I had lunch one day last February with my brother’s boss, a high-level marketing guy for a company whose product is wildly popular. He also co-authored and self-published a business book that did so well the Big Bookstores picked it up, so I wanted to pick his brain about what I could do to get my writing out into the world beyond my blog. I explained that, though I blogged fairly regularly, I didn’t do much to try to promote it. The real focus of my writing efforts was a quasi-memoir that revolves loosely around my relationship with the first house I owned. I wanted his thoughts on how to pitch the quasi-memoir, which at the time was 70% complete, to agents, publishers, etc.
He held up both of his hands and said, “Wait a minute, Karen, you haven’t published anything yet, have you?” I shook my head. “Then you’re doing this all wrong.” He went on to tell me I needed to build a platform and find a way to generate demand for the quasi-memoir even before it was written. This seems like such obvious advice, especially since my minimal efforts to promote my blog guaranteed that it hadn’t been seen by anyone who doesn’t share my DNA. He suggested that I read a marketing book that’s oh-so-helpfully called Platform.
I greet business books with the same enthusiasm as I do tax returns, so I won’t lie and tell you I read it in great detail. I skimmed it, focusing on the areas that interested me most and skipping right over duh counsel like “create great content.” The insights I gleaned from the book led me to crank out the collection of humor essays that I self-published on CreateSpace and released on Nov. 4. But doing all of that still isn’t enough, because you have to promote it.
Which is how I find myself staring down Day 23 of Shameless Self-Promotion Month. (Happy SSPM, everyone!) I understand that, no matter what you’re “selling,” you must have a social media presence. But how do you figure out where to allocate your time without cutting into your precious writing time, especially if you, like me, have a non-writing full-time job? Do you choose only two or three outlets –facebook, twitter and Goodreads, for example–and focus on those? Or do you try to touch them all and then stick with the ones where you get traction?
And I would especially love to hear from anyone who has figured out how to make sense of what feels like cacophony to me on Twitter. I know people form relationships and connections there all the time but I don’t quite understand how that happens when so much content is flying around so quickly.
Hoping to hear from all of you wonderful folks out there!
The Write Stuff 
Oh, such a good post, Karen, with great questions. I totally get your frustrations with social media, and your confusion over where to allocate your time. And you’ll get a different opinion in nearly every book you read. (I’m currently quite taken with Read. Write. Publish., but things change daily in this self-marketing jungle, so who knows what might sound better tomorrow.)
On Twitter, I will confess I really do not enjoy it. At all. I’ve made some nice contacts there, and I do enjoy those PEOPLE, but the actual Tweeting and Following drives me batty. But, I also don’t like all the automated apps out there that do it for you. It just feels too much like ” let’s let my app do lunch with yours” to me. Very impersonal. I tried Hootsuite, and scheduled automatic posts to run regularly, some about my books, and some about personal interests I have in wildlife and birds, sharing beautiful photos. All of them got retweeted fairly often, but if you ask me whether or not it’s made any difference in my online presence or my book sales…I just couldn’t tell you.
I do, however, love blogging. No one tells me how many characters I’m limited to, for one thing, nor what topics I can discuss, or ask questions about. I’m currently trying to decide how I want my Mail Lists to work, because I think that’s a truly good way to reach people interested in what I’m writing or doing. I haven’t perfected it yet, though. Will get back to you on that one.
As for the rest, I’m just as lost as you, and hope we’ll get some good input from some folks here. I’m tweeting your question out, too. (One thing I do know is that Tweeting posts from here always brings a few new visitors and followers, which means a broader reach. So hopefully, everyone is remembering to do that.)
Thanks for posting this morning, and for asking such good questions. The weekends are slow, but hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll hear from a few good folk!
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I’ve taken a couple of marketing courses (online, really useful) and some of the best advice they give is: do what you are happy doing.
If you don’t enjoy, let’s say, Twitter, for example, then don’t do it. Your lack of enthusiasm will show, and you’ll waste time doing something that will increasingly become a chore.
Next good pieces of advice: don’t try to do everything. Unless you pay an assistant to do your social media (seems a bit pointless to me, but people do) and if, like me, you have a full-time job as well, then just pick a small number of social media outlets that you enjoy and do those well.
