Use of social networking sites for book promotion
When it comes to online promotions for authors, there is a chance to spread yourself too thin. With the recent rise of social networking and bookmarking, the need to join each new community is strong. It’s true that you want to certify your name and/or book as a brand, and spending time socializing through sites like MySpace and Friendster can help you build potential readers, which in turn can improve your book’s word-of-mouth promotion . However, trying to manage a presence on multiple sites at once can be daunting and time consuming. Also, too much time spent on marketing takes away time to write the next book.
So where do you find the balance to keep your writing creative while employing effective online marketing techniques? Is it better to spread out in small chunks across a multitude of social networks, or focus your energy on two or three and let readers come to you? The authors of a marketing book I once read called “Focus” touched on the theory that a company that maintains a focus on one product or service tends to be more successful than the company that tries to diversify into different things. This thinking can be applied to online marketing: make a social community or two part of your marketing approach and your chances of sales can increase.
Of course, this begs the question, “Which social networks?” MySpace, for example, is perhaps the best known and most popular of the active sites. Its multifunctional and growing database of users gives the author a greater opportunity to establish a following. As for other promising sites whose names can become dictionary terms, here is a short list. Determine which ones might be most useful for marketing your book and focus your energy on creating a visible presence through the services they offer.
del.icio.us – del.icio.us is considered to be one of the first widely known social bookmarking websites on the Internet. “Social Bookmarks” refers to the collection of favorite websites and pages available for other Internet users to browse. Websites are grouped by searchable keywords throughout the site and can be viewed as lists or “clouds”. A cloud is a grouping of keywords where the words with the largest fonts represent phrases with the most websites attributed to them.
As a registered user of del.icio.us, you can add and edit favorite URLs and save them to an RSS feed that can be applied to your site or blog via an aggregator. Many people use del.icio.us to reference their favorite sites or to promote various URLs they are associated with. For someone who markets over the Internet, del.icio.us offers the opportunity to create inbound links to websites to increase link popularity and give the del.icio.us user the opportunity to find your site with one word. specific key. However, for del.icio.us to be truly effective, your site must be tagged by other del.icio.us users. One way to accomplish this is to add a special button to your website to entice visitors to bookmark your URL.
As a marketing tool, del.icio.us works best if people use it to tag you. Keep a profile on del.icio.us to promote your URLs and books, and make time for it when you have some spare.
Flickr – Flickr is a social community founded on photo sharing. Offering widgets that allow blog users to add gallery functionality to their templates, Flickr enjoyed explosive popularity as a social site and, through its acquisition by Yahoo, maintains its status as one of the best places to visit and share images. Here, people can upload vacation snaps, photos of weird but real hometown pictures, and personal photos designed to bring people even closer to the world.
Can Flickr benefit the author? In a way, yes. Readers are fans, and fans have an interest in various aspects of the lives of those they admire. Flickr presents the author with the opportunity to share with readers through images. Snapshots from recent book signings or conference appearances can be uploaded to a gallery and shared with everyone. Exposing a personal side to your writing character, whether big or small, cements a bond between you and the reader that can grow and ultimately benefit your sales through word of mouth.
As a marketing tool, Flickr can help add a nice quality to your site or weblog. Please update occasionally as you have pictures of events and book-related items to share.
Faqqly – This is a unique social site in that it encourages users to ask each other questions. These questions form your personal FAQ, or list of Frequently Asked Questions. Once you set up a profile, you can provide information about your book and your writing career. The idea is that people on Faqqly ask questions about your books and writings, and as you answer, you create the FAQ. It is very similar to being interviewed.
As a marketing tool, Faqqly presents an opportunity to promote yourself to interested readers. Instead of keeping a personal FAQ on your site, you can link to your Faqqly profile and encourage reader interaction, thus improving your relationship with your audience. Since you can be alerted to new questions, you won’t need to spend much time on FAQQLY unless you can spend a few minutes answering questions from other FAQQLY users. This, in turn, exposes you to a broader FAQQLY audience who will hopefully visit your profile.
From bookmarks to impromptu interviews, social networking sites offer the author many opportunities for self-promotion. Pick the sites that best fit your schedule and energy, and keep your focus and a polished profile on yourself and your books. Use your time to write and give readers something else to look forward to when they come back to visit you on these sites.