This article was inspired by @thecreativepenn and @cjlyonswriter's four-part series titled “How to Sell a Million Books.” The article got me seriously thinking about that one question that lurks in the back of every ambitious author's mind.
Can a self-publisher sell a million books via Twitter? Is it even possible? After some research, I came to the conclusion that it was possible.
First of all, I believe that it is important for every self-published author to first understand what social ranking means to their business.
Social Ranking is sometimes referred to as the social score, the Klout score, or the influence score. Every social networking site on the internet have a social ranking system for users on their site, especially on Twitter.
My Twitter handle is @earth2edgar.
I've had the same Twitter account for about 5 years and I really didn't do much with it. In the beginning, I was interested in art. I followed a couple hundred artist. About less than half followed me back. I didn't care. During that time, I was barely using Twitter because I was mostly on Facebook.
I really didn't understand how Twitter worked. I wasn't big on tweeting anything.
However, the time came for me to re-evaluate what I was doing with my Twitter account. I was finished up a book project and I was now thinking about book marketing. I needed to understand how could I use Twitter to further my self-publishing goals.
So I started using Twitter more strategically. I found out that I had a social ranking of 1 and 65 followers. That was on November 10th. By November 25th, I had a social ranking 27 and about 1600 followers.
In the last month , I frequently used Twitter and did all the things that we all do, like tweeting, following, retweeting and mentioning. During that time, I connected with writers and authors who shared my same interest, like #bookmartketing #selfpublishing and #WritingTips.
Eventually, I became interested in the author as entrepreneur. Like Joanne Penn who runs the writing podcast at TheCreativePenn.com, I wanted to sell my words. After researching her social ranking on Twitter, I realized that social rank mattered. It was the first time that I saw the data for myself.
For self-published authors who are trying to promote their book, the higher the rank, the better. It means that your audience is engaged by your message.
Social Ranking is a numeric value associated to every Twitter account. Everyone is given a social rank by an algorithm developed by Twitter. When you sign up with Twitter, everyone starts out with a social rank of 1. However, this is not the only kind of account that is given a social ranking of 1. For example, there are Twitter accounts that have been inactive for a long periods of time and they are also given a social rank of 1.
Currently, I have a social rank of 27. Which was better than where I was 15 days ago. I was surprised to find out that I had a higher rank, than one of my favorite writing podcasts, the Dead Robot Society Writing Podcast @drspodcast. That podcast has been running for the last 6 years and they have a dedicated audience. However, I found out that the Dead Robots weren't very active on Twitter. That lack of activity was reflected in their social ranking.
What makes up your social rank?
There are several factors that go into measuring it. For example, Twitter measures how many times you activate their application from a phone vs. a desktop? How many times you use their database to retrieve information? How many times have you been mentioned? How often you tweet? How often you retweet? And so on and so on. As a result, Twitter collects all this data on you to determine your social rank and assign you a number.
However, there is a caveat.
Every company on the internet measures social rank differently. Twitter measures it one way and other companies measure it another way.
You should always remember that your social rank is not absolute and should not be taken as gospel. This number is only a general guide for you to use. It's a way measuring the influence that your Twitter account yields.
Is your number going up by ten or going down by ten? Is your number going down because your message is not connecting with your following.
To identify your own social rank, you can go to websites like Klout.com, http://www.peerindex.net, http://www.retweetrank.com and http://www.twitalyzer.com. All these websites will crunch the data from your Twitter account and spit out a number. Even if you disagree with how they measure social rank, it is a good opportunity for you to start looking and working with data. Your social rank number is the kind of data that will guide your book marketing campaign.
For example, Klout.com said that my overall social rank is 49. I guess that's better than 1.
In another example, Retweetrank.com said that my retweet rank was approximately in the 84th percentile of the entire Twitter universe. Okay, that sounds good.
Remember, social ranking numbers like these are meant to establish a baseline where you can track your progress as your expand your readership on Twitter. Is your number going up by ten or going down by ten? Is your number going down because your message is not connecting with your audience or is it on point. If its going down or staying flat, then its time to revisit your twitter messaging strategy.
In the end, it is important for self published authors to be active on twitter and work to increase their social ranking. The higher is better. By doing so, you are increasing the breathe of your readership and exercising the influence that your Twitter account holds. I believe that understanding how social ranking works will aid you achieving the goals of your book marketing campaign.
Thanks for reading. @Earth2Edgar
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About the Author: Edgar A. Bajana is an Author Entrepreneur who writes about Twitter and readership development for writers & self-published authors. His twitter handle is @earth2edgar. Follow him. Edgar has seven years of professional experience in data research and data analysis.
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