Suzy Ayers
  • Bio
  • MyBooks
    • Dark Hollows Press
    • Paperback links
  • Suzy Q's Oops Detection Service
  • Free Reads
  • Blog
  • Because I want your sex…stories
  • Author Spotlight
  • Book Reviews
  • The Foodie in me
  • Contact me

How to get a large organic #following on #Twitter

2/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
So I have been bugged enough, I am spilling the beans…LOL OK, honestly, I like to help others that are struggling with something that I figured out.

How did I amass a huge organic following on Twitter?

So let’s go back to the newbie me. Mid-Feb 2013, everyone was telling me ‘you need to be on Twitter. That’s where you need to market.’ I was completely confused by this thing. I am a Facebook girl. And to be honest that has better Marketing benefits to reach readership. You find more Author / readers on Twitter. Some regular readers, but it’s really not the same. So, as I mentioned I didn’t know how to even Tweet. I knew nothing.

Ok, so I used this PDF that was free on http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/index.php There was a small section on there to help me sort of start my way into this social media time sucker-I mean great place to market myself. Tee hee.

After about a month I had 1k followers, 2 months 2k. I was amazed and others were too. I kept saying I would make a post about it so here it is. First, I have to admit having a picture of me; a real live person probably helps.

Tips/Tricks

How do I know if I should follow them?

My “personal” ways of going about this are, look at their profile. Are they a reader, writer, do they have something in common with you. Genre is a big factor. I try to spread it out so I don’t just follow everyone in erotica, since I write in many genres.

Follow book review people. This will skew your numbers a bit, but oh well you never know who will pick up your book.

Now, here is another tidbit and it might be a little confusing. The numbers: followers vs following. Are they even going to follow you back? If the numbers are close, perhaps they might. If they have low numbers and their Twitter remarks are “hey baby you’re hot” or “here’s my newest book”. These are the first things they say to you…um no. Twitter is a SOCIAL MEDIA SITE. Remember no one wants their first introduction to be a smack in the face with your book.

Now do you always care about the numbers? No. Follow EL James or my mentor Shoshanna Evers if you want some of their followers to perhaps see you. Now, how would these follower see you? You know, on that side panel: follow these people thing-yeah that one. I don’t really follow the “untouchables” though. The anti-socials that would never respond, celebs, etc. However, Neil Perry from “The Band Perry” follows me, perhaps he thought I was cute. LOL I love music that’s no secret.

Are they a bot? Should I follow?


“I just got 1000 followers..” yeah I mark as spam…move on.

They have one tweet and followed 87 people. Nope don’t follow.

They are a locked account with no bio. Now these are tricky. I pretty much follow and find myself unfollowing most of them. Some locked accounts are people with families, others are D/s relationships and others are just, well, who knows.

Following back

There is this unwritten rule to follow back within 3 days, so try to keep pace or note in your bio.

Your Bio

I changed mine about 50 times. Work on it, tweak it, and change it when new things come up. ;) Be honest. I actually told a writer putting Bestselling Author in his bio should mean he actually “sold” the book. I think being honest with your readership is the best way to gain and keep them. He has a Bestselling book that reached #1 in free. Yay! I mean I haven’t even reached #1 in free. Just my opinion perhaps. :/

Oh and typos, if you are a writer and there are typos in your bio…yeah there’s a problem there.

What not to have on your Twitter feed! (What I don’t have)

Politics, naked pictures (unless that is what you want to promote—we all have our own thing and our own brand), and really any hot button issues. You want this to be a place for marketing your brand then keep your brand fun, happy, and interesting. No bashing or self pity party’s people. Nothing wrong with a bad day, we all need support and as a community we will be there with our shoulders.

Also I do not have Auto DM’s I hate them and I will never open a link. I delete all that.

Use all the tools you can


1. Hashtags – Twitter gives you ones in a little dropdown.

2. Use a catchy phrase not, here’s my book or here’s my Amazon page. Excite people; make them want to click on your link.

3. Picture – Use your book covers as an advertisement. Twitter has changed this up a bit, but a picture will take up space and make your Tweet stand out.

4. Spacing/objects – Don’t be annoying, but you can be crafty with spacing and objects (arrows) that are eye catching.

5. Someone comments, respond, draw more attention to your Tweet. Also each connection helps you more visible in the main feed and perhaps gains you more followers.

