Authors must understand the different roles they may play on social media and how these roles can impact their content and audience. Stephen Heitz, managing director of interactive at Lavidge, believes there are three primary roles that an author portrays on social media. First, an author is an active sales person for his or her book, but should use only about 10% of posts to directly sell. Second, an author is an advocate for topics or things related to the book, so about 20% of posts should be about the book. The majority of an author's time (about 70%) should be spent in the third role - being helpful to his or her network of followers. Heitz explains that an author's voice or tone on social media is determined by these roles and the value that is being offered by each role.
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