Like everything in publishing, book promotion is changing.
Because I spend so much time online, and am surrounded by blogging, Facebooking, and tweeting writing friends, I don’t even think about social media being revolutionary in any way.
But there are still lots of writers who haven’t made the leap to social media promoting. I met some of them this weekend.
When I blog about social media—its ability to reach a large number of people for (basically) free—I’m just preaching to the choir…because y’all are all online.
So I don’t really know about these other writers unless I meet them face to face—they’re not networking online.
They’re still talking about creative ways to approach book signings. They’re talking about tours and postcard mailings and posters.
Which, of course, is all still part of promotion…but doesn’t have nearly the scope that social media has.
When I was speaking on the Cape Fear Crime Festival promo panel on Saturday, I mentioned that I found book signings ineffective. I recommended spending that time developing a blog or opening a Facebook or Twitter account. There were a few writers in the audience who looked at me as if I’d grown horns on my head.
A couple of people told me later they didn’t really even know where to begin with the social media world.
So I promised to blog on it. :)
Here’s my take on getting started:
Blogging: I think this is probably the best way to get introduced to social media. The blogging habit comes fairly easily to writers and it’s not too hard to learn a blogging application. Blogspot is Google’s free blog program, and WordPress is another popular blog host. It doesn’t really matter which you choose.
The important thing is to regularly update your blog (you can choose daily or weekly but I wouldn’t space it any farther apart than that) and to interact with other bloggers. You can find great blogs in the blogrolls (sidebars) of active blogs. What do you blog on, if you’re a writer? You can choose to blog on the writing life, writing in general, books you’ve read, movies you’ve enjoyed—basically it’s your choice. It takes a while to really find a niche and get into the writing groove, but it will come.
Facebook: I think this is the second best way to make connections and start building a platform. The learning curve is fairly low and, once you’re on, it makes pretty good sense. The way that conversations work on Facebook looks like a real conversation (unlike Twitter, which is a bit more scattered.) Facebook is where writers interact and network. Where can you find writers? Look up any writer who is active online (I’m Elizabeth Spann Craig Author) and go to their friend list. Click on their friends and just start asking people to friend you. I promise that 99% of these writers aren’t expecting you to really know them for them to accept a Facebook friendship.
Twitter: Twitter is sort of the icing on the cake to me. If you’re already blogging and Facebooking and picked up on it well and are looking for another social media outlet, I’d pick Twitter. The learning curve is just a little steeper for the application…its method for interaction is a little unnatural, I think. What I love about Twitter is the resource sharing and the fact that the messages are always short and punchy. When you read as much as writers all do, short can be sweet. Twitter is also a favorite application for agents and editors, and there is lots of industry information being tweeted.
I’m interested in what y’all have to say about this…do you think this order makes sense to someone just starting out, who is wanting to get their feet wet? I could be persuaded that Facebook makes a better introduction than blogging to the world of social media. What do you think?
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Tomorrow I’m going to address the next question I got from folks about social media—how do I know this sells books? :)
My husband still cannot understand how I go so much done on social media networks- guess he has just missed the bus, and cannot relate.
Twitter is still unchartered territory for me, though.
This is excellent! I have a few friends that I’ll be sending to read this post. I’m a big believer in blogging and Twitter and I even see the benefit of Facebook. It all helps us get in touch with what is going on in the industry and we get to meet fabulous people at the same time. I love that!
Elizabeth – What a terrific take on how to get started with social media. I agree with you that a blog is a good first step. My thinking is that a blog can be as complicated or simple as you want it to be, so the social network newbie doesn’t have to be overwhelmed. And there are plenty of free blogging platforms, so it’s not a budget problem. You can blog as often or rarely as you want, too, so time is less of an issue than it is on other media.
The thing is, too, that blogging does get you noticed.
I like Facebook because of its options for things like events, fan pages and so on. And Twitter is terrific because it lets one share lots of other people’s great blog posts, news from the world of the genre one writes in and more. Yeah, your order makes a lot of sense.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Most of the writer friendships I’ve developed through social media have been through the blog, then through Facebook and lastly Twitter.
Those are my priorities as well. I started with my blog about 4 years ago. Facebook came much later, and I’m a relative newbie to Twitter. And I agree about the book signings. Most of the time is spent directing people to the restrooms.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I do the blogging and Facebook thing (altho I’ve primarily used Facebook for friends). I just couldn’t get the hang of Twitter, so I deleted my account. Sigh!
