Social media is the town hall of marketing for most authors. It’s a landscape that has pros and cons and is in a constant mode of change. Below are 5 Social Media Tips to start now … or continue doing. And there are 5 Social Media Oh-Ohs … meaning “be on alert” … change is in the air.
Let’s start with smart things to do, starting now.
1 Social Media Tip #1: Always be thinking—build your community.LinkedIn and Facebook Groups offer opportunities to engage with your followers, customers, and colleagues in real and asynchronous time. Secondary and niche social media formats and forums offer similar opportunities.
2 Social Media Tip #2: Engage, Engage, Engage. You have opinions, views, ideas, strategies, tips … what are they? Share them. As a result, you surface new perspectives and opinions. Caution: unless you are writing or positioning in politics and religion—I would avoid. Yes, plenty will agree with you … and plenty will take you on. When you enter topics that carry “weight” with them, social media trolls can find you and most are downright nasty—is that what you want?
3 Social Media Tip #3: Create and share content beyond your list of readers. That means cross-posting into Pinterest Boards, Instagram hashtag mania, Facebook groups, and like-minded/interested colleagues.
4 Social Media Tip #4: Target your posts to micro-segments. Create lookalike audiences to tap into social media data. Who are your comparables and competitors? Create posters. Always use hashtags. Discover Hashtagify.me to dig up other hashtags that are similar to your main ones and that have followers.
5 Social Media Tip #5: Respond to comments followers make quickly. That doesn’t mean next week. Do it in the same day—which means you need to at least check your social media channels personally … or have a virtual assistant help you in monitoring—alerting you if you need to respond. Thank them. If appropriate, offer addition info that will be helpful. It’s all about engagement.
There are also pullbacks … factors that could zap and limit your progress. Your 5 Oh-Ohs include:
1 Social Media Oh-Oh #1: The “big boys” can alter their algorithms or guidelines without notice—as in overnight. Facebook has “change” in its middle name. One week, it’s all about the business page; the next week it’s out of favor. It’s done without notice … so not nice.
2 Social Media Oh-Oh #2: It’s about money … free turns to a fee. Just a few years ago, your Facebook book was visually in play to all … not now. Unless you have HUGE traffic with comments to your posts, you are lucky to have a dozen who see what you post out in their feeds. To goose, those numbers, get out your credit card. It’s called boosts—pay for it. And paid for advertising. If you don’t, your visibility plummets.
3 Social Media Oh-Oh #3: Are subject to outside manipulation … aka FAKE posts. Geez, social media has been alive with phony posts created by fake participants targeted to profiles based on WHAT you share in your personal information and types of posts you have used in the past. That means you need to do an ongoing monitor of WHO your friends and followers are. Sigh.
4 Social Media Oh-Oh #4: The top influencer can dive to the bottom of the barrel. Social media comes and goes. Instagram and Pinterest are hot this year. Facebook is still huge but pooh-poohed by many who are betting it will go the way of MySpace and Digg. New platforms pop up all the time to lure you in. the vigilant author needs to KNOW where their readers and customers are hanging out. It changes … sorry about that. It’s all about #2 ENGAGE … you gotta find them, connect with them, engage them.
5 Social Media Oh-Oh #5: Platforms disappear or just dwindle in favor. Google+ shut down in March of 2019 with multi-millions scratching their heads. Others’ “sell by dates” came and users migrated to newer and shiner platforms. It happens. Be on alert.
Dr. Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and author of 36 multi-award books. She’s guided over 1,000 authors in creating their books, earned in excess of $3,000,000 in speaking fees based on her books and gathered over $2,000,000 in onsite book sales at her speaking gigs. Her latest book, How to Create a $1,000,000 Speech flips a difficult topic into a simple and easily comprehensible plan. If you want to get into speaking, this is the guide that will be the game-changer to success.
Get your copy today. http://bit.ly/100
What say you?