Social Media for Writers and Authors | Social Media Aspirin™

September 1, 2017August 28, 2017

Cultivating a Community for Your Readers

Writing is the heart of your business, but so is developing a community for your readers. Self-promotion is a necessity in today’s modern author world. If you’re tempted to run away, don’t. Hear me out. It takes days, weeks, months, and sometimes years to develop a book. A reading community can’t be built in a day. It takes time and effort.

Do you have ten minutes in your day that you can spare for those who support your work? Of course, you do!

Here are some quick tips to cultivating your readers that take ten minutes or less:

Set up Google Alerts to track where you’re mentioned. You need to know what they’re saying about you! You can set up an alert for your name, book title, Twitter handle, Instagram handle, site URL, and more. When you find people who have mentioned you and your work, stop by and give them a thank you and show your appreciation for their support of your work. It’s an excellent way to connect with new readers.
Use polls to connect with your readers. You don’t have to create book-only polls. If you’re having trouble with Photoshop, or struggling to figure out which font to use in Canva, set up a poll and ask for help. If you do choose to go with a particular person’s (or group’s) choice, make sure you give them credit.
Surround yourself with those you admire. This doesn’t mean you should look down on anyone, but your reputation is important. If you hang around with someone (especially online) who is shady or shifty, their behavior will reflect on you as well. By that same token, if you only associate with national and international bestsellers, you may come off as snobby and unapproachable. Stay true to yourself and only recommend and support those you would in real life.
Update your bios on all platforms. You should have a bio that says who you are, what you write, and list all your important links, titles, and awards. A long bio will also list the books you’ve published. Develop four sizes of bios. One should be a tagline (perfect for Twitter, and for starting your other bios), the next should be two sentences max (great for Instagram, and Facebook’s short bio), the third should be two paragraphs (Facebook long bio, Author pages, summary information for article writing, and more), and the final should be a page long. That page should be a template you pull your other bios from, and it should, at a minimum, be on your website. The page long should list your books, all social media links, and any bonus content you offer for them signing up to your newsletter.
Do you look at pictures of your favorite authors? Chances are you’ve sneaked a peek at one or two behind-the-scenes photos. Whether it’s book- or life-related, showing that extra insight into your world can help bring your readers with you.
Go for interaction! Create a prompt event. Use a theme, image, riddle, or whatever you like to create a place for your readers to connect with you. Ask a single question and use a single call to action to cut down on confusion. It’s a great way to interact with your community, and it doesn’t take very much time. If you’re looking for a great way to host a contest, this is a fantastic place to start. For everyone who leaves a comment (with the correct answer, if you’re asking trivia or riddles), enter their names into a contest for a drawing. That way you reward those who interact while still giving back to your community.
Reply to comments! Thank anyone who has used your free content or downloaded your book during a quick sale. If you spend time being grateful to your readers, they will show their support in ways you won’t expect.

Cultivating a community takes time, but it’s worth it. You want to take potential readers and turn them into loyal fans. Choose one tip to work on at a time. Your book wasn’t written in one day and neither will the development of your reader community. Which of these will you try first?

August 9, 2017August 6, 2017

Finding the Right Balance of Self-Promotion When Marketing Your Book

Are you trying to promote your next book but don’t want to risk sounding too arrogant or pushy? No one cares for an author who comes off like a salesman. As an author, it can be tricky to find the perfect balance between growing your network and bragging about your writing. Here is a six-step guide to finding a balance when it comes time to promote your next published project.

Show, Don’t Tell

Rather than telling people about how skilled or talented you are in your given field, show potential customers how you add value to their life. Naturally, people want to know what you provide, especially if it’s something they wouldn’t be able to either do themselves or find someone else to do for them. However, don’t spend a lot of time creating content with the intent of convincing your audience that you are worthy. Show them what you are up to. Take photos and post videos, answer questions, and share content of value. Just like with your writing, showing your followers is going to be more powerful than telling them.

Consistency

By having a consistent presence on marketing platforms, you will build up your credentials. When the time comes that you are ready to sell your work, your followers will be more willing to respond. Nobody wants to be overly bombarded with sales pitches but if you have a presence that involves more than promotion, people will enjoy and engage with your content and brand. This is going to mean developing an editorial calendar and sticking to it. You can post a week, or a month, worth of content in one sitting. Let go of the frantic need to come up with something new to post each day by doing some pre-planning.

Boundaries

An author that markets their books all the time doesn’t have time to expand their marketing and provide valuable content to their audience. It’s important to set boundaries to avoid burn out and maintain a healthy balance. Schedule out the times of the week you will work on your marketing and stick to those guns. It’s easy to get distracted and prioritize ineffectively.

