Why I Lost 15,000 followers in 24 hours

Last week I lost 15,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours. For many people that loss would have been devistating and possibly wiped out their following. I went from 220,000 to 205,000 followers. I've been on Twitter since 2008 and actively working every day to increase my following.

What happened?  An article in the New York Times explained Twitter is battling fake accounts and has slashed millions of these accounts. As the article explains, “Twitter’s decision will have an immediate impact: Beginning on Thursday, many users, including those who have bought fake followers and any others who are followed by suspicious accounts, will see their follower numbers fall.”

I applaud Twitter's actions in this area but it has had impact on many users. At one point years ago as an experiment, I did buy some followers and my followers increased over a 24-hour period. Now those followers were fake accounts and I would not expect them to engage with me or be interested in any of my tweets.

Last year one of my writer friends launched a book with a New York publisher (in fact one of the big five). She had a modest Twitter following but in a short amount of time her followers increased to over 100,000–-which looks suspiciously like she purchased those followers rather than growing the following (as I have done). I just checked her followers and now she has 14,500 followers for a dramatic drop.

I want to make several key points from this experience to help you:

1. While Twitter continues to be an important social network, do not try and game the system with buying fake followers. I have written about the five actions I take every day on Twitter. There are good reasons I have a large Twitter following.

2. Don't forget Twitter is “rented” space. I don't own or have any connection to the Twitter company. They could cancel or block my account at any time eliminating my presence. I don't expect this elimination to happen and to my knowledge have been obeying their rules (key for everyone).

If you don't understand this concept of rented media, I encourage you to study Mastering the New Media Landscape by Barbara Cave Henricks and Rusty Shelton.  I regularly speak with authors who have built their entire platform on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or Twitter. Yet these authors have never considered the risk of such efforts.

3. Diversification is important as you plan your presence in the marketplace. Henricks and Shelton talk about this in the final chapter of their book giving six ways to “futureproof” your media presence. The advise is wise and worth your following it. Make sure you have media that you own: your websites, your blog and your email list.  If you haven't read my free ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author, I encourage you to get it here.

There is one safe prediction I can make about the social media landscape: it will continue to shift and change.

What steps are you taking to master the new media landscape?  Let me know in the comments below.

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Why Authors Need An Online Press Room

Every author has to be proactive when it comes to telling others about your book. This stance doesn't use messages like “buy my book” which do not work. Instead your actions need to stress and highlight the benefits of your book and what readers will gain from it. One area which I have not discussed before is an online press room.

Increasingly the media are using tools like Google to find sources for interviews. One of the best tools to increase your visibility with the media is to create an online press room for your book. For some time, I've had this tool in my plans and finally built it for my book, Billy Graham, A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist. On November 7th, Mr. Graham will turn 98 years old. I encourage you to follow this link and check out my online press room which is full of information.

What does an online press room include?

Journalists (print or broadcast) are looking for easy ways to reach an author. Your first step is to understand what they need:

• Author contact information — provide several easy methods to reach you via phone and email
• Author biography or information about the author
• A Book Press Release
• Suggested questions for the author about the book
• Media samples of when the author is interviewed
• Samples of the book
• Visuals for the book—cover photos and author photos

I hope you will check out my online press room and notice each of these resources in my press room. I expect to add to these resources in the days ahead. Because I've launched my press room, I hope different people in the media will begin to use this resource.

As the author, you have to be doing interviews to have media samples for your book. Often authors forget to ask for a copy of the interview or download it from the journalist after the interview. You need this material for your online press room and to show the media that you are regularly being interviewed about your book.

Proactive authors have built an online press room and gathered the essential documents where a journalist can connect with the author and write a story or schedule their own broadcast interview. According to PR and marketing expert Rusty Shelton increasingly media are using these online press rooms to reach out to authors and schedule interviews. Your first step as an author is awareness that you need one. Next gather the materials for such an effort or create them such as writing your own press release or a list of suggested questions. Finally build your site and begin promoting it through social media to others.

