A powerful social media campaign is not about begging people to read your book. To begin your campaign, consider where your readers and contacts gather. Are they all on Twitter? Facebook? Blogs? This will help you focus on reaching as many people as possible. Determining your major network cluster will help you choose where to spearhead your efforts. After you identify your spearhead network, it's time to choose two secondary networks to support the most important one.
"Your network is interested in being a part of your journey, being caught up in the excitement of your book, and to be dazzled by glimpses of a book you’ve poured your heart and soul into. Focus on this."
Next you'll want to create a plan to reach out to your network. What should you include in this plan? Excellent content for starters. Don’t just throw anything out there. You’re a writer after all. Create thoughtful content to ignite the interest of your readers. You will turn off potential book buyers with the obvious pitch, “Buy my book!” Your network is interested in being a part of your journey, being caught up in the excitement of your book, and to be dazzled by glimpses of a book you’ve poured your heart and soul into. Focus on this.
Next up, some nuts and bolts. Your campaign should start about six months before the publication of your book. You need to track your success. If you keep stats, you will be able to determine which posts are most effective and which ones are not working at all. The more people who find your book the better. As you dole out content to interest readers, you need to be consistent. If you plan to post three times a week, don’t fall back to once a month.
You have a primary network so now it's time to get new readers. Cross pollinate your networks. If most of your network is on Twitter, consider guest blogging. Write blog posts that will appeal to your followers. Direct your Twitter followers to your guest blog posts. Getting people to invest their time in your thoughts will hopefully lead them to invest money in your book. If you don’t provide meaningful content for free, you are less likely to get new readers.
"Don’t use posting services for your campaign. People don’t want to hear from robots."
How do you create engaging content? First, never be negative. Next, be sure to communicate your community involvement to your readers. Support causes that you believe in. This will communicate how much you care about your community. Don’t use posting services for your campaign. People don’t want to hear from robots. They want to connect with real live authors. Finally, don’t forget to pepper in some humor. Everyone likes a good laugh.
Take these ideas to heart and start brainstorming. It’s never too early to start planning your social media campaign. A demanding journey is ahead of you but following this advice will point you down the path to success.