Last Saturday I went to the SE/London RNA chapter meeting. The talk was about social media by Talli Roland (hi, Talli). After a delay where they couldn't get the signal for the presentation, the talk began. Firstly Talli asked us to put a hand up. Keep it up if you were on FB, on Twitter, on Goodreads (hands went down) and then on PInterest. The only hand left up was mine. Yay.
Next Talli said, what is marketing. It is activity and delivery of items for customers. The idea is knowing what customers/readers want and write that. What is the difference between sales and marketing. Sales is direct to customers whereas marketing is raising awareness of the product (your name and brand) to customers gradually, and to engage readers. If you are on FB, tweet and blog, give it your best.
Think of your brand. Eg author of... For me it would be author of adult and children's fantasy/magic stories. It is a good idea to write on FB, Twitter and blog as you write your books. Be a consistent author.
Blogs can direct people to you. Set a schedule and stick to it. Keep it short. Make it easy for reader to read. Visit other blogs to get followers. Go to blogs and see their followers and follow them. If you want their followers to follow you, then click on the followers and follow. You can use Googlereader if you don't have a follower button on your blog. It is good to reciprocate and comment on other blogs if they follow yours. Talli mentioned alexa.com - you can use to follow traffice. (Put in web/blog address).
Twitter - use your own picture, not of your book. Use links. Don't be afraid to jump in chats that interest you. Find people who write same genre as you and follow. Use tweetdeck to organise columns better. You can organise your own columns. Search your name and add new column. Retweet links. Own content should be 15%, the rest retweets. Think globally. You can tweet in the morning to catch UK, and afternoon for US. You can schedule tweets, by Googling 'schedule tweeting' and type in date and time. But this was said not to be that good as it doesn't show you are really there and interacting properly. Talli picks 10-15 mins before writing to do this.
FB - don't do a page for each book, do one for all books as readers will only have to go to one page and not search for numerous. Treat your readers as special, they are your fan base. Use special marketing tactics for each group.
Amazon - Are you on Amazon.co and .com. Stream blogs and tweets. Under you book there is a customer tag. Use the 'like' box. Go to book and click on it. You can click on other books the same genre as you to like.
Newsletters - can be done via FB fan page. Think as a circle. Link everywhere. Talli uses mailchimp.com. Have templates you can use. (Might have a look).
There are a lot of other outlets for marketing: Goodreads - a reader village. Mainly used for reading status of what you are reading and have read. PInterest - pin board - can put covers of books on and create a world for your characters (want to do), Google+, tumblr.com - microblog pics, klout.com - what social influence you have and incs topics you influence, authorwebsite, networked blogs and youtube.
People help you to create buzz about your book. Build relationship. Pick special date for event. Make event fun and easy to do. It is all about time and interaction.
Lastly - positivity attracts.
Gave me a lot to think about and to work on. Thanks, Talli.
3 comments:
Very interesting - wish I could have been there!
It was interesting. I said hello for you, Nell and Talli said Hi back. There are so many social media platforms you can try. I don't think I will get round to all of them.
Oh, thank you for doing such a wonderful summary of my talk, Julie! It was a pleasure to give it to the London Chapter.
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