Whether you are sending
a Tweet, writing a book, giving an Elevator
Pitch or attempting any other form of promotion, there is NO time to waste.
If you can’t hook the message recipient immediately, then it is all just wasted
breath. I usually don’t like to sound like a downer, but this is a simple fact.
When you are
micro-blogging in Twitter you have a mere 140-characters to deliver your
message; there are also approximately 58-million Tweets sent out every day. If
you don’t do something to make that Tweet stand out it probably won’t be read
and certainly any link you’ve attached will be ignored. You have to put a hook
in the first word or two or your effort is useless. Starting your Tweet with a tagged (#) keyword is one way to grab
someone’s attention; try to keep any hashtags used to no more than two in one
Tweet. Use shortened URLs as links — one service you can use to get short links
is Bit.ly.com, Hootsuite allows you to automatically shorten the URL. Using
brevity (using less than 140-characters is fine), punch and varying post-times
will help you get attention. Make sure that if you are tweeting a headline or
common phrase, put something in that is distinctive.
Readers will often open
a book, or take a Look Inside on an
online retail site to see if the book seems interesting which basically means
you need to hook that reader in the first few sentences or there will be NO
SALE, no interest in taking the time to read more. Some experienced authors believe
that a book has to grab the potential reader within the first 50-words. Many
writers will open the book’s narrative in the middle of action or pose a question
which will intrigue the reader. Full length books should have more than one
hook spread out through the story to keep readers turning pages. Short stories,
articles and blog posts will benefit from catchy headlines.
An Elevator Pitch, a
phrase referring to a short sales pitch, was so named because of the short
amount of time a salesperson had a captive audience in an elevator. Your
elevator pitch, given verbally, should be no more than two minutes and include
the highlights of what you are offering; give enough information to interest
the listener but not so much that you overwhelm or bore. Most people are, by
need or desire, easily distracted and if what you are saying isn’t interesting,
they won’t listen. Keep your pitch conversational, don’t turn it into a
lecture, outline the important points, keep it simple, let your listener hear
WHY they want to know more, and end
with an opening by letting the person know how to get more info such as handing
them your business card and contact info.
No matter what approach
you are using to communicate and sell your idea, you need to grab attention as
early in your presentation as possible. You need to find a way to stand out
without going so far out of bounds that the recipient of your message is made
uncomfortable.
Writing Exercise: Using your latest manuscript, WIP, or
recent book you’ve read, make a list of the highlights, explain what makes this
book different from the others, and list some of the hooks used in the story to
keep readers interested.
Writing Prompt: You wake up locked in a strange room;
you have no idea where you are or why. There is a cell phone with only enough
power left in it to send ONE text message (up to 160-characters). WHO are you
going to message and WHAT are you going to say?
Challenge Assignment:
1) Write an Elevator Pitch to sell your latest story to an editor and 2)
Write three Tweets about your latest book for readers and include one-to-two
tagged keywords in each.