Karen
Writers who are still planning book tours and signings but not blogging are wasting their time. I’m glad you had a chance to spread the word at a conference. Funny that you got strange looks. I’m curious as to how you answered the next question. I hear that a lot “But you aren’t selling that many books from blogging are you?”
The only problem I’ve found with social media, especially blogging, is the time commitment. Obeying the golden rule – Follow as you would like to be Followed – gets difficult as the numbers grow and pretty soon you’re spending more time blogging than actually writing. How do you handle that?
Rayna–I don’t think Twitter is a must. Maybe, if you’re querying, you might want to check in with the agent and editor tweets. Other than that, I don’t think it’s something that’s as important as blogging or Facebook.
Heather–It does. It’s an opportunity to network, to share struggles, to be inspired. And…it DOES sell books!
Jeffrey–Which is funny, because you’d *think* it would be Facebook that would be better for developing relationships. But I haven’t found that to be the case.
Karen–Oh, if I had a quarter for every time someone has said that to me…
Margot–I agree. To me, it’s the quickest way to start effectively building a platform.
Linda–That sounds like a post in itself! Honestly, I kept up better a year ago than I do now. Twitter has encroached on some of my blogging time. What I can recommend (and I may do a full post on this) is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of the blogs you follow, instead of just clicking on your blogroll, etc. You can set up your feeds into different folders for different days of the week. That way you can ensure you’re hitting people’s blogs at least some of the time.
I totally agree with this trio of advice, and in the order of importance you put them. Looking forward to seeing how you track the results into actual sales, too.
Marvin D Wilson
Hi, Elizabeth! That must have been an interesting experience at the conference. I’m still talking with people who think social media is an enormous black hole that sucks all the time from your soul.
I was one of those, too, until I got Kristen Lamb’s book: We Are Not Alone: the Writer’s Guide to Social Media. Wonderful book! I completely revamped my blog and gave it a better sense of purpose, and I’m on twitter and getting a lot of support and networking opportunities. Time will tell if it builds a solid author platform for me, but it can’t hurt!
Thanks,
Kathy
http://www.kbowenmysteries.blogspot.com
I started with facebook, but mostly because I had a personal facebook account and so already knew HOW. (though my author account is separate) I think the advantage of that direction is it introduced me to blogs as a READER for a little while so when I was ready, I sort of had the gist, but i DO think blogging is the most effective.
I’m still learning on Twitter. I think if I took the time to organize, I’d use it more efficiently.
Interesting because personally, I don’t use FB professionally. I absolutely love blogging and Twitter though!
Since I teach seminars on publishing & promoting, it always amazes me how many writers are not online in any shape, form, or fashion! Like you, I’ve been online so long, it’s like I’m meeting an alien on Earth when I talk to these people. You’ve given them an excellent checklist!
I am partial to the blogging part. I’ve learned so much by visiting blogs like yours, and I’ve made blogger friends. I do use Facebook and Twitter, but probably not very effectively.
That’s a good line up!
The Old Silly–Thanks, Marvin!
K.B. Owen–It definitely *can* be, but only if we let it! I usually try to set a timer for myself.
Thanks for the book recommendation, Kathy! I’ve tweeted some of Kristen’s blog posts before–humorous and informative.
Terry–Oh, you and me both. “Where’s the restroom?” and “Where’s the humor/travel/biography section?”
Karen–Twitter is definitely not for everybody. And it takes a while to hit your stride with it, I think.
Hart–I have a separate author account, too. Otherwise, I’d end up with pictures of me at age 8 on my professional Facebook page, and I didn’t want that! :)
Lisa–That is interesting! I think Facebook has probably done some damage to its image by not respecting its users’ privacy as well as it should. I know they’ve irritated me with that issue. It’s probably lost them some users (of course, that may not be your reason not to Facebook, but it’s a refrain I’ve heard a lot.)
Diane–I was almost shocked. It was a shocked feeling…somehow I just thought everybody was doing it. I really did!
Jane–That’s my favorite part about blogging. I’m making friends, learning information, and promoting all at the same time!
I think blogging is definitely the best way. I’m so used to looking up writers that it’s strange when I find out that one of them doesn’t blog or doesn’t even have a website.
Plamena–I agree with you on that. One of my kids was really enjoying a book a couple of weeks ago and I made a point to find the author’s blog or website…nothing! I was really amazed.
I like both facebook and twitter. I just need to master the best way to use them.
I’m still not on Facebook. I started with blogging and for me that was easier.
Good information. The media shift is really on, and accelerating – more ways to communicate than ever and better too. Time is the currency on the web when it comes to marketing (mostly). As for blogging, even George Orwell has a blog…