Social Media

[ThinkerX]

What kind of posts do you make? These groups are mostly allergic to anything they perceive as self-promotion.

First thing I do when scoping out new groups - not so much anymore, as I have twelve or fifteen with reasonably good membership - is to look at the rules. These rules have a little icon when you go to post. Some ban self-promotion altogether unless asked. Most of the ones I participate in have a 1 self-promo per week rule. This can get a little tricky - usually they pop up right away, but many times the post won't get approved for several days after I hit the 'post' button. I go by those dates.

Typically, I make my posts to all the sites on the same day. About half of these will be for the book I'm pushing at the time - yesterday it was 'Empire: Metropolis' (book 4). The other half gets split - yesterday, the split was between 'Empire: The Complete Collection' and 'Empire: Country' (book 1).


As to the posts themselves, what I've done is make up a generic plug for each book, including the link. I then do a straight copy-paste, putting the title in bold. This one is typical. (I intend to track down more artwork for variety.)

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EMPIRE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

Like Lovecraft meets Game of Thrones!



Tia Samos sets out into the tottering Solarian Empire intent on finding a highborn husband. She is accompanied by her maid and personal minstrel Rebecca, her knightly protector Sir Peter Cortez, and Kyle, a veteran with a knack for magic, searching for a place in a nation they no longer recognize. What they find is opportunity, peril, forbidden secrets…and sheer terror.



The Complete Collection incudes –

Empire: Country

Empire: Capital

Empire: Estate

Empire: Metropolis

Empire: Spiral

Empire: Judgment

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Empire: The Complete Collection by Tim Goff

books2read.com

 

[Ned Marcus]

Thanks, ThinkerX. That's a useful post.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I think social media is just something with a shelf life. How 20 somethings are using Facebook today? Probably not as many as were when 20 years ago. I think all of them will run a pattern of being hot for a while, and then drifting down as something else takes over.

Well, given the fact that Facebook only had 1 million users 20 years ago, and has about 2.5 billion, I think it's fair to say that there are definitely more 20-year olds using facebook now than 20 years ago...

I think you're underestimating Facebook. While it's not the hip and happening place it perhaps was 20 years ago, like I said they have about 1/3rd of the world population as user. Yes, popularity moves up and down, but it's still a very powerful platform, and one of the best places if you want to run paid ads.

In general about social media, don't try to do all at once. Focus on one or two and get some traction there before expanding. And even then it can easily take a year of regular posting before you get much in the way of getting regular followers. They're all a bit different, and have different purposes. Facebook is mainly about creating a community for instance, while Tiktok is more about short clips that promote your books and (hopefully) lead to sales.

 

[Alison Lawrence]

Helpful, thanks. Good idea to give it time. As with all platforms, you get more out of FB if you give and interact.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I think you're underestimating Facebook. While it's not the hip and happening place it perhaps was 20 years ago, like I said they have about 1/3rd of the world population as user. Yes, popularity moves up and down, but it's still a very powerful platform, and one of the best places if you want to run paid ads.

Some authors make it work. For me, it's pretty slow over there. But better than My Space.

 

[Devor]

You have to really know what you're doing. Each platform has a target audience and own emphasis. Also, I wonder sometimes where the real bookworms hang out

Goodreads.

It's my understanding that the most successful low-budget marketing strategy is still sending well-presented marketing-style emails to people who have reviewed similar books on goodreads.

 

[M. Popov]

You've awakened my inner Digital Account Executive! (Fancy title companies use for marketing and advertising folk)

You're going to need some interesting creatives in order to stand a chance, so I recommend investing in a decent camera and purchasing a Canva membership. I use Canva to create website pitches, infographics, ads, reminders for Instagram and Facebook, and toyed around making book covers. From my personal experience, investing in SOME kind of creative software is necessary if you're planning on using social media regularly for your promotional needs. You can also gather thoughts regarding your work via social media, which always helps.

You can buy ads to advertise your work. Facebook and Instagram allow you to set up your target audience for more reliable results, like interests, age, and geographic location.

Buying ads and posting regularly increases your chances of people noticing you and your work, I can go into the finer details but that's another story. Just remember that social media increases your chances of success. No matter how much you invest, time, effort and money, you're never going to have a 100% guaranteed chance of meeting your goals. So keep that in mind if you're considering starting a social media campaign.

Advertising and marketing stuff aside, I guess social media is a good way to create a following, even if you don't want to invest. It's a nice feeling to get positive feedback and acknowledgement, it can encourage you to keep going. But being regularly active and being exposed to other people's doings and problems can be exhausting. The good old "my opinions are facts because I say so" mentality is still a thing on social media.

