Promoting a book via social Media....what would your daily actions be?

[Deleted11391]

Hi Guys,

I was hoping that i would be able to get some advice from you all on a social media question....

Basically im new to social media and at the moment feel very much overwhelmed by the sheer scope of it.

I am an author and want to promote my book via social media. Its currently both a paperback and an ebook but the margins are small, therefore PPC seemed out of the question for me.

I currently have set up a facebook, twitter, pinterest, linkedin and youtube account which all have either vanity or personalised urls.

I want to get into the habit of devoting a set period of time each day to concentrate on developing sales and visibility for my book through social media. Basically the plan is to have a checklist of items i do each and every day in order to promote myself.

My question for all you social media gurus out there.....what would you suggest as your recommended daily actions for promoting a book like this?

Are there certain things i should be doing in order to maximise my potential return from time spent?

Would really appreciate your help!!!!!!

Many Thanks
Brian

 

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[JaySoriano]

Contact bloggers within the niche of your book and ask for a tweet/feature/interview, etc.

 

[Deleted11391]

Thanks Jay, Will add that to the list!

Just wondering how best to spend my time on facebook and twitter also.

I just need a bit of structure on what i should be doing daily on those sites.....instead of wasting my time and effort etc...

Thanks
Brian

 

[Likwid24]

Check out Facebook Fan Page Marketing Secrets to Get More Fans | Get 10,000 Fans

 

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[Deleted11391]

Thanks Likwid24.....hopefully there is some free info there!

I aint shelling out money to learn how to get free traffic! LOL!!!! (im a cheapskate!!!)

Thanks for that though.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Thanks Likwid24.....hopefully there is some free info there!

I aint shelling out money to learn how to get free traffic! LOL!!!! (im a cheapskate!!!)

Thanks for that though.

...

I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. (NOT the right way of thinking. You are a business man, understand that if some internet guru's product costs $97 and get you 10,000 fans? Uhhh... I'm preetttyyy sure that's worth it.)

Anyways...

1. Twitter - I'm not a twitter genius but they are on here. Actually there's software that automates running around and finding people interested in your topic and following them. Find this software, I'm sure there's quite a few like it. Google is your friend.

2. Facebook - Likwid just gave you a great lead. You should follow up with it and take it seriously. You are not the first to have this problem, others have had it, and solved it (now they sell the solution - fastlane indeedy!)

 

[Gymjunkie]

Twitter might be second best option after developing relationships/buying ads or reviews on book blogs.
Start commenting on book blogs on posts you like. Comment well, don't bad mouth other authors tho, constructive criticism is ok but saying book is shit isn't ... Email bloggers good books they could read and share with readers, not yours at first. Be valuable to them, maybe you can help them improve the blog somehow? That would build trust and likeability and then eventually you can send them your stuff and ask for review...

Similar stuff on twitter, go to Search on twitter and search books that are similar and see who talks about them, discuss good books, ask people why they liked some or other book (research for you!!) DO NOT sell. Let them ask what you but even when they do , dont sell them, tell them you are a writer and write books similar to one they talked (give people reference they can know from other book or short description of your book, one sentence). Tweets like that should be 9 out of every 10. Then 1 in 10 people will start going deeper with you into a dialog and maybe they will join your Facebook or read a blog post.

I get authors as followers on twitter and they push their book straight away....I'll I say back to them is Phuck off.. (in my mind of course lol)
Also, when you follow someone and they thank you for follow then be decent enough to respond and mentioned reason why you followed them. Flattery is good, we all have egos!!!! Esp. people on twitter... lol

And then there is Goodreads.com where I'm not really active so can't say how to make it work without buying ads. But I'm pretty sure you should follow fans of books you like and discuss them just as on twitter. GR is good because it's book only site so thats a plus.

That's probably gonna come to about an hour to each of these during a day if you are serious about it..

 

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[cashflow3000]

Those are all good ideas.

If you are looking for freebies try this blog: Go Do Some Twitter | AJH Social Media Services

"Go Do Some Twitter:
A blog about successful social media for writers"

You might learn something new!

Good luck.

 

[jtmoniii]

Great question. The reality is though that most people don't buy from Social Media, they buy from news outlets. For perspective, I have an Amazon best seller and most of my sales aren't through Amazon. Yes, I know it's a joke book but hey money is money. I've been on Fox Business, Huffington Post, Fark, and in all of the major Washington D.C. papers.

Everything Obama Knows About The Economy!

 

[AllenCrawley]

Great question. The reality is though that most people don't buy from Social Media, they buy from news outlets. For perspective, I have an Amazon best seller and most of my sales aren't through Amazon. Yes, I know it's a joke book but hey money is money. I've been on Fox Business, Huffington Post, Fark, and in all of the major Washington D.C. papers.

Everything Obama Knows About The Economy!

