BookCamp Toronto: Digital Publicity

I attended BookCamp Toronto this past weekend where Canadian book publishing professionals got together to discuss books and the publishing industry. This week on the blog, I'll be sharing key points from a few of the sessions I was able to attend on Saturday: digital publicity, tech platforms for authors, and internships.

The digital publicity session was an "ask me anything" where @reederreads, @amynicks87, and @IndigoTeenBlog answered questions about the topic. Most of the discussion focused on Twitter and how to increase your number of followers without being obnoxious. There were a lot of great points brought up by the three panelists that are applicable to any role in publishing (from writer to agent to corporate account).

Here are some interesting pieces of advice from the session:

• When you're trying to increase your followers, focus on composing one tweet a day that is really effective. Share articles and information that you think your current followers will enjoy. Don't shy away from mentioning someone (@) in a tweet or including a hashtag (#). Social media is meant to be social.

• Continuing off the point above, engagement is absolutely key to your social media success. If someone mentions you in a tweet, remember to reply. Always consider who you want to engage with on your social media platforms and structure content around this goal.

• Clickthroughs are important for any type of digital publicity. You don't want to give away too much information. Entice the audience to click on the link (especially when you're trying to direct traffic to your website or blog).

• Above all, don't have a social media account (on any platform) if your content is not genuine. Users can tell if your online persona is forced. Again, social is the word to remember. People follow an account because of the personality behind it. No one will stick around if your digital publicity sounds like a machine. The goal of publicity is to get people talking about whatever it is you're promoting - so make sure you're taking part in that dialogue.