Overall, I believe social media for writers is a mixed bag. It may or may not help you, and even if it does, don't expect anything grand right away. My best advice is to go in with realistic expectations and see what happens.

 

[Alison Lawrence]

Thanks for the good advice. Very sound.

 

[Ned Marcus]

First thing I do when scoping out new groups - not so much anymore, as I have twelve or fifteen with reasonably good membership - is to look at the rules.

I'm checking out new groups right now but am not sure whether it's best to do this with my regular profile or my author page. The names are different. What do you think? Have you dealt with this? I know that some groups won't allow pages to join.

 

[pmmg]

I'm checking out new groups right now but am not sure whether it's best to do this with my regular profile or my author page. The names are different. What do you think? Have you dealt with this? I know that some groups won't allow pages to join.

I would use the one on the author page myself.

 

[ThinkerX]

I'm checking out new groups right now but am not sure whether it's best to do this with my regular profile or my author page. The names are different. What do you think? Have you dealt with this? I know that some groups won't allow pages to join.

I use my regular profile page - as that is the name my books are published under. In your case, I suggest you go with your author page.

That said...

Last week I went and tracked down another half-dozen FB book groups. Posted in those groups, plus the regular ones - about twenty altogether, the most I'd ever done. All those posts netted me a grand total of one sale. Curious, I went and checked out the groups in greater detail, scrolling down through the first two or three dozen posts in each group. The vast majority of the posts - better than nine in ten - were simply promotions from various authors - sort of a FB version of the email book newsletters I get. I noticed a lot of the same titles popping up over and over again. The generalist book groups are a little different - more in the way of social activity.

Going this route gets you a trickle of sales - five or six or eight a month. (Right now, I'm at five sales.) But it is free...and sadly, about as effective as most ads and book promotion sites these days.

Warning. So-called 'Book Promoters,' most of them from Nigeria, infest the more generalist sites. Last week I had to contend with one who'd either impersonated a best seller crime author or hacked her page.

 

[The Dark One]

My mind so fills with inertia when it comes to marketing. My publisher has spent a fair bit on marketing - not sure of the results yet - but I am prepared to try and help out. I've storyboarded a book trailer which I'll get made with the help of a couple of friends and get it up on BookTok.

In better news, every writers' event or radio program I appear on has been seeing me get extra invitations to other events so I feel there is a little momentum happening. Everyone seems to like my new book and I always say that's the main secret to marketing... having a really good product in the first place.

The very first person to rate it on GR gave it 1 star and totally slagged it (I doubt she finished chapter 1) but it's clawed it's way up to 4.27 last time I checked.

The other thing (as most of you probably know) is that sci-fi and fantasy readers love series. My publisher was telling me that his most successful book happened after a major promotion on bookbub for book one of a series - selling it very cheap. Then the sequel came out a couple of months later at normal price and sales were off all known charts. He says he'll do the same with mine when the sequel is ready to go.

 

[Michael-Kaye]

I self published my first and only novel a decade ago... I was blessed - I wrote a fictional economic collapse thriller resonated with a certain political spectrum and an entire quickly exploding topic - Preparedness, Bug Out Bags, etc... the book hit the top 10 in paid ebooks for war fiction and stayed in the top 10 for more than 3 months... it also did the same in Action & Adventure... I spent major time building a social media following - it can be done, it can work, and it can bring significant rewards.

I have also built two very successful businesses, and sold the last one 3 years ago at 49 to retire... both of those businesses were extremely successful because I know how to drive customers and new business to us through social media... so if anyone has any questions, I would be more than happy to give some free pointers/input.

Two pieces of advice: When creating your accounts - make them uniform - same usernames if possible across X, FB, Pinterest, etc. While you need different size header pictures and user pictures - make them all the same picture... for example the hacker eye I have for my picture on here, will be the same I use on X, FB etc as I restart those pages.

Learn which hashtags work best and use automation tools to schedule your posts - I found the best time for X back in 2013 for promoting my book was Sunday from 2 to 3 PM and Wednesday at lunch. time EST...

Anyway - Good Luck

 

[pmmg]

Quite a personal story. Hope you post more.

 

[Michael-Kaye]

Quite a personal story. Hope you post more.

Thanks, I plan on doing so...

 

[Devor]

I have also built two very successful businesses, and sold the last one 3 years ago at 49 to retire... both of those businesses were extremely successful because I know how to drive customers and new business to us through social media... so if anyone has any questions, I would be more than happy to give some free pointers/input.

In your experience, how differently does your audience behave on different platforms? Did you ever think to yourself, "This piece is kind of controversial so I bet it will go over well on Twitter, but this next one is just kind of cool, it might do pretty well on Facebook"?