These days, it seems as though everyone is spending all of their time on sites like Facebook or Twitter (click on the links to read pages specifically dedicated to how to use those two sites for authors). Obviously, social media can be a great way to promote your publishing business, but how can you use it effectively? This article will help you develop social media marketing strategies that will yield excellent results, especially if you are an up-and-coming author who wants to sell more books.
Understand the importance of conversation and dialogue. Do not make the common mistake of neglecting to use customer feedback as a means of learning more about your target market. Engage fully with the customers that contact you and build a mutually-rewarding dialogue with them. Be excited to learn about their needs, expectations, and how you can make your company even better.
Use Facebook to get some very low cost marketing opportunities. Make a professional business account or create a business fan page. Take some time to look up your competitors on Facebook to see how much of a presence they have, and what they did to get that. Do not copy what they did, but use their page as an example for what is working or what is not. Actually, you can publish a chapter or two of your book for free on a fan page. This will help build your audience, so that when you do get published, you will haves fans eager to support your new book. You can also test plot ideas or book ideas with your audience, then customize your work to what the public actually wants.
Try to collaborate with other writers and publishing companies when using social media. When they link to your content or share your content, you are being exposed to a brand new group of fans and followers. Return the favor and link to their content as well. The more people who link to your content and social media posts, the better off you are.
You can get your followers’ attention by posting something in a format that makes reading easier. For instance, try coming with a list of top 10 tips or writing questions and answers. The visual aspect of your article will make it more appealing and your readers will be more likely to share it.
Keep your subscribers and fans updated on your writing progress on your social media pages. You could let people know when you’ve reached a thousand people following you on Twitter in an article, for instance. Likewise, let them know when you have a new chapter completed. Thank your fans for showing an interest in your social media site. Articles like this tend to go viral very fast.
Have a reveal tab on your Facebook page: only your friends or followers will be able to see it. Encourage people to ‘like’ your page so they can have access to this unique content. You could for instance reveal a unique coupon code to the Facebook users who have ‘liked’ your page.
You can have your most important tweets posted again automatically. If you are launching a new product or doing something important, you should write a short message and have it appear in your followers’ feeds every few hours or at least every day. Do not assume that Twitter users read through everything in their feed.
Keep your Facebook page up to date with your most recent blog posts. You do blog of course! As soon as your blog is published, update your Facebook page to reflect the new post. This allows your followers to access your fresh content as soon as possible. The sooner your content is available to others, the sooner it works for you to attract new visitors.
Make sure Twitter is included in your Facebook menu. Try to tweet about your writing at least three times per week. Facebook’s settings on your fan page sets this up as a standard settings, so it does not take much effort on your part. Plus, it gives your followers yet another way to stay connected to your website or blog. The more options you give for customers to stay connected, the more involved they are likely to be in visiting your site and sharing the link with others.
YouTube has a huge and active user base and you need to be involved in it for successful social media marketing. Posting videos is a great way to get users involved, but you also have to be involved in the larger community as a whole. Posting comments and talking about other videos related to your industry will attract new users to your profile.
One should not just rely on one channel when social media promoting. Make use of them all, especially new popular ones like Periscope. Expand your potential readership by using multiple websites. Also, you may find different tools and apps, different followers, etc, by using different channels.
When deciding how to implement your social media marketing strategies, it is important to take into consideration the nature of your products and services. For example, if purchasing your products is something that most of your customers would prefer to keep private, then do not put Facebook-like buttons right next to the buy buttons! Eventually, someone will click it accidentally and then get angry at your business.
If you can harness the power of social media sites, you can achieve incredible results! Whether you’d like to promote your website, sell a product, or help your business make a name for itself, social media marketing is the way to do it. These article has given you all the information you need to get started, so start utilizing social media today!
