#WritersLift is The Secret To Making Twitter Work For You as an Author

Social media is a huge boon to authors. We've always had to figure out how to tell the reading public that we have manuscripts on the market, and these sites let us reach people we otherwise would never have crossed paths with so help us sell our stories.

In theory, at least.

While I've been active on Facebook, Reddit, and even MeWe and LinkedIn, it's only recently that I've taken a real stab at trying to figure out Twitter. However, thanks to some great guidance from Alice Liddell (whom you should definitely follow on Facebook and @LittleAlice06 on Twitter), I now have a strategy that works pretty well.

So if the little blue bird has been vexing you, consider implementing the following.

If I can make it work, anyone can make it work.

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What is a Writers Lift?

Writers can only do so much individually to reach an audience, and if you don't already have a huge following it can sometimes seem impossible for you to get one. The purpose of the #writerslift is to bring writers together as a community so that we can help lift each other up and combine our efforts.

Hey, thanks guy!

In short, here's how it works. Someone in the community starts a #writerslift or #writingcommunity post. Occasionally this will be combined with things like #shamelessselfpromo, #selfpromosaturday, or other, similar tags. The way it works is that you like and reshare the post, helping boost the signal and spread the word. You then leave a response with a link to your blog, your book, or some other example of your work that you want people to see. Then you go down the list leaving likes and comments on other people's posts, and more importantly following them. Your fellow authors then follow you back, and keep the conversations going.

So what does this do for you? Well, it increases your number of followers significantly in a short period of time. That is important because Twitter, like other social media platforms, has an algorithm that boosts your signal concurrent with the number of followers you have. I've been told that good bench marks are 500, 1k, 5k, and 10k as far as early account gains. Additionally, building this network gets you into the writing community, helps boost your signal, and gets your work in front of curious eyes. And since other folks are liking and sharing your posts, there's a good chance you snag some of their followers as well!

I've been doing a couple of these boost posts a day (nothing huge, but rather a steady, consistent effort) and I've gone from a little over 200 followers a month ago to just over 950 at time of writing. Incidentally, if you want to follow someone who shares good writer's lifts so you don't have to go searching for them, make sure you follow me @nlitherl. I'll make it easy on you, whether you're working on fiction, RPGs, or that gray space in between!

With all of that said, it's equally important to understand what this will not do for you. What this strategy will not do is guarantee you massive sales overnight. It probably won't make you into a viral sensation. Hell, it probably won't even sell all that many books (I think at time of writing I've sold maybe 2-3 books throughout this endeavor). Because that's not really the purpose. The goal is to make sure that you have a large number of folks following you, that the community knows your name and profile picture, and that when you share something you've got a bunch of other people willing to do you a solid by helping to spread the word. That will help you increase your sales by making you an account the site pays attention to and shares with other users, but it won't make you money all by itself.

Lastly, remember that writer's lifts are a tool, and they should just be one part of your promotional toolbox. To that end, keep in mind some of the other things I said back in 5 (Specific) Tips For Increasing Your Reads Using Social Media. Because sometimes you need a screwdriver, sometimes you need a scalpel, and sometimes you need a hammer... and it's best to use the right tool for the right job.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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