6. Be bold and say things like I did “Wow, I am almost at my 1k (2k or 3k) follower, I think I had like 10 to go. This person will get a free eBook of mine their choice” I tweeted things like this. I also said virtual kisses, but I didn’t tell you that. People like silliness and winning nothing. I Tweeted the heck out of the winner and they were happy. Telling everyone to follow my latest follower, therefore getting more followers. (Make sure they are a valid person not a bot)

RT - ing

I tweeted/RTed daily. I would follow and RT those that RT’ed me. I had a nice community of people. I was spending 30 minutes, soon it became and hour. Suddenly, it was reaching hours. I was doing it multiple times a day. I always left my 4-6 promotional Tweets at the top. I found my hand was hurting and it was taking up so much time that I wasn’t really doing what I wanted, writing. At this point I was at close to 4k followers.

So, I looked for a solution. I wanted to still have control over who I followed and unfortunately I RT some porn, but overall I am very happy that I am able to still Tweet additionally and never go over my limit. Previously, I had been put in jail a few times for my RT-ing an not even been allowed to post my own promotions. Now what was the sense in that?

I use Begaware, Tweetdeck, FB autoposts for me and Tribber feeds.

Auto RT sites like Roundteam, Begaware, TweetDeck, etc

Auto RT’s. I don’t recommend this to you unless you already did everything above. Get a good following going, this takes work. Buying followers, which I have heard is robots, dead accounts, etc. Isn’t adding any value to your Twitter.

I now use Begaware for auto Tweets and ReTweets. It helps me to still be able to talk to people, write and just be me! I sometimes toss a question out into Twitter and see who responds. I find out who answers and make new friends. Again you need to remind yourself it is a social media site. Ask for help sometimes you never know who will respond.

So the sites I use:

Begaware

Tweets : http://begware.com/alogin.php

RT’s: http://begware.biz/member/activate.php

The RT one is good for say the ones you want to block, porn pics for example, or perhaps larger authors that don’t RT. My mentor doesn’t RT, but I like to tweet her stuff. This puts you in the eyes of others that read her work and similar stuff that you write. ;)

TweetDeck: https://tweetdeck

I use this to set up auto posts since Begaware only allows 20 set ones. Also, I can do one’s anything new happening: a new release, a cover reveal, a blog hop, etc. Plus I do great followers or favoriters. People like spotlights shown on them.

Triberr: http://triberr.com/

Triberr is for bloggers to meet others; you need to be faithful in reblogging here. This feeds to my Twitter. I actually don’t know much about this except that it helps get your blog posts out there across Twitterdom. ;)

Sometimes I find remarks of people not reblogging “enough”, but honestly I feel like no one lives in each others lives. No one lives in my shoes. I promote the hell out of people, I don’t run and jump on Triberr daily, people would prefer if I helped them sell books (my opinion). If you do it and promote others I think that’s sufficient. And sometimes I feel like we need to learn to have more respect for other people sometimes.

Unfollowers.com

Lastly, I use this (on Twitter, it’s free) to unfollow people that don’t follow me. Again I keep book reviewers and those that might give me a larger following, but I remove people that haven’t followed me in at least 5 days. I don’t follow the 3 day rule. And anyone that unfollowed me.



I have met so many great friends and supportive people and I can only hope to help and pay it forward just a little bit. I truly hope this post helps people. Marketing takes work and time. If you don’t put effort into it like you do writing, you are honestly writing for no reason. It would be like making a lemonade stand and then setting it up inside your house and not telling a soul about it. Think about it, no one else is going to sell you better than you.

Perhaps, I will do another post about Facebook or blogging one day. But that’s for another time. Please share and comment if this was helpful.

xx Suzy

Picture
0 Comments

My first #milestone in 2014 5k views on my blog in a week! My #FortuneCookie was right! & What I've learned.

1/30/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
I read somewhere that the 15th day of the Chinese New Year is on January 31st so this post seemed fitting. ;)

My fortune above is one I received only a couple weeks ago. And one can only hope this is true.


