An Author's Plan For Social Media

by

This post, from Chris Brogan, originally appeared on his site on 5/29/10.

Here’s a freebie: if I were an author looking to get the most out of the social web (and I am), I’d do something along the lines of what I’m about to share. Your mileage may vary, but here’s a decent approximation of the things I’d do. Please feel free to share liberally. Just link back to An Author’s Plan for Social Media Efforts, please.

 

An Author’s Plan for Social Media

  1. Set up a URL for the book, and/or maybe one for your name. Need help finding a URL? I use Ajaxwhois.com for simple effort in searching.
     
  2. Set up a blog. If you want it free and super fast, WordPress or Tumblr. I’d recommend getting hosting like Bloghost.me.
     
  3. On the blog, write about interesting things that pertain to the book, but don’t just promote the book over and over again. In fact, blow people away by promoting their blogs and their books, if they’re related a bit.
     
  4. Start an email newsletter. It’s amazing how much MORE responsive email lists are than any other online medium.
     
  5. Ask around for radio or TV contacts via the social web and LinkedIn. You never know.
     
  6. Come up with interesting reasons to get people to buy bulk orders. If you’re a speaker, waive your fee (or part of it) in exchange for sales of hundreds of books. (And spread those purchases around to more than one bookselling company.) In those giveaways, do something to promote links back to your site and/or your post. Giveaways are one time: Google Juice is much longer lasting.
     
  7. Whenever someone writes a review on their blog, thank them with a comment, and maybe 1 tweet, but don’t drown them in tweets pointing people to the review. It just never comes off as useful.
     
  8. Ask gently for Amazon and other distribution site reviews. They certainly do help the buying process. And don’t ask often.
     
  9. Do everything you can to be gracious and thankful to your readers. Your audience is so much more important than you in this equation, as there are more of them than there are of you.

Read the rest of the post, which includes 12 more steps for authors to use social media effectively, on Chris Brogan‘s site.