Do you have an online press room? Has it helped you gain increased opportunities to promote your book or schedule interviews with the media? If so, let me know in the comments below. Proactive authors are always looking for the next opportunity. Literary agents and editors are attracted to these types of active authors.

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Once again, I made the list of the Top 100 Marketing Experts to follow on Twitter from Evan Carmichael. He creates this list from different variables such as retweets and more. I'm honored to be #61 on this list. Hope you will check it out.

Writers On the Move

I have a new article on Writers On the Move. A couple of months ago I learned about this group and got the opportunity to contribute once a month.

My article today about How To Grow A Large Twitter Following is not new information to readers of The Writing Life. Yet I want you to know about it for several reasons:

First, support Writers On the Move by reading their content. Notice in the right-hand column there is a simple place to subscribe to the blog. I encourage you to do this and get their different posts via email (so you will not miss anything). I'm a subscriber and have been learning a great deal from my fellow contributors.

Second, understand the value of guest blogging on other people's site. In my article, I include several links to some of my other online resources. It's what you can also do when you guest blog. From my experience sometimes they restrict the use of these links to your brief bio but even this case is exposure to a new audience of people. It will help you generate traffic and other things to your own content.

In Mastering the New Media Landscape, Barbara Cave Hendricks and Rusty Shelton call this type of content “rented media.” It is not my blog or content yet I get to contribute here once a month. In this particular instance, one of my friends recommended me as a contributor. There are numerous opportunities where you can also ask to become a guest blogger or a regular contributor. I want to encourage you to go after this type of exposure for your own writing life.

As writers, we are surrounded with many opportunities. Will you seize the day and take advantage of this opportunity for your own writing?

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How to Make Sense of the Ever-Changing Media World

The world around us is always changing.  Magazines and newspapers which existed several years ago are gone. New social networks for authors spring up often.  As a writer, you want to make sense of these changes and understand them—but more important than awareness, you want to select the ones which are going to be the most effective for you and your writing.

The advice you find is often conflicting. Some people would say blogging is your path while others will proclaim the key is Pinterest or Twitter or radio. As a writer in the publishing community, you feel pushed and pulled in many different directions so you spin around and around and are unsure which way to go. When I discover this conflicting information, I seek information from long-term experts in the area. 

Earlier this month, two PR experts released Mastering the New Media Landscape. I read this book cover to cover and learned a great deal. Some of what I learned is captured in this article.In straight-forward language, Barbara Cave Henricks and Rusty Shelton explain how successful marketing has changed in recent years.

 Today’s marketing landscape includes three categories which matter for your focus: rented, earned and owned media. Like a three-legged stool, promotion needs to encompass each area. For years, earned media was the only game in town like television, radio, or a review in the New York Times. As they explain on page 14, “The challenge with earned media is that it is extremely difficult to get.” Rented media is “a presence and content that you control but that lives on someone else’s platform or stage.” (also page 14). Examples of rented media are Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. They are rented because as a user you do not control the platform and for any reason, they could disappear. Owned media is something you control like your blog or website (assuming it is on your own domain) and your email list. Because you own the media, you can make a direct connection to your target audience.

Mastering the New Media Landscape page 15

Mastering the New Media Landscape is packed with current examples and specific how-to information. You will want to use your highlighter with this book and consume every detail, then take action to apply it to the successful marketing of your own products, services and brand.

As they explain in the opening chapter, “The key change we want to encourage you to make is to think of reaching an audience via earned or rented media, not just as the end goal but rather as crucial components of driving people to your owned media space, be it your website or email list, where you can extend that interaction for a much longer period of time.” (page 20)

Many authors and even some publishers and “PR experts” have a haphazard plan to embrace the changing media landscape.  I highly recommend a careful and thorough reading then application of Mastering the New Media Landscape.

To summarize, here's two key points for every writer:

1. When you need advice, turn to experts—not just the first person who crosses your path but someone with years of experience.

2. Try their advice and if it works follow it. If it does not work for you, stop. Your path to find your audience is different from my path. Each of us need to take action and be working at it. Doing nothing is the sure path to failure. Take action today.

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