Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
The internet is not only a powerful research tool, but it also provides a nearly instant connection with the entire world. Isn’t that a marketer’s dream? The question is, how can we use this tool effectively? Here are some of my recommendations.
The Huffington Post reported these statistics on Twitter for 2010:
- Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
- New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
- 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
- Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets per day.
- Twitter’s search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day.
To view the original blog post (with more stats), click here: http://huff.to/huffington-twitter-stats
Just think, if you could get a fraction of those people to follow you and re-tweet your tweets about your book, you could reach a huge number of new readers.
I am not a twitter expert, but I assume re-tweeting and commenting intelligently (using the @) on tweets by popular “tweeters” who are tweeting on topics similar to what is covered in your book could help you build your tweet-base. When someone re-tweets or comments with an @ to one of the people I’m following, I can see that person’s name and can click through to see if I want to follow that new tweeter. If the person is clever or thought-provoking, I usually will check them out. By directing your tweets, re-tweets and comments, you can use Twitter as a tool to build your audience and to sell your books. Make each tweet count!
Have any of you had success with directing your re-tweets and comments to build your tweet following?
Here are some Facebook statistics taken from Facebook’s page:
- More than 500 million active users.
- 50% of active users log onto Facebook in any given day.
- Average user has 130 friends.
- People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
Facebook is BIG place to connect with readers. It allows for a more personal connection with your “friends.” A fan or reader wants to be your friend, so the ability to see your pictures and hear what’s happening in your life is important. When you share book news on Facebook, be sure to take advantage of the “personal” connection and write to those fans as though they are friends or neighbors. Keep it professional, of course, but match your tone to the medium you’re using to connect with the readers. Facebook “helps you connect and share with the people in your life;” so let those Facebook friends be “people in your life.”
Blogging is also a great way to connect with readers and to build your credibility, but you usually need to use Twitter or Facebook to drive traffic to your blog. Blogs don’t market themselves, but by being smart with the tags on your blog posts, you can take advantage of search engine searches to do some of the work for you.
I want to stress once again that you need to remain professional online. Connect with your reader-friends on Facebook; Tweet with purpose; and blog to connect with readers and to build credibility–but do all these things with discernment! You don’t need to share everything with everyone.
Here are a couple of questions for you:
How else do you use the internet to market your book or your name? (Web page?)
What internet tool(s) are you most successful with?
I blog and use Twitter. I have definitely found Twitter to be a very useful tool for connecting with others – readers and writers. I’ve made connections with other writers before a conference and have begun creating a support/prayer chain of “friends.” Personally, I rely heavily on Twitter to keep up with certain blogs. When someone tweets out a link to a new post, I typically find out on Twitter first.
I have also found that connecting with others through blog carnivals or other link-ups help generate traffic for my blog and the hosting blog. Even more than that, link-ups provide another avenue for community and fellowship around a common topic.
Thanks for sharing those interesting statistics, Rachel.
Great post Rachel.
My critique partner’s debut YA came out last month. Since there was not much marketing support behind it, we launched a contest to win a copy (we gave away 5 total). We asked the virtual community to Tweet, Share, or Post contest links-all articles, interviews, or blogs about the book. In two week, we got over 1000 impressions for her book, tripled her Facebook novel following and caught the attention of her publisher’s marketing person.
If was fun and effective.
Though it has big numbers, I am not convinced that “tweeting” is effective. Lots of people tweet but does anyone really read the tweets? Between all the @ # and short urls, one has to really sift to find content. My experience has been that people/brands/companies are using Twitter to be seen but don’t spend much time in the seeing.
I just started blogging and it has been a blast. I wanted to do something a bit different with my site. I love history so I try to find interesting facts to blog about. My hope is that anyone that loves history as I do will enjoy reading my books… when they are published. 🙂
Jody Hedlund had a great blog yesterday, I think, on how Twitter has helped her by sending a lot of new people her way.
Personally, I don’t get Twitter yet, but I know I’ll need to figure it out sometime soon because it does seem to be a powerful tool.
Like Carrie, I wonder about the effectiveness of Twitter and Facebook. I can see how these are great resources for connecting with fans, but I wonder how many new fans are actually acquired through these massive time-suckers.
It seems that some authors are writing as many words on their Facebook and Twitter pages as they are on their manuscripts. I wonder if the numbers equal out: Ten hours spent tweeting equals ten new readers? I’d bet it is closer to 20 hours spent tweeting and reading other tweets to equal two new followers who don’t actually read fiction but like my jokes.
Maybe I’m wrong here. I’d like to think that I am, because Twitter and Facebook seem like such easy ways to spend time marketing. Certainly it has worked for some, and authors who already have big names (Ted Dekker, Dean Koontz) are seeing lots of involvement on their pages.
Would a writer’s marketing energies be better spent elsewhere? What about a site like goodreads? Or what about being a guest blogger at popular blogs that fiction readers frequent? Or writing a few articles for magazines? If one has time for all of these things, including Facebook and Twitter, then of course that would be best. But if not, I would tend to think that the amount of time spent (wasted?) in Face Space might be better used elsewhere.
Or not. Who knows?
Goody! I can see by Sally’s post, I’m not the only one on the planet who’s not “tweeting” yet! I realize I’ll have to figure it out, as well, as it does seem to be one of the many marketing tools.
Also, like Selena, I just started blogging, too, and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve heard it said that one either loves it or hates it.
Thanks, Rachel, for your wise thoughts on putting ourselves “out there.” (A concept I still find somewhat daunting!)
Now, I love this topic because I work in online book promotion. Twitter and Facebook have changed how we promote authors. When we first started out in early 2007, we had to rely mostly on blogs, ning networks, and other sites geared toward books to promote authors.
