Hacks to Reach More Readers, Interview with P.J. Simmons

This is episode 24 of Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me in this expert interview with PJ Simmons. Hey, pj. Hey.

How are you?

Great. I'm so glad that, you know we are more than overcomers. Right. We've had some tech issues today, but we are going to get this message out to those that need it. And I'm so excited to have you on here. And for those of you that may not be familiar with me, my name is Shelley Hitz and I'm the owner of Author Audience Academy. And I'm a true believer that success leaves clues. And that's one of the reasons I do these interviews, because those that have had success have something to teach us. I'm a lifelong learner. I don't know about you, but I love to keep learning. And so today I'm hosting pj and he's going to be sharing about hacks to get more readers and specifically more stuff on Twitter, which is really exciting to me because I've been really focusing more on Twitter this year. So, pj, I'm just going to share a little bit of your bio. Is that okay?

Yeah, please do.

Awesome. So PJ Simmons serves as the founder and director of Gospel Driven Entrepreneur. Love that. That's so cool. A podcast and resource company that inspires entrepreneurs to leverage their work in bringing about the kingdom of heaven on earth. With over 100 interviews, gospel driven Entrepreneur has grown to be one of the world's top faith inspired entrepreneurial podcasts on iTunes. So PJ lives in Atlanta, Georgia, which I have cousins that live there, so that's awesome. So welcome, pj.

Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited that we're able to finally figure it out and get together today.

That's right. So, you know, one of the things as an author is you write this book or you have this blog and you have this content. You have a passion to help people with that content or entertain them, if it's fiction, whatever it is. But you want to reach your audience. But sometimes you feel like it's just crickets. Like you have all this stuff to share, you have all this content, but how do you find the people that really need it. And so what are some. Just some hacks that you have found to reach more readers that you could help share with us?

Yeah, absolutely. I have quite a few of them in the tool bag. I know you mentioned Twitter earlier. I definitely have a couple more that I would love to share outside of that.

Very good.

But I guess I can start by telling where I was and where I saw a jump in my readership and listeners with specifically the podcast, because that's what I've been doing over the last year and a half.

About four or five months into launching our podcast, Gospel Driven Entrepreneur, I had a conversation with an individual from Orlando, Florida, who had found some success in podcasting and content development and getting people to visit your site and that kind of thing. And I would never have guessed this, but do you realize that people actually troll hashtags on Twitter?

And so I believe it.

I didn't believe it at first. And I was thinking, who just looks up random hashtags? Like, always think that the greatest time to look up hashtags in Twitter is when you're watching, like an award show or something the whole world is watching, because it's just the funniest stuff that you can find on there.

It's entertaining, right?

Very entertaining. But I started leveraging hashtags using that prime real estate of those 140 characters to drive more traffic to my content. And so once I started doing that, we saw a jump of 300% of people through finding our content. And so typically how we've done that is same way with authors, that if you had certain buzzwords or content, like a nice witty sentence or something, and then you had certain buzzwords that were geared towards your niche audience, your niche market, whether that's, hey, I'm writing fiction, or I'm writing about flowers or cats or dogs, whatever it may be, you know, using certain hashtags to represent that. So for, like, us, we would say something like, you know, some type of witty sentence, a link to our podcast, and then we'd hashtag entrepreneur, business, hashtag faith and work. And my goodness, readership, Listenership just immediately went up there. That's been one of the biggest Twitter hacks. In conjunction that I think pairs with that in regard to Twitter, Twitter is actually an interesting more mode of.

People finding content. And so if you ever kind of notice yourself or think about this stuff, if you're big on Twitter, if you. If you tweet a lot or read a lot of Twitter stuff, here's what I'm typically doing. I'M usually, you know, on my iPhone. And I'm.

Me too.

Yeah. I'm scrolling, like somewhat kind of super fast, so I'm not taking time to read, like, this tweet, this tweet, this tweet, like every single one. I'm looking for something that piques my interest or I see something, some type of buzzwords. I don't know, it has to be psychological of just what your brain does. And so this is why I'm a huge proponent of tweeting. Often Gospel Driven Entrepreneur. We tweet about our content once an hour, every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And that's what we do. The reason being is because just like me and just like you, you're doing this on Twitter, trying to find something interesting. And people are never on Twitter for half an hour, 40 minutes to get to the level of digging really deep in your timeline to find your content. That's why you have to constantly be tweeting. Now, the glorious thing about that, what we do at Gospel Driven Entrepreneur, we use a program called hootsuite, which is a total godsend.

I've used it for years as well.

Yes. Just scheduling social media. So I sit down on a Saturday, spend an hour or two scheduling my social media for the rest of the week. All I have to worry about the rest of the week is just sharing it, checking in.

