Mentions are great! I recently posted about social media. I will work on Brian’s tips for boosting my social media following, but he also wants me to post every day. I’ve got a busy few days coming up, so I want to put another draft post in the bag.
Claire and I were staying with friends, Angie and Frank last weekend. We had a great time. Whilst we were there I got a series of mentions on Twitter. The first was from another author, Steven Veerapen. What he tweeted was this – “I’ve been writing about Anthony Standen – not very flatteringly: a spy who counted Lady Lennox, Mary Queen of Scots, Darnley, Walsingham, Essex, and Philip II among his employers. And I see he has his own thriller series by @dvswest . I’m in!” I replied as follows – “I couldn’t help writing about him. His younger brother Edmund is my 10th great-grandfather, on my mother’s side.” So we got a little conversation going. I think I got about a dozen new followers out of it, and enjoyed it. That’s got to be better than just following people and hoping they follow you back. Muck in, have conversations. I’ll try that wherever I can.
According to Brian the posting everyday is important for SEO, search engine optimisation. I’m not sure if it’s working or not. I guess it’s early days, so I’ll stick at it. I think I need more link backs from other sites. To test it I occasionally search for The Spy who Sank the Armada, my first novel. The top results are from Amazon, Kirkus, LoveReading, Goodreads, Waterstones, Blackwells, and other big players, but so far not my website. I was interested to see a facebook result from The C.J. Sansom Appreciation Society. It was a post from July, asking if anyone had read my book, and could they recommend it. There had been no replies so I thought I would. I said that I had read it many times while I was writing it. The reply I got back was that he, or she, had bought it and enjoyed it immensely, and was now reading Fire and Earth. I really enjoy getting involved in these conversations and mentions.