Ask most authors why they write and they will likely
tell you it is respond, “To make a difference.” Regardless of whether they are
fiction or nonfiction authors, something drives us to get our message out.
Unfortunately, a great many authors will never have
more than a handful of people reading their works other than family and friends.
This is directly related to their lack of knowledge and understanding of their
need to promote their own books.
Things have changed
Prior to all the choices available due to the Internet
and Social Marketing the greatest limitation in marketing was time and money
with money being at the top of the list for most authors.
Because of Social Marketing what is possible is far
easier and much less costly than ever before.
One would be foolish not to take advantage of even a few resources
available literally at their fingertips. A few minutes a day of focused online
marketing effort can increase your visibility and book sales in leaps and
bounds.
1 + 1 = more than 2
In the past one plus one equaled two. In the world of
online marketing this is not at all the case. Online one plus one equals lots
of other ones who are spreading the word for you with the press of a button.
That is, if they like what they see and if they believe what you have to say is
worthy of their button pushing.
Although very much talked about, Social Marketing is
also very misunderstood. Take Twitter for example. Lots of authors don’t bother
with it at all because they have no clue as to the real (and far reaching)
benefit.
Truth be told, there are many trains of thought
regarding exactly how to use twitter. Recently, I attended one of the top
Internet marketing conferences where a main topic of conversation was social
marketing. Not only did I have the opportunity to share the platform with experts
like Willie Crawford, Jeff Herring, David Perdew, Denise Wakeman, Lynn Terry
and Kevin Riley, I also sat in on a few sessions as a student.
Google reveals the experts
If the names I mentioned aren’t familiar to you, a
quick google search will show you just how knowledgeable these experts are in
the areas of Internet and Social marketing. Each brings a wealth of information
to the table. While one expert said, “I use Twitter to connect with people and
be very casual without any overt promoting,” another expert said, “I overtly promote
on Twitter and it works for me.” Who’s right? Actually, both.
The one who overtly promotes has such an incredible
following that people know him, like him and trust him to the point that they
look forward to his promotions.
So who cares?
As an author you might be wondering what this has to do
with promoting books. Actually, everything. And here’s why. With Social
Marketing you have global reach to potential readers. However, to make your
efforts worthwhile, you must be strategic in what and how you use the Internet.
Blogs are the hub of what your social marketing efforts
should include. From there, everything else feeds into your blog. You can build
a wonderful following with your blog by writing and posting short articles,
post excerpts from your books, put book trailers for your fans to enjoy and
much more.
In that the blog is the hub, the idea is to drive every
other part of your Social Marketing position back to a specific location like
your blog.
Here’s how it works
Say you post your book trailer on
YouTube. You then use the embedded code from your YouTube video in a blog
posting. Once you have the blog posting done you do a tweet about the video
with the permalink in the Tweet so that you are driving readers back to your
blog.
You can also take the blog permalink and post on your
Facebook wall to drive people back to your blog. If you belong to groups in
Facebook, you can post a short note about the video with the permalink driving
people back to your blog.
To optimize your YouTube position, be sure to put the
permalink from your blog posting at the beginning of the video description. Use
the http:// at the beginning of the link so it is live. This way, with one
click readers are right back at your blog.
This is a process that can be done in literally 15 to
20 minutes a day. To really gain visibility for you and your books, add this to
your daily activities. Within a very short period of time you will definitely
see an increase in your blog traffic.
Your blog must be optimized in order to gain the
greatest benefit when someone visits the location. Set it up in a way that
people know what the blog is about, that you are the owner, and some way for
them to subscribe to your blog. Without these essential elements you could miss
readers for future books you write. Miss readers, you miss buyers.
Want to learn exactly how to gain lots of visibility while selling more books online? Check out the “by invitation only” group coaching session at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/VIP-M.htm