And yeah, I mean, that's super smart. And I was. I heard somebody talking the other day that some people are hesitant about automating social media because it feels spammy or whatever. But they said it's a difference between scheduling social media and automating. Like, when you're automating DMs, automating replies, that to me, feels spammy. But when you're scheduling, that is super, super smart. Because who is sitting at their computer every hour, on the hour, like, ready to send a tweet? You know, you need to have some of those tools. And it's like hiring a va. You're hiring hootsuite as your VA to send out those tweets at those times. So hashtags are really smart. But I know a lot of authors get super confused. So can you really break it down? Like, what is a hashtag if somebody doesn't even know? Like, it used to be like, it's a pound sign. You know what I mean? But now it's like, okay, what's a hashtag? I'm confused.

Exactly. And so after Jimmy Fallon, people finally getting to the idea that this is A hashtag.

Yeah.

So for, you know, in social media, hashtags are basically clickable links that compile every ounce of, whether it's a tweet or Facebook or even on Instagram, everything that has to do with that specific word, that social media platform immediately pulls all of that content into one space. And so you have individuals say, writing, for instance, some people may be writing about nonfiction, some may be talking about leadership, some may be talking about, you know, how to build a deck on your backyard. But they can hashtag that content, hashtag, you know, writing or hashtag authors. And if you search on Twitter, the author hashtag or a hashtag, writing it automatically pulls all of that content into one space. And so what happens, just like I said, I never would imagine anybody ever doing this. For some reason.

Are actually searching social media just like you do in Google, where you search for keywords to find information that you want to know. People are doing the same thing through social media by searching hashtags. And so that's the purpose of a hashtag.

Yeah, I like to say it's kind of like a list. And so some people actually will go and look through that list and see what's interesting, like you said to them. Now, if somebody is trying to decide what hashtags to use, like you said, used business, entrepreneur, faith in work and stuff like that, how did you find those hashtags to use? Like, was it experimenting and seeing what got the most engagement? Like, how did you decide on which ones you wanted to use?

Yeah, it definitely is experimenting. One really cool route that I took in that process was specifically through Twitter. You can actually look up specific hashtags and see how many tweets are caught under that hashtag. And so, for instance, I can research or search hashtag entrepreneur. It'll tell me this. Many people have tweeted about entrepreneurship where if I did something like, you know, hashtag post it notes and business, you know, that's super, super niche to. Where it really doesn't give a wide enough, you know, broad array of people to be able to find it. But if I'm able to connect and, you know, my goal with hashtags is to basically have a monopoly on that list. I want to own that real estate. When people come and search for entrepreneur or for business or for faith and work, I want them to see gospel driven entrepreneur. Gospel driven entrepreneur.

Gospel driven Every hour. On the hour.

Right.

On the hour. So, yeah, so definitely a lot of. A lot of experiments. Yeah, researching. And it's super easy to do. Just type in certain keywords that your is you typically use for your content, just hashtag whatever word and you'll see some that have more tweets under them than others. And then I would just go with the ones that have the most tweets.

Yeah. Another thing that I recently found out about. Have you heard of the tool twitonomy.com?

I haven't, no.

Twitonomy.com I can put in your username and see what are the hashtags PJs using the most. It will tell me what hashtags you use the most. So you can also go to influencers in your niche and search for them on twitonomy.com and find out what hashtags are they're using. And that gives you a few, like to start with, you know, just to start looking then on Twitter and say, okay, how many people are using this? Maybe it's just something they randomly chose and they didn't have a strategy on that hashtag. You know, I feel like sometimes that's what it is. But that's just another little tool that people can use. And then for scheduling, something I started to use that I'm really liking is Post Planner.

I can actually choose to have my post automatically rescheduled on a certain basis. Now, you have to be really careful with that because Twitter is kind of, they don't like the duplicate content. You don't want to do it all the time and, you know, every tweet. But what I'm doing is I'm scheduling some of those and then I'll be evaluating which ones do the best. Keep those in the queue, you know, and then change up some of the other ones and they allow you to edit it before it goes live again. And so that's a real time saver and can be a great tool for people, too. But tell us a little bit. You've also said you've had some success on Instagram. Tell us a little bit about Instagram.

Yeah, Instagram is kind of the man. It is the, well, not necessarily the next big thing. It is the thing now, especially with young people. Yeah, definitely. When you're engaging millennials, your 20s, 30s, getting into teenagers, those type of things. Instagram is huge. It is mainly because we are such visual creatures as it is already. You're starting to see actually a lot more sponsored Instagram posts. If you guys are on Instagram, you start probably started. I've actually caught it begin upping its game in the last two weeks, just more ads becoming on Instagram and just like Twitter, it uses the exact same format as far as leveraging hashtags for people to find your content. And so just like Twitter, you want to use that real estate for hashtags. Now, the great thing about Instagram is that there's no character limits. So that is huge when it pertains to kind of telling more compelling stories and narratives for your image, you have much more of an opportunity to share your personality, your brand.

How gifted you are at storytelling through the process of using Instagram, more than only being limited to 140 characters through Twitter. And so Instagram, you can write a couple paragraphs. I've got 25 different hashtags. And if you're creating really good images with really good content, man, people are going to notice, people are going to engage with that. And so that is another great tool to drive people. First off, it's another avenue, another mode that you can write and people can find your content content. Secondly, you can link your website, your blog, whatever, to your Instagram account. That's something that I typically do to my Instagram account is saying, hey, to read more, find out more, click the link in the bio and it automatically shoots them straight to your website or straight to your blog.

