Social Media Advice for Writers

I’m going to hazard a guess: I bet that most of the people following my blog right now are writers. Am I right (if I’m not, please tell me so in the comments!)? If you are, I’m going to make another guess: I’m betting that at least 3/4 of the writers here are looking to get published (again, comments.) And perhaps a smaller percentage already have something out there and they’re looking to market it, build their brand/online presence, etc.

I’ve been reading a lot of books on brand, social media for writers, marketing your book, and the like. Here are a few of my takeaways about social media, and I feel this applies to ANYONE selling something online:

Put the social back in social media. It is a tool, yes, but it has social in the name for a reason.

I’ve fallen into the trap, where you’re desperate to sell copies of your book and social media is right there and it’s just so TEMPTING to send out a generic series of Tweets, all saying the same thing:

While there’s nothing wrong with the occasional, “Hey, I have a book out that I am SO excited to share with you: LINK”, spamming a person’s feed with BUY MEs is a major turn-off and is likely to have the opposite effect of what you wish.

I’ve tried a more subtle approach on my Facebook author page:

It puts my book cover out there, my social media info out there, and my name out there. Here’s the problem: Without interaction, building up and maintaining relationships online and in person, no one is going to give that image a second thought. And that’s what I found.

As far as I can tell from the series of memes I did on my Facebook author page, not one resulted in a direct sale. Full disclosure: While Facebook is what experts are calling the best social media platform for authors, I still struggle with figuring out how to engage people there. I react and respond to every comment. I follow other author pages, react to posts and comment on their posts. But I’m still learning. This is a looooooong process.

Another thought:

Content is king, I’m realizing. And the reader is queen.

…or something like that.

The takeaways:

• Social media should be social
• BUY ME posts are annoying
• Content is king
• The reader should be your focus (what can THEY get out of what I’m saying?)

Hope that helps some other writer/salesperson out there. Build up your mailing list, and keep up your website.

And remember…

Keep your pen on the page,
Beth

P.S. If you want to help out an author like me, sharing, liking, and commenting on posts are all good things. Another helpful thing: Explore the pages and links on the sidebar. Thank you. I appreciate it!