Marketing Mondays - Social Networks

Hello everyone, time for another Marketing Mondays tip. Today we’re discussing social networks,

Point blank, it seems to be one of the necessary parts of expanding your readership. Stuff like Twitter, blogs, Facebook, ect, can be awesome ways to connect authors to their current readers,  and to help broaden their audience.

How many of you started following this blog because you saw me on Twitter, or a friend recommended me? Word of mouth is still a vital part of expanding our audiences, but it’s not the only way. Just because people recommend you, doesn’t guarantee others will follow you either. It depends on what content you have to offer them, and how they can get a hold of you if they have further questions.

Let’s face it. marketing and publishing are both becoming a more hands on business.  Even if you do get a publishing contract, most time you will be responsible for your own marketing. So, how are you going to do that? Have you given it any thought yet? What will you do to spread the word about your book release?

A good way to do this is by joining blog hops, or hosting blog tours. Another good way is by guest posting on other blogs, or doing free giveaways during interviews and stuff. Another way is to write up a professional press release and send it to the local newspapers.

My point is, you have to help promote your book if you want it to have any chance of succeeding. It’s a slow process and doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, and patience. You can’t just promote you stuff either, help a fellow author out and promote theirs as well.

Twitter especially is a prime example of this. If all you do is self promos, it becomes spam and a lot of people will ignore your posts.  If you go 25% self promos, with 75% other promos, of other authors, then you’re more of a team player, and are more likely to get help promoting your books and blog posts.

There are any number of ways to help promote book releases. One of my favorite ways to connect with potential readers is through Goodreads discussions. Numerous groups hold different discussions on different topics. I stick to books in my genres and those I like to read, so I don’t overwhelm myself with the discussion topics either.

The point is, you have to get out there and participate, in order to get your name and books out there. Just don’t over do it, to where you have no time to write those books.

Yeah Twitter is fun, and can get addictive. Any  social media can become addictive, so we need to limit our time on social media.

Connecting with our readers, and our potential readers is always important. But, so is finishing our novels. So, how do you plan to balance connecting with readers, and broadening your audience, while finishing your current WIP?