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As social media expands, work it to get attention for your bookONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Published: November 15, 2011  Kay B. Day
Social media do offer us a wealth of opportunity, though. A few of the most popular sites are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but other sites like LinkedIn are also useful.
Choosing the social media you want to spend time on is a personal choice. LinkedIn is popular among professionals who want to share information among themselves and their networks. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are more populist sites—you get a very diverse mix of participants.
Before you decide on specific social media for your project, do a self-assessment. Are you a nonfiction author hoping to brand your expertise in a specific field? Are you a poet or short story writer hoping to attract readers in search of escape, entertainment or inspiration? Is your background in writing features about different topics for print and/or online publications?
Once you decide what your specific goal is, write down your plans for achieving that goal.
Facebook is a resource any author can use. Start by creating a public page. Some authors title the page with their pen name. Others decide to use the title of their book.
Public pages provide a "like" button rather than the "friends" option. You can place updates on your public page and share them on your private page if you think your personal friends might be interested in what you’re writing.
Here are a few things to think about if you're using Facebook:
• You can set up specific events and invite your fans. If you have a book signing, use the "Events" option no matter where you live. I live in Florida, but when I did a reading in Washington, D.C., I was pleasantly surprised to meet strangers from the area. They’d seen my announcement online.
• The public page option at Facebook enables the posting of links, announcements, photos and other content. These pages equate to free advertising for you.
You must, however, publicize these pages offline as well. Be sure to include the URL in any printed material, news releases and emails you send out. Always include your social media URLs on your primary website or blog.
• An added Facebook benefit is the Insights tool (facebook.com/insights) for your public page. That tool provides you with statistics that will help you see what works and what doesn’t.
• Placing videos and photos will work well on Facebook—they’re quick to post and easy for users to share and comment on. You don’t have to create the video. You can do a simple search at YouTube for content related to your topic and post a link to it.
Twitter is a bit trickier than Facebook, but it can be very useful because it’s a real-time social media resource.
Some things to think about if you want to use Twitter:
• You can set up a Twitter account under the name of your website or book.
• Twitter’s limit on character count to 140 means you have to be creative in the messages you send out. If you want to include a specific URL, use the tool at tinyurl.com. That will shorten your URL and leave you more characters for messaging.
• News breaks 24/7, and most authors can hook a tweet to a breaking story even remotely related to their subject. For instance if you have a book about household budgets or saving money, you can tweet away because the economy dominates headlines.
• If you decide to use Twitter, bear the real-time factor in mind. One tweet won’t suffice. Spend a little time posting your own messages and retweeting or replying to messages posted by others.
• Asking a question is always helpful on social media. A linchpin in the dynamic of the Web is starting a conversation.
Social media can also help an author get blurbs. You can post a message stating up front that you’re seeking blurbs, but you can also simply seek opinions. You will, of course, have to ask whether you can use those opinions after they’re given. One rule of thumb is to never use someone else’s words for promotional purposes unless you ask first.
Don’t overlook the use of videos in your social media adventures. Mini-cams make it very easy to shoot video and once you post the video on YouTube, permit others to embed or share it. Be sure to include your URL in any video you produce. This will provide long-term steady returns for you.
Don’t expect social media alone to propel you to the top of the best seller list. Social media is one of many tools in the author’s kit, and like other marketing, can’t be relied upon as the single means of getting the message out.
In reporting on the Technorati's 2011 State of the Blogosphere report, Newstex blogger Susan Gunelius commented:
“Another important finding from the 2011 State of the Blogosphere study shows that bloggers are diversifying their online presence with Twitter taking the top spot followed by Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Bloggers are using these separate social media profiles to share their own content, share content from others, and publish original content.”
Social media is best learned by doing. Try it, test it and always use the statistic trackers available to decide how to go forward.
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Florida journalist Kay B. Day has won awards for poetry, nonfiction and fiction. The author of two books, she has written for The Christian Science Monitor, United Press International, The Florida Times-Union and Sky News. To learn more about Kay Day, see kayday.com. To read Kay's other Web Savvy columns about writing for the Web, click here. |
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