As a writer, I strive to exceed my goals and milestones from the prior year. Last year I had a few milestones that I am very proud of,

MILESTONES
1. I became a Bestseller for my book Sara's Awakening. My debut Fantasy Book.
2. I hit #5 in bestseller for free erotica for an anthology that I put together with multiple erotica authors. Sexy Holiday Bites. I am very proud of that and all the wonderful reviews on it.
3. I had 6 separate pieces of work, which hit the top 100 bestseller free charts, Including the 2 listed above and: Being Neighborly--which remains free, Fantasy Encounter with a Dom, Bound for Pleasure, as well as, Cristal Blue my debut piece as a writer.
4. I had an extremely successful series last year, The Torn Series:  Master-bation, At Sir's Command, Sir's Deception and Serena's Decision. These are lighter BDSM with more spanking, I wonder if perhaps this is where a lot of my readership lies.
5. My bestselling books are Fantasy encounter with a Dom and Taken by a Truck Driver, however I laugh because there are barely any reviews for Taken by a Truck Driver.
6. I released 13 separate pieces of work. One was that anthology with 8 other authors.
7. I figured out Createspace and Fantasy Encounter with a Dom is in print. I plan to put my fantasy books out there shortly.
8. My Twitter following. I had 2k followers in about 2 months time. I will do a separate post on that one. ;)
9. Nominated for blog of the Year by Scarlett Flame. 

http://missscarlettflame.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=25
Picture

What I have learned
1. Research - Before you become an indie do your homework. I spent time researching and dissecting others books. How they looked. I mean I love to read so it wasn't difficult, but there are a boatload of free books for the Smashwords and Amazon things. Also making your own covers--I recommend you buy your first one unless you are a graphic designer. This is because people DO judge a book by it's cover.

Selfpubbookcover.com has a free PDF where you can grab loads of free information and there are of course book covers. I purchased 7 from there.

GIMP II is a way to make covers if you use a site for pictures like shutterstock, canstock whatever else, there are are dozens. Watch out for those that use the same image over and over. I recommend you change the picture quite a lot. I personally don't like this program...ok, it hates me. ;) But if you have that savvy I did Bound for Pleasure with a little help from others.

2. Edit - Think you are done? Nope, edit it once more. Some are arrogant enough that they do it all by themselves. People if you cant even take a Critique Partners voice or opinion you will not be able to handle the reviews, trust me. A beta reader is fine and good, but they are that--readers. And many just want free books and really have no value or never respond. A Critique Partner is a fellow writer in your genre that swaps with you and finds things like: punctuation, spelling, sentence structure/flow, story hiccups in general.

I am quite anal, probably more than most. My final rounds are a read through after all the CP's and then I listen/edit. Listen and whiles it's being read to me I find things like he that should be her, etc. Your brain will fill those things in when you read. But when you listen you will find them.

3. Pricing - Keep your prices in accordance to the book length. Although Serena's Decision is still a mystery to me. I wonder if I split it into two books if I would have done better with it. See, I am always learning.

4. Help others out - We are all in it together. Initially I thought people would view me as competition, but my mentor Shoshanna Evers cleared that right up. She said we all have our own voice. So even if we all sat in the same room with the same premise, each story would have a different feel.

5. Reviews - Sure we would all love a bizillion glowing reviews. But I have learned a lot of people buy them. Nope not lying. I am happy to get mine the old fashioned way.

I decided to do a review page myself to help others. I love to read and love to pay it forward, especially to new authors who are like myself and have done the work to make their piece the best it can be. A friend said she'd like to join in and now it's an even better place to promote authors! PS Naughty Reviewers

Beware there are trolls out there and it is hard to turn a blind eye, but here is what I have done, look at their other reviews. Do they review everyone the same like "eh this sucked". Do they not even read your genre. Sometimes you can make yourself feel better when you realize it's not you.

Or Goodreads is even worse, a lot of tacky people out there wanting to be hurtful--sad but true. They just give you a 1 to purposely drag you down. Nothing you can do about it. You know what? As a reader I ignore those. I normally look at the intelligent remarks and say hmm, maybe I will just take a chance and make my own decision about this one.

So stressing about losers who have no life...remember you are better than that. However, do you see people saying you need to improve something? Fix it! You can do that. Ebooks are a wonderful thing where you can upload a new version, (keep your old and remember to highlight what you changed) and Amazon will alert the purchasers to the new version.

6. Returns - I read somewhere that 10% for erotica is normal. I am no where near that number and I think it goes back to #2 editing. At least I hope, but then again I am not what you call a NYT Bestseller...YET! LOL Right. I have maybe 1 or 2 returns a month. And yes they still hurt. It is stealing pure and simple, however, I did see by happenstance someone bought two at once, so that does happen too. ;)

Well, I keep my goals attainable, but something to strive for. And some have nothing to do with money or sales and more to do with what I can do to learn, grow, and help others. ;) Wishing everyone the very best in the New Year.

And remember each person is an individual take what works for you! I plan to do a post about my Twitter following shortly. I started Twitter in mid Feb of last year and I am fast approaching 7k followers. ;)
1 Comment
    Picture

    SUZY AYERS

    Where I write about life, upcoming events, and all things writing related. I'm an optimist, a perfectionist and a giggler. So you might see a little of that.

