Social Media for an Author
The ability for authors to generate a social media presence these days is a great addition to their author website and another resource to generate sales for their novels. To use social media on its own would probably create limited conversions to readers though I'm sure many would disagree. However, when paired with a great publishing house, they can create a powerful marketing source and be a great tool for generating awareness, creating followers and beginning a dialogue with your potential readers.
Social media should be used to;
1. Generate real time excitement
2. Get followers engaged
3. Drive readers to a central website
4. Help market contests and giveaways
5. Generate awareness
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are the publishers, if used properly be a great, free way to get your name out there, tell people about what you're doing and drive people to your site. The key is always to have a well laid out author website that will convert your visitors to either purchasers or at least have them opt-in for your e-newsletter.
Below are the main social media sites that are useful to an author and their benefits.
1. Facebook. Facebook is a massive social media site and one that gets tremendous reach among all age groups and can be a great medium to reach nearly any demographic. Facebook has collected a vast amount of data about their users and Facebook ads can be incredibly targeted by age group, sex and even birthdays. Their are thousands of posts and youtube videos explaining how to create a Facebook campaign, build followers, landing page, ads targeting your market etc. This is a great, free way to build fans, announce your launch and generate excitement about your book.
2. Twitter. Twitter is all about creating short 140 character sound bites. The great thing about Twitter is that you can use it to drive people to links and pictures. Knowing that the text is limited it is commonplace to attach photos, articles, reviews or author website. This is a good social media platform to announce contests, giveaways, launch of your book or tell people about your reviews and any media that you've received.
3. Pintrist. Pintrist is a great new site that instead of text it uses pins, or pictures to tell your story. Just like the other social media sites, you create followers and a profile, though your profile is instead boards that you create based on a subject and then you fill it with pictures. If your book editor lends itself to images which most do, this can be a great tool for you as it allows you to post your pins on your Facebook and Twitter feeds at the same time thus generating content for your other social media.
4. Google+. Google+ is a site that is mainly geared towards developing groups and creating a dialogue amongst that group. This can be a great site to create a reader's discussion group about your books, do Q& A sessions for readers and create a video that you can upload of you reading a chapter from your new book.
5. Youtube. Youtube is all video based. If you can create great videos about your book or books topic, this will be a huge benefit for all your social media platforms. However, unless you have the proper equipment and book editing and video editing software your video may look amateurish. Sometimes this is okay as long as the content is funny or engaging as there are lots of very amateur video on Youtube but if you're trying to create a professional looking promo video, take the time to do it right.
Those are the main social media sites you should concern yourself with at the outset and they will certainly keep you busy enough for a while. Used properly they can be a great tool to increase sales but be aware, if used improperly they can also simply be a massive time waster.
Rick Momsen is CEO of Pegasus Publishing and author of The Complete E-book Marketing and Publishing Guide
Social media should be used to;
1. Generate real time excitement
2. Get followers engaged
3. Drive readers to a central website
4. Help market contests and giveaways
5. Generate awareness
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are the publishers, if used properly be a great, free way to get your name out there, tell people about what you're doing and drive people to your site. The key is always to have a well laid out author website that will convert your visitors to either purchasers or at least have them opt-in for your e-newsletter.
Below are the main social media sites that are useful to an author and their benefits.
1. Facebook. Facebook is a massive social media site and one that gets tremendous reach among all age groups and can be a great medium to reach nearly any demographic. Facebook has collected a vast amount of data about their users and Facebook ads can be incredibly targeted by age group, sex and even birthdays. Their are thousands of posts and youtube videos explaining how to create a Facebook campaign, build followers, landing page, ads targeting your market etc. This is a great, free way to build fans, announce your launch and generate excitement about your book.
2. Twitter. Twitter is all about creating short 140 character sound bites. The great thing about Twitter is that you can use it to drive people to links and pictures. Knowing that the text is limited it is commonplace to attach photos, articles, reviews or author website. This is a good social media platform to announce contests, giveaways, launch of your book or tell people about your reviews and any media that you've received.
3. Pintrist. Pintrist is a great new site that instead of text it uses pins, or pictures to tell your story. Just like the other social media sites, you create followers and a profile, though your profile is instead boards that you create based on a subject and then you fill it with pictures. If your book editor lends itself to images which most do, this can be a great tool for you as it allows you to post your pins on your Facebook and Twitter feeds at the same time thus generating content for your other social media.
4. Google+. Google+ is a site that is mainly geared towards developing groups and creating a dialogue amongst that group. This can be a great site to create a reader's discussion group about your books, do Q& A sessions for readers and create a video that you can upload of you reading a chapter from your new book.
5. Youtube. Youtube is all video based. If you can create great videos about your book or books topic, this will be a huge benefit for all your social media platforms. However, unless you have the proper equipment and book editing and video editing software your video may look amateurish. Sometimes this is okay as long as the content is funny or engaging as there are lots of very amateur video on Youtube but if you're trying to create a professional looking promo video, take the time to do it right.
Those are the main social media sites you should concern yourself with at the outset and they will certainly keep you busy enough for a while. Used properly they can be a great tool to increase sales but be aware, if used improperly they can also simply be a massive time waster.
Rick Momsen is CEO of Pegasus Publishing and author of The Complete E-book Marketing and Publishing Guide