Your book made me chuckle. Reminded me of "Everything Men Know About Women".

 

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[AllenCrawley]

I am an author and want to promote my book via social media. Its currently both a paperback and an ebook but the margins are small, therefore PPC seemed out of the question for me.

I currently have set up a facebook, twitter, pinterest, linkedin and youtube account which all have either vanity or personalised urls.

I want to get into the habit of devoting a set period of time each day to concentrate on developing sales and visibility for my book through social media. Basically the plan is to have a checklist of items i do each and every day in order to promote myself.

My question for all you social media gurus out there.....what would you suggest as your recommended daily actions for promoting a book like this?

Here are my suggestions. Some people have already suggested some of this but I'll lay out what I have done and continue to do.

• Identify the big players in your topic/field. Authors, bloggers, industry celebs, etc.
• Find their twitter profiles (visit their websites or do a google search)
• Use software like tweetadder that will allow you to follow all the followers of those big players you've identified. A certain percentage of those you follow will follow you back. Be sure to unfollow those that don't follow back within 6 days or so. This type of software will also allow you to search twitter for specific keywords in user profiles and that users are tweeting. You can also add them to your list to follow.
• Do NOT blast your followers with self promotion tweets. Provide value. Provide content your followers will like. You should tweet out tips, articles, news stories, blog posts, pics, videos, etc (from other sites and a few of your own) that they'll love. I'd suggest maybe 1 self promotion tweet for every 50-100 value driven tweets.
• Be sure to engage your followers. Ask questions, answer questions, retweet tweets that your followers may like.
• Your self promotion tweets can be a mix of pure sales like "buy my book" to something like MJ does, "Get the first 3 chapters of my book for free".
• Identify and use hashtags to help others find your content. Doing this may help increase your followers, retweets, lead captures, sales, etc.

You do have to be careful when using automation software like tweetadder. Only follow maybe 150-200 people per day when starting out. People who follow 2000 people right off the bat throws up a red flag and twitter may suspend or ban the account. This type of software can also automate the posting of tweets and rss feeds.

Let me know if you need further clarification or have additional questions.

 

[PatrickP]

Great question. The reality is though that most people don't buy from Social Media, they buy from news outlets. For perspective, I have an Amazon best seller and most of my sales aren't through Amazon. Yes, I know it's a joke book but hey money is money. I've been on Fox Business, Huffington Post, Fark, and in all of the major Washington D.C. papers.

Everything Obama Knows About The Economy!

I have wondered what does that mean when a person says they have a best seller on Amazon?

Can you please link us to the list of best sellers on Amazon?

 

[mapaul04]

I have wondered what does that mean when a person says they have a best seller on Amazon?

Can you please link us to the list of best sellers on Amazon?

Amazon Best Sellers: best Kindle eBooks

They also have best sellers broken down by category. For instance humor, childrens etc

 

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[PatrickP]

Amazon Best Sellers: best Kindle eBooks

They also have best sellers broken down by category. For instance humor, childrens etc

Thanks! I don't see the Obama book, maybe jtmonii can link us to it.

 

[GuestUser8117]

Brian, you sould read "Likable social media". It's a bestseller.

 

[JaySoriano]

Thanks Jay, Will add that to the list!

Just wondering how best to spend my time on facebook and twitter also.

I just need a bit of structure on what i should be doing daily on those sites.....instead of wasting my time and effort etc...

Thanks
Brian

Just to add, you can use a tool like followerwonk to easily find people within your niche. Combine that with "scraper for chrome" and you easily have a list of contact information.

 

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[ebooklover]

Hi. Im new here and I would also want to add that when finding more network in Twitter, there are many 3rd party websites that will help you connect with people who are interested in your niche topic and who are very willing to like you back. But just to be clear, I dont mean the softwares where it automatically does all the job for you (The ones i recommend still requires manual work -- search it on google).

I dont really recommend the softwares because Twitter can or might blacklist your account due to a tremendous amount of follows you did in your account in a short span of time. Once your account is blacklisted, Twitter will limit the number of follows you can do and can follow you in a day. So just be careful

 

[tchandy]

Brian,
I've seen some authors give away their book for free for a set period of time, a few days to 10 days. The only thing they ask is for people to leave a comment on Amazon. In most cases this will place the book at the top of the category that they book is in. This could be another option to try.

Tom

 

[Jake]

Brian,
I've seen some authors give away their book for free for a set period of time, a few days to 10 days. The only thing they ask is for people to leave a comment on Amazon. In most cases this will place the book at the top of the category that they book is in. This could be another option to try.

Tom

if you enroll in KDP select you get 5 "promotion" days. This allows you to give away an unlimited amount for free on Amazon. It locks you into selling your book only on Amazon but if you haven't built a following for yourself it's worth it imo to gain some traction.

 

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