Does Twitter spamming sell books?
It’s no secret that spamming is a real no-no on social media and totally frowned upon. Then again,
Then again, pop-ups on web pages are an absolute pain in the neck as well, but most marketing gurus say they work exceptionally well. Email campaigns usually end up in 1,000’s of junk email inboxes but they continue to be sent out in the billions every day.
The problem is, that these techniques work when it comes to getting noticed, building an audience, and selling products, no matter how frowned upon they are.
While I don’t use pop-ups or bulk email because I just find them totally obnoxious, I have to admit that on certain social networks and Twitter, in particular, hitting hard and often really does work. Put simply, the more I Tweet my books, the more books I sell. A simple fact.
Perhaps this is because there is first of all, an acceptance on Twitter that users are more likely to be ‘flogging‘ something than on other networks. It could also be because Twitter is so instant that no one notices the previous twenty Tweets that I had sent and only notice the one that they almost accidentally saw on their timeline. This also seems to be true for Google+ and Stumbleupon, which both seem to operate in a similar manner to Twitter. However, on Facebook, I tread very carefully and post promotion rarely. Facebook is for friends and staying friends, even if it’s a Facebook Page.
For whatever reason, though, on Twitter, Google+ and Stumbleupon, I have never had a complaint about the number or frequency of posts I send.
I can imagine that some of you are now ready to run off and check my feed on Twitter to spot my ‘spamming’ activities. Well, hold on a moment. While my main Twitter account does have some promotion, this is not where I do the bulk of my promotion. I have another seven Twitter accounts for that.
Why seven more? Well, each one is targeted at different demographics and potential readers. While my main account has around 36,000 followers, my total following on all my Twitter accounts in nearing 160,000 and rising steadily. By spreading my promotional tweets across these eight accounts, it reduces their frequency and therefore is not seen as repetitive spamming, but as marketing and promotion. Well, that’s my definition anyway.
So is spamming bad? Yes of course it is. But does it work? Well, yes as well. So I’ll let you decide on the right and wrongs of this but in the meantime, I’m off to check my book sales for the day.
Every now and then I come across an idea which is so obvious it’s brilliant! As I approach 1,000 followers on my single twitter account I keep wondering exactly how I can reach a greater audience and if the time I put into it is worthwhile. The book series I co-author covers multiple genres – technothriller, romance, action/adventure, sci-fi. Book 1 in the series has high rankings in some genres at Amazon.com yet is low in the same genre in amazon.uk. In other genres the situation is reversed.
Setting up multiple Twitter accounts covering different genres and countries is the obvious solution. Thanks for pointing it out to me!
Hi Derek, I’ve done something similiar with my twitter accounts. Since mainly authors follow me on my nikisavage twitter account, I have created three other accounts which I use for promotion. I don’t worry too much about followers on those accounts, but rather use hashtags to reach my intended audience. Of course if anyone follows me on my promo accounts, I mostly follow back, once I’ve checked out their credentials.
Hi Niki. Thanks for your comment. Have you noticed though, how many followers these promo accounts attract? I’m always surprised by the number of new followers I get on my other accounts.
My promo accounts are still quite new, (2 months old) and I don’t think I tweet nearly often enough, but I plan to up the tempo soon. BTW I believe that I created those promo accounts to follow your advice in a post a while ago, so thanks for for that, Derek. :-)
Sometimes it’s the twitter name you use for these accounts. But it’s always possible to change the name later. I’ve just renamed an old account that was stagnant. It’s now attracting new followers, just because of a change of twitter handle. Go figure. But it works.
I believe you are right, Derek. A certain author wrote a copycat book of Fifty Shades of you know what. Problem is she gave her trilogy the same name as mine. I find that a lot of her readers are mistakenly coming to my blog and my twitter promo accounts. But I’ve decided that this can only benefit me in the long run, and sales have jumped on all platforms. I’ve decided that the good luck fairy must be smiling on me at last.
Derek,
Now THIS Post is quite amusing! I don’t know how many times I have run across a ‘Derek’ with surprisingly similar attitudes as the “Number One Derek” I have come to know and love – Now I know!
Same here on the frequency of posting – I have ramped up my Tweets (on occasion and to test tolerance) to a tweet every seven minutes! At seven minute intervals – and among my Ghost Chaser crowd – there are forty to sixty other tweets BETWEEN each of mine.
The noise is almost deafening – but it is absolutely hands down how I found my UK market last year.
Good Call!
Em.