“To hold a pen is to be at war.”~Voltaire, French writer
Last week, I missed my crystal promotion moment everywhere.
My Star Trek MomMemoir that I’ve been rambling about for weeks that takes place in Las Vegas has the perfect tie-in event with the annual Creation Star Trek convention. Imagine that. I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity, and I missed that. However, note the word “annual.” Now I can plan for that. But where can I promote this book before then?
Twitter hashtags are instant and direct ways to reach people who share your interest. That’s where I found my immediate audience to spread the word about this book and future fans of my other books. Following hashtags within Tweets of the hashtag you initially searched for presents you with a pyramid of promotional possibilities.
Take my book. It’s after the convention, but still, I want to know my audience from there. I want to find people interested in my book, so I start with the subject material: #StarTrek. Within that hashtag, I find convention-specific hashtags: #STLV for the convention itself and #STLV50 for this year’s convention celebrating Star Trek’s 50th anniversary. Searching those convention hashtags led me to others, among them #LLAP, #TrekFamily and #Vulcan.
I look at the people who are Tweeting these hashtags. Who were Tweeting often about or during the convention? I easily discovered the owners or organizers of the convention: @CreationEnt. This company also hosts conventions for other fan-favorite TV shows and movies. Noted for future. Continuing the search for Tweeters, I find at random @TrekConvention, @TrekGeekDan and @FanSets. Who they follow will probably add to my promotion network. Another note for the future.
In some of the Tweets, I see television shows I mention in my memoir. There’s #TOS for the original series, #TNG for Star Trek: The Next Generation, #Voyager, #DS9 and #Enterprise. I’m sure the movies also have specific hashtags.
I see Tweets mentioning cast members or ones by the actors themselves. Duh!
All this and I haven’t even looked into the Las Vegas city-related hashtags yet.
Twitter makes it easy to establish a community. You can get lost diving through and through and deeper and deeper into the hashtags that lead to other hashtags that lead to others. You may think that’s a lot of time, but I did this search while I wrote this blogposts, which was maybe an hour. I also clicked through some of the Tweets to Instagram photos, maybe people I can now follow. I love Instagram.
Back on Twitter, doing this hashtag search under “Top” and “latest” tabs bring different results. With Twitter being an in-the-moment media outlet, I always thought that Latest would provide a more accurate, active engagement with my audience. Connection. Conversation. Brining out the “social” aspect of social media. I used to snub at that Top Tweets tab in general. How good can they be? Top Tweets are probably something promoted or have a gif of a kitty cat, something so instantly likable and inane and, therefore, immediately shared. Why bother? However, Top Tweets are made by the Influential Industry Professionals, or so I consider after this hashtag search. These people may have 14.3K followers and are following 32 accounts, never to blink in your direction, but why not? There’s no harm in following the industry’s trusted expert. CreationEnt may never even see a Tweet or pay attention to a Mention, but there’s no harm in tagging my Tweet with them.
What are some related tags to or of your work? They are out there. Searching for and finding these hashtags help you define your audience even if you have no idea who your audience should be.
I’m forgetting the obvious genre tie-ins to my book, hashtags like #memoir, #scifi, #nonfiction, #mom and #family.
Now that I have a plethora of promo hashtags, what about seasonal tie-ins? Mother’s Day in May is obvious, but Father’s Day in June is just as relevant. Grandparents Day is in September, and these people grew up and are most intimate with #TOS. Moms and dads grew up watching the overlapping timelines of #TNG and #DS9 and #Voyager. Holidays are always good for family-focused books: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. In my case, patriotic or governmental holidays don’t fit. Just as well; I don’t have to be present everywhere to be successful. Paraphrasing some great writing advice I recently received, the more focused you are, the stronger your campaign will be.
What’s next? This list of tags, companies and people is the start of contacts and tie-ins. Now that I have my list–and you probably have yours–what’s next? Fit this into my marketing campaign, of course.
< To Be Continued… 🙂 >
