SOCIAL MEDIA'S MAGIC
Variations in the means of marketing your book are vast, sometimes overwhelming when you set out to gain exposure for your first publication. While many authors love the "writing" aspect of their masterpiece, many never considered being a salesperson or marketeer. In fact, many dread or even despise the effort altogether.
Whether you like it or not, an independent author must engage in the effort to get your book in front of as many potential buyers as possible within your financial means. Yes, this endeavor costs money, and many methods are not cheap!
Fortunately, social media offers less-expensive ways to gain exposure. By using email, websites, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and many other effective communication vehicles, you can share the benefits of your book and your message to fans and potential buyers by the 100s, 1000s, and potentially 100s of millions if you exploit the choices effectively.
Each choice of social media varies in size of the potential audience reached and residual staying power. While there are billions of email users that include some of your closest family, friends, and fans its reach is often limited to 100s of contacts by your personal mailing list. It has good staying power because your message often sits in the receiver's inbox until they act on it, and if you're lucky, they may move it to a folder for future reference. However, once all of your family, friends, and fans have decided whether to buy your book or not, the effectiveness of this method wanes quickly.
At the other end of the spectrum, Twitter has very limited staying power (minutes or hours at most) wheras an email message may sit in the inbox for days or weeks, depending on how active your intended reader might be. However. your very short tweet can reach thousands to millions of potentially interested parties depending on the tags you chose. Best of all, thousands of new contacts are being added every week. Your potential buyers are always changing and growing. What a marvelous marketplace!
Think of Twitter and Instagram as lightning in a bottle! There are times when I've tweeted a message leading readers to my website and by the time I log off Twitter and log into my website, the number of unique visitors and pages viewed has already taken a big jumped. It's utterly amazing how quick some people react! It's as if their red-hot, nimble fingers are waiting to strike at the instant the next tweet hits.
Here's approximate relative numbers for some social media outlets:
"Active" users: billions for websites, email, and Facebook; 100s of millions for Twitter and Instagram; millions for blogs.
Age groups: younger for Instagram and Twitter; a bit older for email and Facebook; and a wide range for websites.
Typical time it takes a user to react to your message/invitation:* ultra-fast (seconds/minutes) for Twitter and Instagram; fast (minutes/hours) for Facebook and websites; moderate to slower (minutes/hours/days) for email.
Effective staying power:* fizzles within minutes/hours for Twitter and Instagram; hangs around for hours/days for websites and blogs; lasts hours/days/weeks for email.
* Based on my experience.
Like with most communications, the effectiveness of any of these is only as good as the distribution lists and tags you use.
In the weeks ahead, I will expand on the uses of some of the social media choices. For now, I encourage you to look at the other "Marketing Suggestions" provided within my book series' website.
Whether you like it or not, an independent author must engage in the effort to get your book in front of as many potential buyers as possible within your financial means. Yes, this endeavor costs money, and many methods are not cheap!
Fortunately, social media offers less-expensive ways to gain exposure. By using email, websites, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and many other effective communication vehicles, you can share the benefits of your book and your message to fans and potential buyers by the 100s, 1000s, and potentially 100s of millions if you exploit the choices effectively.
Each choice of social media varies in size of the potential audience reached and residual staying power. While there are billions of email users that include some of your closest family, friends, and fans its reach is often limited to 100s of contacts by your personal mailing list. It has good staying power because your message often sits in the receiver's inbox until they act on it, and if you're lucky, they may move it to a folder for future reference. However, once all of your family, friends, and fans have decided whether to buy your book or not, the effectiveness of this method wanes quickly.
At the other end of the spectrum, Twitter has very limited staying power (minutes or hours at most) wheras an email message may sit in the inbox for days or weeks, depending on how active your intended reader might be. However. your very short tweet can reach thousands to millions of potentially interested parties depending on the tags you chose. Best of all, thousands of new contacts are being added every week. Your potential buyers are always changing and growing. What a marvelous marketplace!
Think of Twitter and Instagram as lightning in a bottle! There are times when I've tweeted a message leading readers to my website and by the time I log off Twitter and log into my website, the number of unique visitors and pages viewed has already taken a big jumped. It's utterly amazing how quick some people react! It's as if their red-hot, nimble fingers are waiting to strike at the instant the next tweet hits.
Here's approximate relative numbers for some social media outlets:
"Active" users: billions for websites, email, and Facebook; 100s of millions for Twitter and Instagram; millions for blogs.
Age groups: younger for Instagram and Twitter; a bit older for email and Facebook; and a wide range for websites.
Typical time it takes a user to react to your message/invitation:* ultra-fast (seconds/minutes) for Twitter and Instagram; fast (minutes/hours) for Facebook and websites; moderate to slower (minutes/hours/days) for email.
Effective staying power:* fizzles within minutes/hours for Twitter and Instagram; hangs around for hours/days for websites and blogs; lasts hours/days/weeks for email.
* Based on my experience.
Like with most communications, the effectiveness of any of these is only as good as the distribution lists and tags you use.
In the weeks ahead, I will expand on the uses of some of the social media choices. For now, I encourage you to look at the other "Marketing Suggestions" provided within my book series' website.