How important Twitter is to your book?

I was never a fan of Twitter (mainly because I didn't understand the point of it and...I didn't really understand how to use it effectively!), however, I am now addicted.


Any social networking medium is going to be beneficial to anyone wanting to market themselves but what I have found out is, the way you fail is not understanding how to use it to it's maximum potential.

I used to dabble with Twitter but never really knew what to write and always wonder why some people had over 5k followers and some only had 50?


Then I started to do my research.


I was happy and comfortable marketing my books through YouTube and Facebook but realised I needed to 'up my game' and get on board with Twitter so I started following fellow authors and looked at how they conducted there accounts.


Without overloading their followers with information about their work, instead, they posted quotes, got involved in trends and set up automated messages, which would allow new followers to feel special as it sent them a personal message thanking them for taking the time to follow the individual.


Feeling confident with my first stage of research, I amended my account, started following some fellow authors, published messages in the trends which were primarily about writing and authors and took full advantage of the trends in influential countries (e.g. UK, USA, India, etc).


Now my followers are rising steadily but I'm also (finally) having fun with my messages as I'm not bombarding anyone with my work or trying to sell myself constantly, I am building up a contact base to learn from my fellow authors and to get my name out there by taking an interest in my followers and what they have to say, instead of forcing my marketing down there throats!


More to come about my Twitter experiences!