Greetings and Salutations -

My Aspen Allegations first murder mystery novel is currently free on Kindle, so I’m doing a big promotion to drum up downloads. That should then push the book up the rankings and result in sales and reviews when this is over with. My first step is to promote it on Twitter.

Here's what I'm doing. You can take these same steps to promote an article, a free ebook promotion period, or anything else you want your readers to take action on.

There are three keys in Twitter. First, the people you directly tweet to (your followers) see that message. Second, if you ask them to retweet (forward, abbreviated as RT) it, often they do, which means now THEIR followers see it (and so on). Third, if you use a hashtag, then all the people all over the world who are “watching” that hashtag see your message. So for example someone who loves kindle books might sit there watching #FreeKindle on the side of their desktop. The listing app just scrolls when it has new posts. So when you make your post using that hashtag, it pops up on their list, and they click to get it. This is how many people use Twitter – they set up watch lists on certain hashtags and news relating to that hashtag pops into their list. They don’t have to know you or have any idea who you are. All that matters is you used a hashtag that they’re following.

So here’s what I did for this recent promotion. I made the initial post in my SuttonMass feed, about this Sutton Massachusetts related free ebook.

Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery is FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #cozymystery #FreeKindleBooks

Twitter has a limited number of characters so you have to optimize. Note the URL will “auto squish” in TweetDeck, which is what I’m using, so it won’t be that long URL. It’ll squish down to the smallest space possible.

That leaves me with space for the key bits of news. The name. It’s free on Kindle. Please RT (that’s key to say. People are far more likely to share if you ask). Then the URL and two hashtags. The hashtags both give more information to the reader directly (“aha this is a cozy mystery”) and also mean the tweet shows up in the feed of all those people who keep an eye on the #cozymystery hashtag.

So, one down. I’m lucky enough to run a number of different feeds. So now I start retweeting my post from the other feeds. NOTE THAT I CHANGE THE HASHTAGS!! If I just used the same hashtag again, I’d be hammering the same list of people. They already have heard about my book, the first time I made a post using that hashtag. Instead, I use different hashtags each time. That way I reach entirely new groups of people with each post – both the direct followers of that other list and also all the people watching those new hashtags.

You can go to twitter.com and search on a hashtag to see how popular it is. This gives you guidance on which ones to use in relationship to your book. You want it to be on topic, of course. If my book has no horses in it then using a hashtag of #ilovehorses wouldn’t help much. But if the book has yoga scenes throughout it and I hashtag #yoga then people who love yoga might click on it, read that it has yoga in the summary, and give it a shot. You want to focus in on your target audience as much as possible.

Below are the tweets I sent – ask if you have any questions! You can use this same technique for the projects you want to promote. If you only have a few Twitter accounts, talk to family and friends about cross-promoting with them.


LisaSheaAuthor
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #giveaway #FreeKindle

EnjoyMAWebsite
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #free #ebookfree

LisaShea
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #ebookdeal #mystery

LisaShea_hivol
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #freebies #sutton

RomanceClass
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #mysteryromance #cozy

WineIntro
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #murdermystery #wine

WeddingsLisa
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #truelove #lovestory

LisaSheaOrigami
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #kindledeal #yoga

LisaSheaArtist
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #robertfrost #autumn

ASPIsFun
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #ebooks #bargain

BVAA
RT @suttonmass: Aspen Allegations - A Sutton Massachusetts Mystery FREE on Kindle! Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/Aspen-Allegations-Sutton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BO0K7ZI/ #WorcesterMA


Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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