Making Your Social Media Efforts More Effective
Are you finding social media a challenge? Is your current social media marketing approach to repeatedly bombard anyone and everyone with messages to buy your book? Maybe it is time to rethink your strategy and start a dialogue with the people you want to reach—your readers.
Start a Conversation
Social media is meant to be social. If all your posts are simply pleas for others to buy your book, no one will follow your page. Start a conversation with your readers. Give them an opportunity to learn more about you, the author. By connecting with them, you gain valuable insight into their likes and dislikes. This can help focus future marketing efforts.
Create a Social Media Game Plan
Choose which platform you want to focus on (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and decide how often you want to create content. Building a following on social media takes time and dedicated effort, so to help keep you organized, create a calendar with your content schedule, times to review reader feedback, and times to plan future posts. Making your social media commitment part of your routine, helps keep you on track.
Take Time to Respond to Your Readers
Start a conversation with your readers about your work or the genre. Ask them for feedback. (How are you going to know what they like if you don’t ask?) Read their comments, good or bad, and always reply in a professional manner. Readers are turned off by posts that ask for comments but never acknowledge them, so let them know you took the time to read their posts and that you appreciate their opinions.
Reach Out to Other Authors
Need ideas on where to start with social media? Look at how other authors in your genre handle their social footprints. Where are they most active? What are they doing to engage readers? Learn from the experiences of other authors and industry professionals about ways to improve your blogs and posts. Be brave; have them give you feedback on your efforts.
Build a Support System
Social media is also a terrific way to build a solid support system for your work. Connect with other authors, librarians, teachers, booksellers, podcasters, and bloggers through your posts. Use your content to mention their books, events, or web pages. You will find they’ll return the favor and promote your book in their content, thus extending your marketing reach even further.
Paid Ads Can Bring Big Returns
There are times when you want the maximum number of views possible for a post on Facebook. Sponsored content goes directly to specific groups of Facebook users. You can focus your marketing efforts. Paying for advertisements may not have been part of your original strategy, but for a small fee, you reach far more potential readers than with your regular postings.
Draw Your Readers in to Your Content
Now that you are talking with your readers instead of at them, make sure your content headlines draw them in. Only one in five visitors ever gets past the headline. Your goal is to get readers past the headline and to your content. If you are new to writing headlines, blogs, and tweets, take the time to improve your skills. There are many online resources like Mediabistro, Grammar Girl and Copyblogger to help you master the art of writing for social media.
Why Dog Ear?
With over 50 years of traditional publishing experience, Dog Ear Publishing understands what it takes to get your book in front of the right audience. We can assist in marketing your book to your target readers. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff will guide you throughout the publishing process and help you achieve the results you desire. If you want your book to be a quality reflection of who you are as an author, visit our website at dogearpublishing today and take control of your publishing destiny.