Periscope, Twitter’s real time video broadcasting app, may not seem like the obvious choice for authors as first glance, but if you look closer, you’ll find that there are plenty of ways for an author to grow their audience on the platform. Here is why Periscope is a great platform for writers who want to grow their audience and sell more books.
You can get up close and personal with your readers
If you are trying to connect with your readers via social media, Twitter has been the closest thing to real-time connections up until now. They ask questions, you Tweet back, and then you carry on trying to keep up with the questions in your Twitter feed.
Periscope allows your viewers to focus only on you, ask questions in the form of comments, and have you answer them back in real time, almost face to face. It helps your readers form a connection to you that will encourage them to buy more books and remain faithful fans.
You can interact with more people in less time
If you love to do book tours, but don’t have the time or money to travel from city to city, you can do a virtual book tour from the comfort of your own home, and you can reach anyone, anywhere, and at any time.
Periscope keeps the videos on the app for 24 hours and then deletes them, but you can save them to your phone and upload them to your website, so your fans can view them later when it’s convenient for them.
You can do exclusive readings for your fans
Periscope allows you to make public or private broadcasts, so you can choose to broadcast only to your followers, if you like. This allows you to do special readings or question and answer sessions just for your followers and no one else. If you have fans that aren’t following you on Periscope, you can plan a reading, announce it on your other social media platforms, and encourage fans to follow you on Periscope for access.
You can share your writing life with the world
Being an author can be a lonely profession, but thanks to Periscope, you can share your writing life with your fans and they can send you messages about your work. Periscope use the hashtag #WhereIWrite to allow famous authors to let their followers get a glimpse of their personal writing spaces via video.
It’s not just famous authors who can use the hashtag; independent authors and unknowns can become a part of the larger community of writers using the platform, and grow their own audiences as well.
For authors, the possibilities are endless when using Periscope to build a brand or loyal following. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, Periscope could be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox.
