It’s about the audience!

Often as I’m using Twitter (not as much on WordPress), I see tweets that don’t make me as a reader want to a) read more tweets by the author, or b) want to read the author’s book.

The reason that so many of these tweets are off putting is that they are hard sells. The hard sell is all about the writer. A soft sell is all about the audience. The generally accepted ratio of output for marketing is 80% content and 20% sales. The hard sellers output mostly sales pitches and do little to engage their audience.

Here are the five points I use in approaching my writing platform:

1 – Treat People Like They Need to be Treated

Someone told me the platinum rule is to treat people how they need to be treated. Instead of treating others how I would want to be treated, I try to put myself in their shoes. If someone writes they had a bad day, I try to sympathize and encourage because it’s the right thing to do. That’s the kind of world I want to live in.

Using Twitter and WordPress has helped me “meet” some incredible people. I hope that I’ve encouraged them a fraction of the amount that they’ve encouraged me.

Sometimes I fail. I try my best and try to improve constantly. I don’t always succeed. Sometimes I get caught up in myself, and for that I apologize.

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2 – Review Analytics Regularly

I review my stats for a WordPress and Twitter frequently.

With WordPress I see where viewers are from, what they read, and how they found me.

With Twitter I see not just where viewers are from and which tweets had the most engagement but also demographics about their other interests.

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3 – Have a Plan

After reviewing what’s working and what needs improvement in the analytics, I then use Hootsuite and plan out future posts. I scout Pinterest for pictures/memes I think my readers will enjoy and then post them.

As I use my personal Facebook if I see anything good, I save it.

I do this every week or two depending on what I’ve saved up.

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4 – Constant Contact

There have been multiple theories over the years about how often to “touch” your readers.

Some people say every three weeks, some say seven contacts converts a customer, some say with blogs it needs to be multiple times a week, but others say that each platform is different.

For Twitter at the moment, I try to scroll through and like or retweet from my feed.

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5 – Cycle Through

Afterwards, I scroll through my followers, click into a random follower’s feed and like/retweet some of their posts that appeal to my goal.

For WordPress I try to like posts from people whose work I enjoy and comment when I have something I deem worth saying.

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Fellow writers: What is your strategy for social media?