Build a community by thanking users who retweet your content.

5. Create lists of the top people in your niche who tweet pertinent content. Creating lists will save you time. Every morning, you can review your lists of experts and read what they are tweeting. If the content is stellar, retweet it.

6. Use hashtags that will attract readers to your tweets. These include #amreading, #bibliophile, biblioholic and #bookworm.

7. Use genre hashtags that will attract readers interested in your books. These hashtags include #memoir, #scifi, #YA, #novel, #shortstories, #mystery, #thriller, and #NewAdult.

8. If you are also an editor, tweet tips that writers will find helpful and use the hashtags #writetip, #amwriting or #amediting.

9. When you tweet, stick to topics within your niche. Refrain from diverting into politics or religion or you may risk annoying potential readers and advocates of your books.

10. Search for a Twitter chat and join one. You’ll learn from others and have an opportunity to ask questions and meet new people.

Do you have a Twitter tip to share?

Book Synopsis: Social media is no longer an option for writers–it is a required element of every author’s platform. If you’ve been avoiding Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networks because you think tweeting and posting will take large chunks of time out of your day and leave you with little time to write, think again. Using social media to market your books doesn’t need to be time-consuming. And with the four-step formula you’ll find in this book, it won’t be.

Whether you’re a seasoned or a newbie social media user, this book will introduce you to posting schedules, time-saving applications and content-rich websites that will help you economize the time you spend using social media to promote your books. You will learn:

• How to create and perfect your author platform
• Where great content exists on the Internet and how you can use it to further your brand within your niche
• The importance of being social and applications that make this task easy and fun
• Tools that enable you to track and measure your success so you can better understand the return on investment of your valuable time
• Which tools prevent you from accessing the Internet when the time comes to sit and write that next book
• Exercises for introverted writers to help you feel comfortable on the social web

Avoid Social Media Time Suck: A Blueprint for Writers Who Want to Create Online Buzz for Their Books and Still Have Time to Write is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, as well as at your local bookstore.

Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: ACT Communications; First edition (January 15, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0985559225
ISBN-13: 978-0985559229

About the author:
Frances Caballo is a social media strategist and manager for authors. Her books include Social Media Just for Writers: The Best Online Marketing Tips for Selling Your Books and Blogging Just for Writers and Blogging Just for Writers. Her clients include the San Francisco Writers Conference, the Women’s National Book Association San Francisco Chapter, and the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association. A free ebook, Pinterest Just for Writers, is available on her website at www.SocialMediaJustforWriters.com.

Find out more about the Frances by visiting her online:
Frances Caballo’s website: www.socialmediajustforwriters.com
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaJustforWriters
Twitter: @CaballoFrances