I suscribe to author Kristen Lamb's excellent blog and eagerly await each post. Today's blog gave me food for thought. As authors's we are keen to get our work out there and noticed. We use every social media site and join every group in the hope of reaching new readers. As a writer I can identify with this, and understand why authors would act in this way.
However, as Kristen Lamb so very rightly points out, this can often lead to blasting your followers and readers with repeated posts on social media. I have had experience of this when one author posted 42 tweets or retweets one after the other. I kid you not as I counted. Needless to say I no longer follow them.
The purpose of social media is to reach out to readers and get to know them. The key is in the word social. If we met someone in person would we then talk to them non stop and then walk off without engaging in any conversation. I am sure no one would do this, yet essentially that is what we are doing when we bombard our readers with social media posts without engaging them in conversation.
I read somewhere that social media marketing should be 90% social and 10% marketing. This sounds about right to me. Let your readers get to know you. I appreciate that some people may not want to put too much out there, however there are ways of engaging in conversation without giving away all the details of your life right down to shoe size and inside leg measurement. How about the following examples from what I am doing now:
- What a gorgeous sunny day in Dundee. I'm in my conservatory writing this and watching the ducks in the stream at the end of my garden
- I really ought to do some weeding. Nah, writing is much more exciting
- Coffee is very definitely a writers best friend. What do you think
- DI Shona McKenzie is swimming in dead bodies. The streets of Dundee are not safe
- Tonight is Chinese night with my 2 oldest friends. Watch out Dundee the women are coming. What are you doing tonight?
- I think my favourite characters in a book, ever, are Jane Rizolli and Maura Isles. Who are your favourite characters?
- The picture at the top of this blog is the view at the end of my garden. Beautiful and perfect for a calm writing environment. What is your perfect writing and/or reading environment?
Just some examples of how you can reach out to readers, seem like a human, and still keep your privacy. If people feel like they know you then they are more likely to respond when you put the occasional post saying:
- So excited about my new book ... being launched on ...
- I am so full of emotion that my book ... has reached number 3 in the Amazon top 100
Still no full on marketing but engaging your readers.
If anyone has any great ideas for engaging readers please let us know in the comments. This is a chance for us to share and help each other as writers.
I would like to thank Kristen lamb for her post Social Media, Book Signings and Why Neither Directly Impact Overall Sales which was full of advice and inspired this post. This is well worth looking at and Kirsten Lamb is well worth following.
See you all again soon on Bookaholic. This book writing bookaholic is signing off and leaving you to read a good book.
