I’m BULLISH on today’s marketing and publishing environments.
It is certainly NOT the time to own a newspaper, be an advertising executive, or deal with the vagaries of the worlds’ economic climate.
It is the best time to be an author/publisher/media personality/entrepreneur…
Why?
You do NOT have to rely on traditional media to grab some attention. By being creative you can get a LOT of exposure and sell yourself to the world virally — and for free.
How?
Simply by using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. With your limited time and resources (it’s a problem for all of us) the return on your investment in paid print ads (newspaper or even magazines) would pale by comparison.
If you spend, on average, an hour every day updating your Facebook, Twitter, and social media profiles it won’t take long for the world to know about you, what you’ve written, and what you’re currently working on.
It won’t happen overnight. You need steady and strategic postings to make it happen. Prior to Facebook and Twitter, networking and referrals were your best methods for making connections. Social media is networking on steroids.
But you must remember that networking — in person or on social media — is like going to a cocktail party.
If you walk in the door and all of a sudden you’re in everyone’s face selling, and yelling “buy me me me,” people back away and avoid you. In social media, you get deleted and reported for spam.
If you post a profile on Facebook and never visit it again or close off your wall for postings, it’s like standing in the back corner of the live networking event with your back to the room, as if to say: don’t talk to me.
Today it’s all about building RELATIONSHIPS.
You only need to post what you want people to see, but if you post nothing personal, then people may not engage you. Today, people want to know who they are talking to. If you are interesting and engaging there’s a good chance your social media profile will be checked out. If you post nothing about what you do or how to reach you, people will move on to the next person.
There are two must-have books if you want to know how to navigate marketing in 2012 and do so successfully to the growing number of people who get their content exclusively online:
- Socialnomics by Erik Qualman; and
- The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.
Be sure you only look at books that were published after 2009. A lot has changed since then. The Kindle and iPad did not exist. Those two platforms alone have impacted how people see you. But that’s another post.
Brian Hades, publisher
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
www.edgewebsite.com
403-254-0160