Authors are often confused by social media — which platform works best? How often should I be on? Scheduled or live?
The answer to all of those questions is: whichever works best for you is where you should focus your time. And time is limited, right? So rather than fighting with yourself over which channel to use, figure out which best fits your needs and style. The point of even participating in social media is three-fold: attract, retain, and convert. Let’s look at all three.
I personally spend most of my time on Twitter. I find it easy to use, quick to interact and post, and I love promoting other authors there as well. Let’s break this down further and give you a few things you can try today!
1) ATTRACT: People who are nice, interesting, generous- these are people we like in real life. Social media, and Twitter especially, is no different! There are certainly exceptions to that rule, but be the person who attracts followers. How? Be nice, interesting and generous. Specifically, RT others (or share on Facebook and other platforms), mention people in a comment, share their post, throw them a #FF (Follow Friday), thank them, and promote them. The biggest point to remember with attracting followers is this: every tweet should not be about you.
Remember the Rule of Thirds: spend 1/3 of your time promoting others, 1/3 of your time sharing information and resources, and 1/3 of your time promoting your own book or service.
So, today: look at your last 20 tweets. How do they breakdown according to this rule of thirds? Going forward, keep this rule in mind as you create tweets.
2) RETAIN: Know how the people who are constantly linking to their own stuff annoy you and you unfollow or even block? Yea. Don’t be that person.
Retaining a following is critical to growing your fan base and establishing your branding. You can do this any of the ways mentioned above, but I’ve found that promoting others works best. The more you give, the more you get. And on top of that, people like it when you mention them. It makes them feel good. Makes sense, right?
So, today: instead of sharing your book throughout the day…don’t. Take a break from the self-promotion. Promote others via retweets, shares, and mentions. You just might get more sales that way!
3) CONVERSION: Yea, that. It’s a businessy term that really means sales that result from say, Twitter to Amazon. How do you get people on social media to buy your book? As I discussed in my last article about changing our marketing paradigm, you must focus on the concept of WIIFM — what’s in it for me (meaning your readers, not you). Because this is what readers (aka buyers) want to know. If I purchase your book, will I learn something? Get rich? Cry? Laugh?
Converting a tweet to a sale is hard, right? And how do we even know if it’s working, since booksellers give no data (though I do recommend using bit.ly to create shortened, customized and trackable links)? So maybe it’s not just about that. Focus on other things — blog posts, an optimized site, an occasional blog tour or contest of some sort, an ad, etc. Your entire platform works together to create a sale. There’s no ONE thing.
So, today: instead of tweeting about your book exclusively, ask people what they want! Then provide that, whether it’s informative they can use, books on other topics you enjoy, or how to build a birdcage. Build the relationship and the relationship will build you.
4) SHARE: Readers are curious, aren’t we? We want to know about the personal lives of our favorite authors. Where do their ideas come from? What do they do when they’re not writing? Who are their favorite authors? I want to know all that stuff — so share that with your own readers.
So, today: instead of tweeting about your book, ask those questions of your readers and/or provide the answers. Even if nobody asks, you can still create interest. We’ve all had something happen in our lives that’s interesting. Be the real person you are!
5) BRANDING: Some authors are terrified by this, but I’ll make it easy. What genre do you write? I write nonfiction. That’s one keyword. I now take that keyword and create a Google Alert. I then share articles and resources about nonfiction. Notice, I’m not writing about my own book, or quoting a review, or anything at all about me. Yet, the keyword nonfiction still shows people that I’m a sure thing when it comes to nonfiction. I’m also slightly obsessed with martinis (so much so that I created #MartiniChat on Fridays, 5pm PST — join us!). You have more than one interest, right? So share those interests!
So, today: identify at least 3 keywords or key phrases that apply to you as an author AND as a person. (I’m not just the nonfiction chick. I’m the nonfiction chick who likes martinis.) Add them to your bio with a hashtag, i.e., #nonfiction, #martinis, etc. which increases your visibility.
I look forward to hearing your experiences!
