TWITTER TUESDAY: How to Use Your Twitter Bios

I’m inspired by Kristen Lamb to do a Twitter Tuesdays series. Today is #2!

I’m inspired by Kristen and her book, We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media… as you may have guessed by reading this blog. 🙂

Today we’ll focus on how to use your Twitter bio to show off your author platform to its best advantage.

Many authors think their bios are a place to put everything and the kitchen sink, and that will make them interesting to readers. or they do the opposite and make themselves so mysterious and only understandable to people who already know and love them.

Guys, guys, we’re on Twitter to gain a following, get people curious about what we offer, and to have some fun. Am I right? Or am I right?

So make your bio work for you! A smartly written bio can attract all the right readers like bees to honey. {Where have I heard that? Okay, I’m back.} An ineffective bio is a missed opportunity, a cry for help, and denial that social networking is to ultimate help you build your platform and yes! help you sell more books!

In a moment I’ll give you some tips on how to do just that.

Okay, I get that you may not be using Twitter to do those things, and in that case, the rest of this article won’t mean much to you. For everyone else, keep reading! (Either way, I say have fun with Twitter!)

Aside from our picture and what we say in our tweets the only other real estate on twitter for groking who we are is your bio.

Your Twitter Bio: WHAT is it?
:: Can only be up to 160 spaces long.
:: Your website is put somewhere else. Whew!
:: Edit under Settings/Profile.
:: You can change it whenever you like. In fact in the course of reading Kristen’s book and since I’ve been adjusting my bio, tweaking it according to how I want to highlight myself.

Your Titter Bio: WHAT do I write?
I’m going to answer that question with a series of questions.

• How do you want to be thought of by your readers?
• What is the one important thing you want readers to know about you?
• What can you say that displays your personality and gives a flavor of your writing?

Yes! We’re writers and we can show all those things in our Twitter bio.

Look at what these authors have done in their bios! As my coaches say, learn from the best, and surround yourself with winners!

Notice that all these authors state the title of their latest book.

But what do you do if you have a forthcoming book that doesn’t even have a title, or maybe you’re not ready to release the title.

Still let us know that you’re coming out with a book to generate curiosity, like I do… {*Curiosity is the first stage in the sales process…}

Bonus! My Twitter Bio…