    Tweets by @SuzyAyers

    Archives

    December 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    $10 Amazon Gift Card
    $25 Dollar Gift Card
    5000 Views
    99 Cents
    Abenaki
    Abuse
    Adult Tag
    Ages In Sin
    Alice Dark
    Alien Erotica
    Alisa Easton
    Amazon
    Andromeda Bliss
    Anna Bayes
    Anne James
    Anthology
    Ashen White
    At Sir's Command The Torn Series Book 1
    Author Anniversary
    Authors
    Autumn Seave
    Banned Books
    Bdsm
    Being Neighborly
    Beta Reader
    Blog Hop
    Blog Hop Posts
    Blog Of The Year
    Blue Bird
    Book Trailer
    Boston
    Bots
    Bound For Passion
    Bound For Pleasure
    Cara Bristol
    Carrie Anne Ward
    Catfish
    C.E.Black
    C.E. Black
    Censorship
    Charity Parkerson
    Cheaters
    Claudia Burgoa
    Collars
    Come Facial
    Competition
    Conceiving Evil
    Corey Harper
    Cover Reveal
    Craft
    Cristal Blue
    Critique Partners
    Cuckold
    Daizie Draper
    Damian Bloodstone
    Dark Erotica
    Dark Hollows Press
    Dating
    Dominant
    Dominate Me
    Domme
    Dr. Charley Ferrer
    Dreamstealer
    Dylan Cross
    Edge Play
    Edit
    Edward Naughty
    Eharmony
    Elements
    End Of Summer Steal
    Eric Keys
    Erotic
    Erotica
    Erotic Authors Guild
    Erotic Authors Guild Book Giveaway
    Event
    Events
    Excerpt
    Explict Sex
    Facebook
    Facebook Event
    Fanstasy Encounter With A Dom
    Fantasy Book
    Fantasy Encounter With A Dom
    Felicity Brandon
    FF Or F/F
    Followers
    Following
    Foursome
    Free
    Friends
    Genre
    Gift Cards
    Girl On Girl
    Grave Hauntings
    Hairbrushing
    Halloween
    Hea Or Hfn
    Heroines
    Imagine
    Jenna Fox
    Joelle Casteel
    John Lennon
    John Satisfy
    Kayla Lords
    KDP Select
    Kindle Countdown
    Lb Shaw
    Leliani Black
    Light Bondage
    Love Yourself
    Male Point Of View
    Marketa Giavoni
    Marketing
    Master Bation
    Master-bation
    Masturbation
    Matchbook
    Match.com
    Menage
    Milestones
    Mistress
    M/M/F Or MMF
    Mom
    MTV
    My Secret Sir
    Native American
    New Clothes
    New England
    New Hampshire
    New Release
    Nikki Haze
    N J Winnington
    Normandie Alleman
    Nsfw
    Occult
    Offensive
    OK Cupid
    Online Dating
    Open Relationship
    Paige Matthews
    Paperback
    Paranormal
    Peach's Diary
    Pen Name
    Plenty Of Fish
    Poem
    Pony Play
    Pre Order
    Pre Release
    Profiles
    Promotional Price
    Psychological Thriller
    Rafflecopter
    Rankings
    Renee Rose
    Reporting
    Reviews
    RJ Redlynn
    Robert Zimmermann
    Romance
    R. T. Steory
    Sale
    Sales
    Sara's Awakening
    Satspanks
    Saving Lady J
    SE BERG
    Selfpubbookcover.com
    Serena's Decision (The Torn Series: Book 3)
    Serial Killer
    Sex Therapist
    Sexy Holiday Bites
    Shopping
    Short Story
    Shoshanna Evers
    Slave
    Smashwords
    Sorority Pledge
    Spanking
    Spotify
    Stranger Sex
    Submissive
    Sweet Treats
    Sweet Valentine's Treats
    Tag You're It
    Taken By A Truck Driver
    Thainna Doesitmatter
    The Before World Series Book I
    The Black
    The Escape
    Thianna D.
    Thriller
    Tonya Kinzer
    Twitter
    UK
    United Kingdom
    Vermont
    Voyerisum
    Vt Vaughn
    Wax Play
    Where Sexy And Sinful Meets Dark And Chilling
    Will LaForge
    Wooden Paddle
    Wooden Spoon
    Writing
    Yoko Ono
    Zoosk

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.