Social Media For Authors, part 2

Last week, I talked a little about social media (HERE), and in the comments/replies, I mentioned

how I drive crazy amounts of traffic to my blog using my secret method on Twitter.

It’s not really a secret. If you follow me on Twitter (my handle is Dan Alatorre AUTHOR

@savvystories) you’d see me do it. Which is what I said last week.

But me being the guy I am, I also explained that knowing WHAT to do is maybe half the battle. You need a strategy. You need a plan. You need to know that a strategy and a plan are the same thing, probably. And you need to execute the plan – as in, you have to do it.

So, what do I do?

I go to the bottom of a blog post and click the Twitter button to post it to Twitter.

But instead of tweeting it, I copy the information – and not all of it, because I don’t need to waste characters pubbing WP, but just the part I need. Tweeting the WP link takes people right to the blog.

So far so good.

Then I add an author-ey type poster, or postcard, or picture, to catch people’s eyes. A meme, if I have one.

Then I write a few words that might be interesting (I hope) and stick them in the poster tweet, ahead of the info for the WP link. Like for that Hemingway quote, above, I might write “100% agree!” or say something snarky, but usually inspiring messages get the most retweets. So for this one I usually say what I’m working on. “Today the nail says edit!” Not super inspiring, but you get the idea.

Oh, and I just happen to have a LOT of these images stored away, so I can bang ’em out fast.

And HOW did I collect all those cool authorey images? Hey, I grab ’em whenever I see one I like. Facebook, Twitter, blogs – wherever. Right click and save, ready to go when I need one. Or I Google a famous author and  to see what kind of writing quotes they’ve given, then click “images” and save them that way. Most well-known authors have said something interesting, so I Google authors I like or quotes I know.

The initial time investment to assemble a large author-oriented image collection was about an hour. Did it on a Sunday morning a while ago. Now I just add or replace an image whenever I see one I like. That takes a few seconds a few times a week. Easy peasy.

Now, coming up with a witty line to add onto it? Hey, that takes skill. Probably. It’s kinda like pancakes. The first few don’t really click, and sometimes NONE of them click, but usually after about five tweets I find the groove and get funny with it.

Usually.

Then I blast out ten or twenty of thirty tweets with this stuff, whatever I feel like doing. In a row, back to back. It’s better if I spread them out over the day but I’m human and I forget, but if it’s an important blog piece and I want good exposure I can usually pop in at breakfast, lunch and midday to send a few supplemental tweets.

 

Yep, that’s a lot.

Takes about 15 minutes.

Oh, and don’t forget to interact a little – as in, be social on social media – and if a few folks RT you, click over and say thanks. Stuff like that.

RTs drive your traffic to followers’ sites, where their friends and followers see it. Your traffic booms, so interact.

Maybe you’ll make a friend or gain a follower.

Now, I’m writing this a little in advance, so I hope to grab a screen shot of my stats and stick it HERE

 

so we can see what a difference tweeting about your blog makes. I’ve done these examples before, showing how #1LineWeds (or other hashtags – click HERE, HERE and HERE for more on that and a list of helpful hashtags, too) can boost the hell out of your traffic. There are other ways. Experiment and have fun. Ask friends what they do. Share ideas here in the comments section, then see which appeal to you.

There are no wrong answers

but if you try a few things, odds are you’ll find one you connect with and enjoy – further enhancing your blog traffic and author platform.

This is one of the things I do. What do YOU do to boost YOUR blog traffic?

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Dan Alatorre is the author of several bestsellers and the amazingly great upcoming sci fi action thriller “The Navigators.” Click HERE to check out his other works.