This concept also applies to your potential customers. You should not be constantly pushing out sales pitches on all of your marketing platforms because then you will not only burn yourself out but your potential customers as well. Marketing posts should be 80% educational, informational, and entertaining; and only 20% sales pitches. This will keep your followers engaged while also promoting your value. If you don’t have time to create additional content of this nature, do a search for similar posts to share that your audience will appreciate.

Build Your List

It is always useful to expand your network, not only for the sake of increasing sales but also for the sake of potential partnerships down the line. If you create valuable relationships, you are more likely to have positive engagement down the line when it’s time to launch your book. Your network will already trust you and will be more willing to recommend your business to their friends. Don’t only grow this list when you are about to launch a new book – get in the habit of building this list all year round.

Engage

People love knowing that there is a human being on the other side of a marketing platform. If you respond and engage with your potential customers, your audience will feel connected and valued. Rather than having an automated tech service respond to your network or worse, not responding at all, show your followers that you care and send a personal response. Build in a timeframe that works for you to respond to comments and engage with your followers. Don’t stay plugged in all day long – your productivity (and possibly sanity) will suffer.

To find the right balance for promoting your published work, you will need to dedicate some time to creating a list of priorities, developing a calendar for content, and setting aside time to schedule posts and engage with your readers and fans.

July 12, 2017May 24, 2018

Authors, What’s Your Social Media Game Plan?

Every book you write is an invitation to potential readers, clients, and influencers. It’s a chance for them to connect with your stories. That will only happen if you can get your book in their hands. How do you do that?

Create a social media game plan.

Social media is a key part of your overall marketing strategy. Here are some important reasons why:

It’s an inexpensive way to get your book in front of a large audience.
It refers traffic to your website, blog, landing pages, and vendors so they can purchase your book.
Social media is filled to the brim with avid readers looking for new content.
It’s a great keystone to building enthusiastic fans and a strong community that supports your work.
It’s a unique opportunity to connect with your readers.
Where else can you see a fan from another part of the world share a picture of your book on their Kindle for all to see?
It’s an effective marketing tool.
It helps readers connect with you on an emotional level so that they’re more invested in buying your books.
You can help people in real time.
You can build up momentum and enthusiasm for an upcoming book, or relaunch an older title to introduce new readers to your content.

So how do you get started?

You begin with your end goal. What do you want to accomplish with social media?

Launch new products and services
Engage with readers
Build your author platform and become visible
Gain feedback and provide customer service
Sell more books
Build your mailing list
Reinvigorate your author career

There are a hundred other reasons, but they all start with visibility and building your author platform. You must have a consistent image across each social media network. Your name, description/about section, professional headshot (do NOT use a selfie), and website should be visible.

Now, you need to create a plan of action.

Connect with your readers by asking them what they like, sharing things you enjoy, and responding to comments.
Show the behind-the scenes effort of writing a book. You can create Instagram Stories of your author day. Take some pictures of your morning beverage next to your handwritten, and slightly blurred, notes to show that you’re ready to get started.
Spotlight interesting facts that you found when researching your book.
Encourage readers to post pictures of your book in their hands or on their mobile device. This serves as an extra helping of social proof that gets others interested in your book, as well.
Host a live unboxing of your print books, author swag, or fan mail so that others can participate in your joy.
Create ads that are compelling and connect with your ideal reader.
Use images and video to capture the senses.
Create unique content geared toward a specific platform. Hashtags are great on Twitter and Instagram, but are ignored on Facebook. The only exception to this would be keyword hashtags in groups to make things easier to find.
Decide how you will respond to specific types of comments. This is called a response matrix, and it will save you a lot of time and creative energy if you have it set up ahead of time. If you have a reader who complains about download problems with a particular vendor, have contact information for that company ready to copy and paste. If you receive spoiler comments about your latest book, be prepared with a response. Do you ignore it? Do you delete it, and explain the situation? If you receive a critical review on your Facebook page, how will you handle it? Arguing won’t do you any favors. If you have a response ready to go, it can help separate your heart from the situation so that you don’t type anything you’ll regret. Fans and readers are watching how you handle potentially negative situations.
Create quality content for your readers. If you’ve built a fictional town in East Texas, provide a town map for them to download. If you’ve created a compelling book on leadership, have a free printable that will coincide with your chapter affirmations.
Ensure that your posts maintain the brand you want to portray. If you’re an author, the last thing you want is for your readers to be turned off by your spelling mistakes. Take your time.
Schedule ahead of time. If you’ve got a launch, prepare your social media in advance and save yourself the misadventure of last minute panic. Create social media content for your most avid supporters and ask them to post on specific dates to support your book launch.

What social media strategies do you use?