3110, 2013

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Followers: Book Marketing without B.S. #1

Beverly Bambury/ October 31, 2013/ BookMarketingWithoutBS, Facebook, Marketing, Publicity, Self-Promotion, Social Skills, Twitter/ 0 comments

Book Marketing without B.S. is a weekly publicity and marketing advice column for writers and other creators who prefer a realistic, clear, and no-nonsense approach. The marketing and publicity worlds are important for understanding audience and customers, and getting the right word out to the right people; but, let’s be honest. There’s also a lot of bullshit. My goal is to help you cut through the B.S. with direct, understandable advice you won’t be embarrassed to follow. Welcome to my inaugural Book Marketing withouth BS column. Today’s question was asked anonymously, and it’s about purchasing followers on Twitter (and by extension, purchasing likes/on other blogs and social media such as Facebook, Pinterest, etc.). The short answer to this is “Don’t do it”. Below is

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2509, 2013

A Hard Line Against Twitter DMs for Promotion and Marketing

Beverly Bambury/ September 25, 2013/ Advertising, DIY, Marketing, Publicity, Self-Promotion, Social Skills, survey, Twitter/ 5 comments

Stop using Twitter DMs for marketing or publicizing your stuff. Just. Stop. (You’re going to like this one. It’s short to read and I am telling you to do less.) Here’s why: A minimum of 90% of the DMs I receive parrot the exact same stuff/links that is already on the sender’s Twitter profile or in a bunch of their tweets. If someone’s already looked at your profile and decided to add you, you don’t need to repeat yourself in a DM. “But I’ve got free stuff to share with followers! I need to make sure they don’t miss it!” Tweet it instead. Twitter is for tweeting. You can add it to your profile, too. It won’t be that hard to find. Honest. And

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0906, 2013

5 No-BS Twitter Tips for Authors (and Everyone Else)

Beverly Bambury/ June 9, 2013/ Self-Promotion, Twitter/ 0 comments

I was inspired to write this post with my no-bull Twitter guide for writers after answering questions about Twitter for a colleague not too long ago. I am sure you’ve heard some of this before; however, I think a lot of it will be new, and all of it bears repeating. It also often applies to other social media interactions. So let’s dive in:1 – Have A Purpose And that purpose probably should be to network with other authors. If you haven’t stopped reading with that line, let me also say that another purpose certainly can be to have genuine conversations and social experiences with readers, too. Note I said “genuine conversations”: if your expectation is that tweeting out your announcements will build relationships

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0906, 2013

Self-Promotion on Social Media – Survey Results

Beverly Bambury/ June 9, 2013/ DIY, Publicity, Self-Promotion, Twitter/ 0 comments

(Originally published at http://www.elsewords.com in July 2012.) Good evening! It’s been another overly-full week, but last weekend at Polaris and the monthly Chiaroscuro Reading Series event were well worth cramming in everything else. More on those events later. Right now I’d like to share some of the results of Beverly’s Unscientific Survey of Social Media Preference. I have the survey questions and results discussion after the break. Also, be sure to see the comments section, which has some great comments. I got 80 replies to the following questions:1. How often do you use Twitter? Daily 2-3 times per week Once per week 2-3 times per month Once per month Less frequently than once per month 2. In the last month have you re-shared someone else’s tweet on Twitter, Facebook

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