I use Twitter (and I love it), Facebook (because I have an extended circle of friends how use it anyway), Goodreads (because its the most influential dedicated book site) and my blog. And those 4 are all linked, so when I post on one, it posts on the others.
Et, voila!
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A great way to handle it, Deborah. I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Twitter. It just doesn’t speak to me. But then again, neither does FB. I would probably enjoy both more if I were more efficient with them, and really had them working well. I communicate with most of my friends via email, though, because I don’t always want the rest of the world reading our chats. 🙂 But I know I could be using both FB & Twitter better.
I’d LOVE a VA just to be sure my biggest things were being kept up to date, except for my blogs. I love posting on them, and chatting with followers. I like your advice, though. We are each different, and obviously what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another.
Perhaps I should focus on one new social media outlet at a time, and master that, before deciding if I want to add another. As I said in my post right before Karen’s, I want to figure out a way to work social media better that doesn’t interfere with my writing. And I have to learn NOT to resent the time spent doing other things. (Even things like gardening, which I normally love, are feeling like nasty chores now, because I want to be writing all the time.)
Attitude. Everything is about attitude, isn’t it? Which reminds me of a little poem I wrote last year, right after I finished my first book. Maybe I’ll post that later. It might make you smile. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
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BTW, Deborah, I downloaded The Prince’s Man last night. It’s on my list, now! 🙂
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Thanks for that, Marcia. Hate to tell you though, that’s not the one set in Scotland…
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That’s what I’d do – just try one at a time, and only add another if you feel like it. Was some of the best advice I’ve taken.
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This is fantastic and helpful, Deborah. I’d love to hear what you love about Twitter, because I feel like I might be able to get it if I have some help figuring out what makes it so “sticky” for most people and Teflon-like for me. And Marcia, I am so with you about how to spend that social media time. I’ve tried blocking off a particular half hour for it, to no avail (because it seems ineffective and also I couldn’t always stick to it), so I haven’t yet found an approach that ensures I use the time well.
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I really got into Twitter when I was learning everything I needed to know about self publishing in the run up to launching my first book. The sheer amount of info available via links shared by tweeps was like landing inside a tub of chocolates.
I made lots of friends, mostly by saying thank you to people who followed me, and starting up conversations with them
I learned Tweet etiquette by reading ‘Tweet Right’ by Nicola Morgan.
My only problem was not spending all my time on there!
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You are asking the wrong person since I don’t Tweet. However I think that, unless you’re extraordinary and don’t sleep at all, it’s better to stick to a few places to promote your work. I chose my blog, Facebook and Goodreads as my platforms. Not that it has been propulsing me anywere, but I believe more in the slow building than quick feedback. More books help, I think, to bring visibility. In any case I thank you for your post and apologize to the great people at Write Stuff for having been away from comments in the last week of so. Busy promoting! Good luck, everyone!
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Evelyn, your input is incredibly useful because it lets me know my current process isn’t crazy. The slow build through authentic following and commenting has been my most successful approach so far. (My inability to figure out how to replicate that type of activity on Twitter is, I think, the reason I haven’t done much with it.) I do intend to invest some time in Goodreads! Thanks for your thoughts, and GOOD LUCK with your promotion!!!
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Karen, I am apparently Goodreads Impaired. I loved it when I was a reader, having fun reviewing books. But now that I need it promote my own there, I’m paralyzed by worry, and lost trying to find the best way to do so, without having to spend hours, wandering around aimlessly, like Alice in Wonderland. I’m going to look at what you’re doing, and pick your brains. But not this week. I’m already putting up Christmas, so everything will be ready for company on the 14th. That, plus editing, and working on Book #4 will fill every minute, I suspect.
Can we say Time Management, boys and girls? I stink at it!
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I hear you, Marcia! I say we divide and conquer: I’ll take Goodreads, you take Twitter. During Thanksgiving weekend I’m meeting with a writer friend who helped me get started on Goodreads. I’ll pick her brain and share what I learn!
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I’ve found Goodreads to be a double edged sword. I have had good results by sending invites to my friends when I have new releases or promos,
On the flip side, when I’ve offered books for reviews via groups I’ve joined, some of the reviews have been not as favourable as the ones people leave on Amazon. I suspect some of the groups I targeted were probably not ideal for my books, so I’ve stopped using that route,
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