This is a guest post by Julie Proudfoot. Julie is an Australian writer and blogger and award-winning author of The Neighbour. Julie writes from her home in Bendigo where she lives with her husband and children and a menagerie of cats and dogs and kangaroos and snakes and lizards. You can find her on twitter, Instagram, Snapchat @julieproudfoots and at her blog, Proud Foot Words.

Bloomberg recently declared that over 150 million people are using snapchat, daily. That’s more users than there are on twitter. So as an author, why wouldn’t you get on board?

But how can we as authors best use snapchat as a tool?

1. There’s no point snapping if there’s no one there! So grow your friend list. Share your snapcode on your other social media platforms and leave it on your bios so your followers can add you.
2. Interact and engage with your new snapchat friends so they know who you are: Watch your followers snaps, they will love that you’ve taken an interest in them. If they have great snaps, let them know! Send a message and tell them so. Ask questions: get your snap friends to help out with your work by snapping you back some answers: help choose a character name, a town name, a title.
3. Once you’ve built up a friend list, do a book give-away. Ask your snapchat friends to snap your snapcode to go in the draw. This shares your snapcode with their friends while offering them a chance to win.
4. One of the most amazing and unique tools on snapchat is the Geofilter. It seems built just for authors. Say you’re having an event, you can create a geofilter (an overlay) of your name, or your book title, for snapchatters to use at your event. Check it out, snap a picture and swipe left until you find your local town’s Geofilter. Snapchat Support has excellent advice on how to create your own geofilter.
5. Use your Snapchat story. You’re an author; you know how to tell a story! Your story stays there for 24 hours. Do a series of three snaps with a beginning, middle, and end. Begin with a hook, ‘Hey, guess where I am!’ Middle, give them some details, why, when. End, show them where you are!
6. Have some fun with the awesome effects. Snapchat has the best effects of all social media platforms: filters, voice alteration, text, stickers, doodling options, you can even create a sticker avatar of yourself. Use them to make your snaps unique to you. Remember, you can download your snaps to your photo gallery and repost to other platforms.
7. Show your lovely face. Your snapchat friends don’t want to see your feet, they want to see you! So flip that screen around and get talking. Don’t be afraid to talk about your book news. What are you working on now? Show your work space. Try a regular weekly spot: Tuesday’s Writing Tip, Friday’s Favourite Book. Mix it up and take it outside, don’t limit yourself to snaps from your desk. Let your snapchat friends know you’re human, be real, be honest, be yourself!

There is so much to explore on Snapchat, don’t be afraid to try it all out. Be real, be yourself, and have fun!