Build Your Author Platform with Twitter

A friend of mine has been shopping her book proposal around to several publishers.

“How’s it gong?” I asked the other day.

“Oh, publishers want to know how many followers I already have. They’re basically suggesting I self-publish and if I’m successful, they’ll take another look.”

“Yes, and then you won’t need them,” I observed.

Publishers care about how many followers you have. They call that your “platform.”

So how do you get a platform?

First, keep in mind that it’s not an overnight endeavor. Apparent “overnight successes” are usually the result of years of an author plugging away until he or she reached a “tipping point” of some sort.

Social media is an obvious place to start.  So let’s take a look at one of the most fun (to me anyway) of the social media platforms, Twitter.

According to Twitter’s site, as of September 14, 2010, there were 175 million users who tweet 95 million times a day.  Even the President is using Twitter to hold “town meetings.” It’s ubiquitous.

Tips on Using Twitter Well

1. Identify your ideal follower. Whom do you want to reach and what is your message? Know the “theme” of your “story” from the start. This is how you “brand” yourself in the minds of your followers and even search engines.

2. Create your Twitter profile with photo and bio. Get more details in my free Ebook, Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or Less.

3. Customize your Twitter profile. Here’s a free tool  to create a distinctive background for your Twitter profile.

4. Use a free tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to send out your tweets and also to schedule them.

5. Locate Twitter Leaders in your area at Twellow. Follow those leaders and learn from their tweets.

6. Use a tool like TweetAdder to automate your twitter process of gaining followers. You can add more than 100 followers a day to your Twitter account.

Your tweets need to be interesting, so  point to articles,
give good content and free resources. Its a soft sell approach that works on Twitter. With millions of people on Twitter and using some (or all) of these techniques, you as an author can begin to build that all-important platform or tribe of followers  via Twitter.