Sweet Tweet Advice

Twitter has 336 million users. If you’re an author without a Twitter account, you might want to start one. Here are five tips to get you started.

Hashtags

 Use one or two popular # so your tweet will be found. Examples:

 #amwriting – will direct users to your discussion of your WIP (work in progress). 
#WriterWednesday – The use of alliteration is popular on Twitter. Use this hashtag  to update your readers or other authors as to what’s up in your writing life.
 #WritersLife – Use this for funny or informative tweets.
 #WriteTip – if you have a good writing tip, share it.
 #makeitup –It’s your twitter, and you’re a writer so use any short hashtag you want to come up with.

Maximize your Tweets

The best time to tweet is between 12-3 pm on weekdays, but you might want to experiment with that a bit to see when your readers are most likely to be online.

Tweet at least a few times a week, so your readers don’t forget who you are. Some authors tweet on a daily basis, some several times a day. Just don’t overdo so your tweets become repetitive and boring. 

Keep it Fresh

Do an author bio and keep it up to date. You’ll also want to have a current picture of yourself for your profile. It can be casual, professional or an avatar. It’s how you brand yourself that counts. 

If you just published a book, it’s a nice touch to put your book cover up for a while. Just be sure to put your own picture back up at some point because users want to connect with you as an author, not your book.
 
You’ll want to put up a profile cover photo, too.  Artwork or images that will appeal to your genre fans and readers. All the better if you have an author brand that is recognizable to your readers.
 
Make a Connection
 
Readers love learning about their favorite authors. Find some interesting photos of you or your books or places where you’ve been to share, within reason. Readers want to become a part of your following, but be careful what you share —your safety and that of your family should always be a number one priority. 
 
Videos that allow you to talk directly to your readers are becoming popular, but not everyone is comfortable with that, so start out slow. Maybe only do a minute or two announcements and work your way up to longer video times. 

Those are the basics, so now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go #WriterWednesday.