Search
× Search

Using Tech for Book Marketing

Kate Gingold from Sprocket WebsitesKate has been building websites with her husband Don since 1996 for all sorts of clients, including authors.

Kate regularly writes about online marketing for Sprocket Websites and provides tips and techniques for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Since being an author today is not really different from being an entrepreneur with a small business, most of those tips are just as useful to authors.

Kate is an author herself. She writes books on local history, including the award-winning "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of the true story of Great Lake pioneering to the shores of Chicago and beyond to found Naperville, Illinois. 

Learn More about
Ruth By Lake and Prairie

Author Tips and Tales

Basic Tips for #Hashtags
Kate Gingold Host
/ Categories: Author Tips

Basic Tips for #Hashtags

What many of us in our youth called the “pound sign” is now referred to as a “hashtag,” and while folks of a certain age seem to tweet hashtags naturally, the rest of us wonder if we’re #TooOldToRockAndRoll. Mastering the art of hashtags does take some study, but every author trying to sell books should at least know the following three uses for hashtags.

Hashtags for Events

Conferences, book fairs and other big events are designed for networking and Twitter can open up a new channel for you to use. Tech-savvy folks will tweet while attending whether they are asked to or not. Smart conference organizers count on that Twitter chatter and prepare ahead of time by introducing a specific hashtag.

For instance, when the Chicago Writers Conference started their 2015 event, the marketing folk tweeted: “Today is the day! #cwc2015 #pumpedup #writersunite.” For the rest of the weekend, attendees tweeted and retweeted photos and comments about their conference experiences using the hashtag #cwc2015 for Chicago Writers Conference 2015.

By tweeting during the conference, folks announce that they are in attendance and they can show how “engaged” they are by posting tweets, which is one way to get noticed by other “engaged” people! Now conversations can start between @author and @publisher or @agent because you have common ground and you can “Favorite,” “Retweet” and “Reply” to a fellow attendee’s tweets without looking like a stalker.

Hashtags for Listening

But Twitter is more than a broadcasting tool – it’s also excellent for research. If you weren’t able to actually attend the Chicago Writers conference, you could follow tweets with #cwc2015 to see photos of the event and follow links to presentation summaries and slides.

Listening for hashtags is also a great way to research the subject you’re writing about or to learn more about your audience. Type hashtag terms into your Twitter search box to find marketing ideas and networking groups or to see who is writing or talking about books. Start by trying terms like #author, #bookblog, #mystery or #amwriting and you’ll soon find even more useful terms.

Hashtags for Promotion

Of course while you are searching for hashtag terms, so are other people, people who might be your readers. So it makes sense to use hashtags in your own tweets to get some attention. Loads of tools are available like TrendsMap that tell you what the popular terms are so you can include them if it makes sense to do so.

Also, be aware that some people use tools like Twitterfav that automatically retweet posts containing pre-selected popular terms. For example, an informal study of our own recently showed that adding “#hack” increased retweets dramatically because it is such a trendy word!

A Caveat

Be careful when creating your own hashtags. Do some research to make sure the term you want to use isn’t already associated with something else. Occasionally, that something else could be embarrassing, but usually it just confuses people. For instance, #cwc2015 was also used during the 2015 Chicago Writers Conference to refer to the Cricket World Cup 2015 which made sorting through the tweets a little more challenging.

No one says you have to spend 18 hours a day on Twitter. Like anything else, it’s a tool for you to use when you need it. Give it a try and decide for yourself. Twitter just might be the tool you need today.

Photo by Pixabay

Previous Article How to Be Social on Social Media
Next Article Posting your Content in the Right Order
Print
864 Rate this article:
3.0
Please login or register to post comments.

Search in the Blogs

Archive

Authors Need Websites!

Do you need to get a domain name for your book or name?

Want a website to promote your books?

Get started now without blowing the budget at the SprocketStore.

Full disclosure:  Writing for Sprocket Websites is my day job, so if you have questions about digital marketing, I'm happy to help!

 

Marketing Author Interview

Following a presentation for In Print Professional Writers Group, Kate's husband (and publisher!) Don was interviewed by author Louise Brass for WBOM Radio. During the conversation, Don shared many of the marketing tips from his presentation. You can listen to it online here.

The Sprocket Report

The Sprocket Report is published every other week with Internet marketing tips, tools and techniques. The archive features articles from 2011 up to the present. You are welcome to read how business owners are using technology to market themselves and apply those tips to your author business.


 

 

Get a Book Siging Checklist and our Sprocket Report

Kate will be happy to send you her brief Book Signing Checklist. Treat your book promotion like a business - because it is!

AND, since much of your efforts will be online, she'll also enroll you in her Sprocket Report, an email newsletter sent every other Tuesday, that includes 2 Internet Marketing tips and a post from a guest blogger on related business.

No worries! She won't use your email address for anything else, and you can unsubscribe from the newsletter anytime, but the checklist is yours to keep.

Any questions of Kate? Leave them in the message field and she'll get back to you ASAP.

Your Contact Information

Your Feedback

Terms Of UsePrivacy StatementCopyright 2024 by Gnu Ventures Company
Back To Top