Digital Cures & Ills To Book Publicity

Sixteen minutes out of every hour Americans spend online is used on social networking and to participate in forums. That is the window of time one has to promote and market their book.

The survey findings of the The Wall Street Journal show that people spend their time online doing all kinds of things. Out of every 60 minutes online, two are spent on the news. People spend nine minutes on entertainment and five to shop.

It will only get more competitive, as the same device you email with, watch videos, stream movies, read books, and tweet from, will do even more things. We are a distracted, ADHD nation.

The people who use social media tend to be younger, but everyone’s catching up. 75% of 30-49 year-olds are on social media and 50-64 year-olds—about 65% of them—are on it. Those 65 and older? Almost 1 in 2 use social media. We’re a country of tweets and twits.

Social media is a way to promote your book—and to discover other books. But we can’t spend too much time on social media if it comes at the expense of doing other things such as:

·         Scheduling book signings

·         Seeking appearances at events or before groups

·         Contacting newspaper editors and reviewers

·         Reading out to radio shows for interviews

·         Researching the news media

·         Finding lists of people to contact

·         Strategizing and discussing a marketing plan

Social media time, for authors, needs to be split to do a number of things, including:

·         Writing blogs and creating content

·         Creating videos or podcasts

·         Distributing links to things you’ve done, said, or created

·         Networking and contacting new followers

·         Researching what others are doing

·         Learning how to use social media

It can be exhausting and intimidating to just think, as an author, about using social media to market a book, but once you get past the psychological barrier, the technical obstacles seem small. But managing your time wisely and efficiently becomes even more challenging.

The keys to using social media to promote your book are as follows:

·         Have a game plan—don’t just wander without a purpose

·         Be disciplined to focus on social media daily

·         Allocate a set amount of time—a minimum and a maximum—to work at social media

·         Spend most of your time posting/sharing links to content that will lead to book sales

·         Experiment. Twitter and FB seem like musts, but maybe you enjoy being on Pinterest and Instagram more.

·         Don’t lose hope if you have a slow start or a bad day

Good luck!

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014