Yes, I know, I know. You don’t have the time for social media. Three years ago, that was me. In fact, I said, “There is no freakin way I’m going to be doing all this crap. I mean, who has time–it’s an energy suck any way you look at it.”
Ha! Famous last words. It didn’t take me long to get that that “energy suck” was a window of opportunity. Instead of reaching out to a few, or a few hundred … I had the instant possibility of many thousands. Instead of sending out one email at a time, with a click I could do mega posts and announcements and … gulp, with a reader’s click, those posts could be recirculated. Holy Moly, what a marketing mecca. That energy suck was really offering the ability to enter the marketing candy store.
Today, any author has access to that marketing candy store with computers, tablets and the all-present mobile phone. It’s just learning which flavor is right for you and your book.
Here’s what social media does for you:
1. It instantly starts to build on your brand.
That should start with what your website displays and says. You have one, yes? When was the last time you visited it with a “visitor’s” eye? Does it still work by engaging the visitor? Does it have your name boldly on the banner? Have you created a descriptive tag line that shouts out your expertise (critical for nonfiction authors) or draws the visitor into your chosen genre (fiction)? And, is your website mobile friendly? It’s a must–the stats are overwhelming in showing that users shop, shop, shop via their phones.
2. Social media creates a flavor of who and what you are about. Fans and SuperFans evolve.
Your readers want to know a bit about you. If you Google me, you know that I’m all over publishing. I love publishing; love the massive variety of books that are out; get goosebumps when authors hold their first books in hand; literally hoot and shout-out everywhere I can when something wonderful happens for a client. My readers know I love movies and like to cook. And they definitely know that I am a beach type of gal, and will do almost anything to get into the sun and be around water–today, starting and finishing many a book on a cruise. They know that I come from traditional publishing and became an indie publisher and author halfway through my publishing journey. I rarely write about family and grandkids nor do I display their pictures. My boundaries are set there.
When you connect with your potential fans as a person, you start building sales. Those who deny it … well, they will miss out on creating the fan who could become the SuperFan–meaning anything you publishing, create brings an immediate supporter/buyer.
3. Let readers and fans know how to connect with you.
If there is one thing that is a button pusher for me, it’s being given a business card that is a guessing game. All it has is a website one it. Okay, I head to the website to find a phone number, email address and/or snail mail address. All I come across is a bloody “contact” tab that is blanks … fill in my name, give my email and a reason why I’m contacting the person. Ticks me off … and too many times at that point, the card is dumped.
What’s the secrecy all about?
Your website is part of social media. In your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc., you do include your website? Please tell me yes. On mine, TheBookShepherd.com, you will find out how to contact/find me via phone, email, Skype, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Recently, I’ve created The Book Shepherd Daily, an eNewspaper that compiles all postings on both the AuthorU and TheBookShepherd sites plus the Tweets and Blogs of several book publishing pros that I want to shout out as well. For me, Twitter was a preferred platform because it forced all to be brief, which is my personal preference. Here’s what the Contact page on The Book Shepherd looks like:
Social media allows you to let others know HOW to engage you and when you learn a few tricks of how to schedule it in mass, it actually takes less time. How cool is that?
4. Social media is the buzz factor of all time!
As a kid, you probably played some form of the “telephone” game where one would whisper to another what he or she heard until 10 kids later, whatever was first started had morphed into something of another kind. With the ability to simply share, retweet, pin, like, +1, etc., what you put out as you wanted it, is repeated over and over and over. On your website, you want to include the images of the various social media feeds that will push the link to your blog, your post, your whatever out–any visitor can do a shout out/share for you with just a click while on a page.
Your fans want to share information about you easily. Within your website, having social media icons that cross connection to your various social media platforms reminds a visitor that you have a shared connection with them via Facebook, Twitter and other areas. They can easily choose to share about your book on all or a select few. Make sure that you include LIVE, direct links.
And don’t forget Amazon and Goodreads. Having live links to your pages becomes a buying and a review encourager. If you don’t ask for it, you don’t get it.
We are a technology driven society. Yes face-to-face is always an important element in book marketing, as calling someone on the phone is–don’t leave them behind. But, the Town Hall of the Internet brings the world together. It’s foolish not to dive in and use it. For book marketing, it’s a gift.
