social media – Page 2 – The Fictorians

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

A guest post by Mignon Fogarty

Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ can be great tools for marketing your book, but you can also look like a tool if you make these common mistakes:

Don’t Jump in Without Exploring

Don’t join a network and immediately start posting. Take a couple of weeks to poke around, watch the experts, and see how things work. Every network has its own quirks.

In general, your goal should be to make friends genuinely. Answer people’s questions. Respond to their posts. Build relationships so people begin to recognize your name. If the first post I see from you is promoting your book, all I will remember when I see your name again is that you only care about promoting yourself.

Don’t Send Direct Messages to People You Don’t Know

Unless you have an exceptionally good reason, don’t send a direct message to someone you don’t know. You don’t need to thank people for following you, you shouldn’t send them an “introduction” link to your site, and for God’s sake, don’t ask them to check out your book or like your fan page.

What does it mean to know someone on social media? If I see your message and feel happy to hear from you, we know each other. If I see your message and wonder who you are, we don’t know each other.

Don’t Promote Your Book Without Giving People a Reason to Care

If you’re asking people on social media to take action (e.g., review your book, like your fan page), give them a reason. There are at least two reasons people will care:

1) Make it worth their while. Have a contest or give away a prize. A prize can have cash value (e.g., an e-reader), be something only you can provide (e.g., a personal thank-you video, a 30-minute critique, naming rights to a character in your book), or simply the glory of winning a contest of skill (e.g., a limerick contest).

2) Let them share your journey. Kickstarter works because contributors feel like they are helping you-joining you-on your journey. You can apply the same techniques to social media promotion.

To bolster people’s participatory feelings, you need to explain your purpose. In the book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, the authors explain that if you follow a request with a “because clause”-a reason you are making the request-people are more likely to comply. If you want people to review your book because good reviews increase online purchases, tell them that’s why you want the reviews. If you want people to buy your book this week because it will help you make the bestseller list, tell them that’s why it’s important this week.

It’s also helpful to give updates. Once you’ve made people aware of your goal, tell them how it’s going. Don’t go crazy and update Twitter every ten minutes, but when you’ve reached a significant milestone, announce it.

In the end, it’s simple: nobody likes the new guy who shows up at a party and immediately starts hustling everyone to buy his product; but if an old friend has an exciting new project he’s eager to tell you about, you’re happy to listen and help. Social media is the same. Become the old friend.

Guest Writer Bio:
Mignon Fogarty is the author of the forthcoming book 101 Troublesome WordsYou’ll Masterin No Time. Preorder the book now so bookstores see there is a healthy demand, and stock it when it launches in July.