Yeah, and with Instagram, I think the limit is 30 hashtags right now. And I've maxed it.

Oh, you say you found the limit?

Yeah, I've maxed it out. So right now I just kind of copy and paste. I have a file in Evernote where it saves all of mine. So I have some that are just about quotes, because I share a lot of quotes and stuff. Then I have some that are about my Christian faith, and then I have some that are about entrepreneurship and business and so. And authors and stuff too. And so I have those 30 hashtags. I just use the same ones. But it is so true when I forget or if I don't have those hashtags on an image one day, it's like the engagement, you know, it goes so much. You know, it just. It decreases by so much. And so, yeah, it's so, so smart if you are on Instagram or Twitter, to really spend a little bit of time up front researching the hashtags, keep them in a file somewhere on your. You know, I use it on Evernote because then I can access it on my phone if I'm posting from my phone or on my computer if I'm on my computer, but have it somewhere, maybe in Dropbox, and then you can just keep reusing, use some different Ones on Twitter, see which ones do best. And yeah, like on Instagram, I just keep copying and pasting the same 30.

Exactly. There's nothing wrong with that. That's very smart.

Yeah. So there's so much in social media. And so how do authors, you know, avoid overwhelm? You know, it's like there's Instagram and you know, I was talking on a periscope this morning, it was like bright shiny object syndrome. You know, it's like we can get so distracted. So how do we do these things and reach those readers and not get distracted away from our purpose and what God has us, you know, to do?

Yeah, that is really, really good. My biggest suggestion for that. Well, couple things. First off, you want to really quickly test the avenues that work best for your audience. For some individuals, Twitter is going to work a lot better than Instagram or better than Facebook. And that's going to have some toying and playing around with. But for a practical insight on really how to save time and use those things wisely is really to consolidate all of those platforms into one. I do that by using hootsuite. Through hootsuite, I'm able to link my Instagram account, my Facebook page, my Twitter, my LinkedIn, and all I have to do is come up with an update or a status once, click all four of the links and it automatically shoots it out to all four of those or all five of those, rather than posting something on Twitter and then having to go to Instagram and then having to go to LinkedIn and all these other places. So it's a huge time saving hack. And the great thing, hootsuite is free up to a couple of different platforms. And so even if you just wanted to use the free platform, I did that for years. Yeah, just use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, you should be good to go. And you don't pay anything. And I think the next pay up is like maybe five bucks a month. So it's literally totally worth saving you the crazy amount of time it would take to go all the way and post a Facebook, post a Twitter post, Instagram, LinkedIn, all these other random social media platforms. So that's been my biggest hack as far as using my time wisely in social media.

Yeah. And I also heard you say earlier, you batch that, so you do it in a chunk of time, one time in the week. So that is definitely a hack. And a productivity tip is to do it all at once. And the other thing that I just wanted to bring up, winding down here Is I heard you say on Twitter you would share a witty phrase. Yeah, you know, I mean, we can be very boring sometimes. And I, you know, I love to encourage and I love to inspire, and sometimes, you know, I have to. Have to really think, okay, you know, what, what can I. How can I engage or be? But I think that that was, you know, you have to be who you are and who God has created you to be. But if you can, I mean, if you are witty, if you are funny and have that humor, or if you have a way to make it more entertaining. Social media, a lot of people are there for entertainment to be distracted. And so the more you can do things like that, the more I think you can also draw people in as well, knowing your target audience and what hits them the most as well. So as we're closing, I always love to give a take action tip. I love working with action takers. And so what is one tip that you would give today as we wind down from what you shared that you would recommend the listeners taking action on?

Yeah, absolutely. I would say the biggest action step is start putting hashtags in your social media updates. You will be pleasantly surprised, I promise you.

How many do you normally add on Twitter, by the way?

On Twitter, I'm usually adding about two or three.

Okay. Yeah, that's what I normally recommend too. Yeah.

So two or three on Twitter.

So that's your assignment today. Go and just research a couple of hashtags and start adding them to your tweets. You know, see how it goes. And, you know, you can change it ebb and flow as you go. But, pj, where can people find you? Where's the best place for them to connect with you?

Yeah, absolutely. On Twitter. You can find me at pjsimmons. Also, our company, ospeldrivenent, and then our website is gospeldrivenentrepreneur.com yes.

And he also hosts the podcast Gospel Driven Entrepreneurs. So if you're looking for another podcast and want to check him out, definitely go over there and subscribe. Check him out. If you love the content, leave him a review. We love reviews. Right. Just like authors.

And definitely go follow him on Twitter and check out what he's doing, because like I said earlier, success leaves clues. So you can just watch what he's doing and you can also continue to learn more that way as well. So thank you so much for being here, pj. I appreciate it. I don't know if you know, my husband's, his name is cj. So I was like, oh, another, another you know, another initial, pj cj. So it was great to have you. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. It was great being here.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.