Now Twitter and Facebook have replaced some of that. Carrie, I can tell you that people do read tweets. Not only from my professional experience, but also from my personal networking to promote my own book. In January I ran a little experiment, and I began spending an hour a day just retweeting other people’s tweets. I doubled my number of followers. Do I have thousands? No, but slow and steady wins the race. I also discovered several items of interest in my travels.
With Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads, authors can hold online parties, which is almost as good as sitting down to chat with the author face-to-face. Speaking of chats, Night Owl Romance holds author chats during the week. Not appropriate for this audience, but they have 3 or 4 authors scheduled during each chat and they get to talk about their books and give away copies. That’s just another way to promote your work online.
The important thing, in my mind, is not to wait until your book comes out to create an online presence. Set up your website and a blog dedicated to your book months before your book comes out. Post book news. Consider what else you can post that will be of benefit to your readers to encourage them to come back.
Be out there networking as much as you can. Contact bloggers to review your book and then make sure you stop by to thank them when they post a review.
Virtual book tours (VBTs), which is my business, help authors reach potential readers. A VBT can last for two weeks, a month, or more. You can coordinate one yourself or hire a company to do it for you, but the idea is to get your name and your book out there so the search engines, and most importantly, potential readers find you.
I honestly love what I do. It’s a fun job and I learn about books I never would have heard of otherwise.
Marketing, name (brand) recognition….translate into sales…we hope! Certainly social media is a less expensive way to advertise than traditional means, and I am grateful for the savings!
What I really like about Facebook, blogging and Twitter, though, is the chance to connect with people, close to home, and in far away places. In some ways, the social media realm is similar to the “meet and greet” events of the Chamber of Commerce on a more global scale.
I believe networking has to be part of a balanced plan for the entire scope of an author’s occupation. It’s easy to get swept up in the virtual world.
Rachel, thanks for an insightful post and I found the discussion very helpful!
Social Media is a proactive tool which I believe is an absolute requirement for the modern writer to embrace. It’s part of what I do professionally, so I definitely have a huge edge…but with 47,000+ Twitter followers, I have a major marketing tool at my hands. It’s VERY effective.
Facebook has been my primary tool for relationship building with agents, editors and other writers. I can give you a 100 reasons why Social Media is so important, but here’s one critical one: at some point you’ll probably be selling your own e-books (books that weren’t accepted for publication or out of prints that you want to keep promoting). Social Media will probably be your only cost efficient tool to produce sales.
I have found that by linking Twitter, Facebook, my blog, and website together, I’m meeting new readers daily. My Facebook author page and Twitter account are solely for connecting w/ readers. If you remember your goal is to connect w/ people, not just build numbers, then you’ll find great value in it.
They can be time vampires, so I’ve set a time limit for myself on each site for the day. Posts made in the morning, tend to get more attention overall, so I try to post in the morning, then check back once in the afternoon to respond, and maybe in the evening. You can do this in a half hour (daily total) if your dedicated and stick to your time limit.
I’ve gotten as much from this as my readers. You just need to figure out what works for YOU. Have fun. Happy to answer any questions anyone of you have that are just starting out.
Kate and Michael, you make very good points.
What I discovered when I began attending a local writers conference is how few local contacts I had. Yes, I have contacts all over the world, but I live here. That’s why I tried to combine both online efforts with local events.
More and more I see people coming out with their own e-Books. Not that I want to buy all of them, but as far as promotion goes, you’re probably right, Michael.
Great discussion everyone. Love that you tackled this topic today, Rachel.
I’m still trying to find my way in the world of Facebook (for business), Twitter, and blogging. It’s fun, though, and I hope to master it someday. I think all three have huge potential in the marketing department. And it requires time, not dollars. You can’t beat that. 🙂
I find it hard to connect with people other than personal friends on Facebook. In my opinion, Twitter is a much better tool for marketing and busniess where as Facebook is more personal.
On a side note… it’s hard to believe there was a time before the internet existed!
This is such a great post – thanks, Rachel! I blog and have my blogs post to Facebook, but after reading this, I think I need to be a little more “personal” in posting other comments on Facebook, too. Haven’t tried Twitter yet, but I know I’ll probably need to sooner than later.
Carrie S.: I follow tweets, but I don’t tweet at this time. I assume there are all kinds of user-styles on Twitter.
James, I think most people are on the social media pages for a lot of time anyway, so it’s better to use that time as effectively as possible with the goal of building a following, right?
Thank you all for your comments! Very interesting discussion. 🙂
Great topic, Rachel! I’ve found Twitter to be extremely effective in increasing traffic to my blog. I love meeting new people, whether online or in person, so I regularly follow new writers, RT blog posts I think others will enjoy, and check-in with my friends.
The thing about any social media–it takes effort. I’m less about building numbers and more about building relationships. I use blogging, Facebook, and Twitter to build them.
I’m linking this to my post next Friday–it’s excellent!
I love Facebook, but the thought of adding Twitter to my day’s agenda is not a happy thought! I can only handle so much socializing and marketing before I become overwhelmed with it. And I don’t think people appreciate it if you are only on there to market your book, and it backfires if you seem too mercenary. Facebook is where I interact with people, whether I go to church with them every Sunday or they just found me on Facebook after reading my book. I treat them all like friends, because that’s how I think of them. Twitter seems more invasive to me, for some reason. Facebook is more laid back.
But I’m no expert! I do like having a website where people can easily find me and email me, and they can find out about my book. Doing blog tours and giveaways seems to be the best way to spread the word about a new book. Just my thoughts.
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