RM MARKETING SERVICES
  • Home
  • Ideas for Publishers
  • Blog
  • About us
  • Contact us

An introduction to social media for indie authors and micro presses

22/8/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
We recently contributed this article to the Independent Publishing newsletter from our good friends at Books+Publishing. If you haven't subscribed to their newsletters, we highly recommend you do so now.

All the social media and marketing advice says if you are engaging with an audience—with consumers, with booksellers, with librarians and teachers—you’re going to need a social media strategy.

Social media is about starting a discussion—about you, your product, your services. ‘Discussions’ do not increase sales—they create awareness. Your job is to enhance this awareness so you can develop a brand, build reader loyalty and have a sales strategy that makes it easy for someone to buy your book. That may be through bricks and mortar bookshops, online booksellers, special accounts or directly from your website. It should not be used solely as a sales strategy but linked to your overall sales and marketing plan for your books.

Lesson one: start early


One thing to keep in mind is that author and product awareness doesn’t happen overnight! You need to be thinking about your digital and social media strategy a long time before your book is published. As an industry consultant, there’s nothing more frustrating than getting a phone call or an email because someone has ‘written a book’ and they tell me the book has just come back from the printers, can I help with a website, promotions, publicity, getting them on the socials? They have published a book and no one can find them! They have no brand, no online presence, no followers, no readers, no SEO search results—zero digital footprint as an author. They are starting too late to build their author brand in a way that will maximise promotional and publicity opportunities.

Don’t leave it to the last minute to develop a digital and social media action plan.

Lesson two: define your goals


So what is social media marketing? It is essentially a way of creating content in multiple formats then distributing that on an online platform designed to drive engagement, encourage discussion and share information for consumers. It builds virtual networks and communities. It’s a conversation. And if you’re an author, it will provide direct access to your readers and vice versa.

Another thing to keep in mind is where social media is taking place. Statistics shows the number of smartphone users in the world is forecast to be 7.9 billion this year and of those 3.96 billion are on social media. (Which reminds me: you need to be thinking mobile for your website as well. Is it mobile–friendly? There are plenty of online services now that can help you with your website and have it integrate with social media. Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify and others can connect the dots for you. Websites aren’t expensive these days and you can contact industry professionals to help you get started.)

While I think everyone needs to have a social media strategy, that doesn’t necessarily means that everyone will have one. As authors and publishers one of the best things you can do is define what your social media strategy looks like. What are your goals? What are the platforms that are right for you? How will you communicate in those channels? Discover the voice that works best in those you want to engage with—then work out the best way to create and schedule content across those platforms. Do you have a content plan going forward? How will you keep the engagement going?

The best way to think about social media is to write down your goals. What do you want social media to do for you? Do you want to:
  • Attract new authors or collaborations
  • Drive more traffic to your website (this leads me to even more questions: what sort of website strategy do you have? Do you also have a blog there? A Look Inside the Books? Unique content? Reading group discussion points? Sign up for newsletter? Special offer on pre-order?)
  • Engage with the book trade
  • Get more followers
  • Increase audience engagement
  • Increase awareness of products
  • Increase email subscribers
  • Increase mentions
  • Market events and appearances
  • Develop paid partnerships
  • Produce engaging content
  • Promote your authors
  • Promote your brand and specialty
  • Reach new readers
  • Sell an additional service
  • Track content and reviews of products.
If you don’t think you have enough content for social media to encourage engagement, then it’s not for you.

Lesson three: know your audience


I read somewhere that unless you can answer the question ‘who is your audience’ then you’re wasting your time on social media! But now I’m going to hit you with the big question: who is your audience? This is really important for advertising on social media as you’ll need to identify your core audience, market to a custom build audience or a consider look-alike audience.

So, who are your readers? What do they read? What podcasts do they listen to? What magazines do they read? What television do they watch? What sex are they? What age group? Where do they live? What keeps them up at night?  What type of content are they craving? Do they stream content? Listen to ABC radio? How do they entertain themselves?

Over time social media analytics will build a nice but general profile of your readers so you will be able to discover who they are and continue to build discussions around them. Knowing your audience will help with your digital marketing strategy including email marketing and website.

If you can’t define your audience or some buyer personas, why did you write your book?
0 Comments

    Author

    Rachael McDiarmid has been in the Australasian book trade since 1990. Working in trade, academic and professional publishing as well as library supply and book distribution, she's worked with thousands of publishers, distributors, library vendors, and authors around the globe. She loves a belly laugh, strong coffee, wine, and good food. Venice is her favourite place in the world to visit but Sydney will always be home. She loves her office assistant Dash (also known as Dashie, Dashie Dog and the Little Shit). If you haven't already worked it out, she is known for her no bullshit approach. 

    Archives

    August 2022
    January 2022
    April 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    October 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    2022
    Academic Library Supply
    Adobe
    Adobe Creative Cloud
    Australian Book Industry
    Australian Distribution
    Australian Gin
    Australian Publishing Industry
    Author
    B2L
    Badges
    Balanced Curve
    Ben Randall
    Bibliographic Data
    Book
    Book2Look
    Book Industry
    Book Marketing
    Book Review
    Booksellers
    Books + Publishing
    Business Books
    Calendar Of Events
    Campaign Management
    Case Study
    Client
    Communication Skills
    Conflict Management
    Consult
    Consulting Services
    Content Acquisition
    David Box
    Design
    Designer
    Digital Marketing
    Direct Marketing
    Distribution
    EBL
    Ebooks
    Ebrary
    Editing
    Endorsements
    Etextbooks
    Every Stranger's Eyes
    Flyers
    Google
    Graphic Designer
    How To Market Books
    Independent Publishing
    Indie Authors
    Indie Publishing
    Internet
    Introduction
    Inventory
    Library Supply
    LinkedIn
    Local Publishing
    Major Street Publishing
    Marketing
    Marketing Solutions
    Mark Rosenberg
    Mastering Hard Conversations
    Mediation
    Micro Publishers
    My Identifiers
    MyiLibrary
    New Book Information
    Nielsen
    Online Marketing
    Online Marketing For Busy Authors
    Operations
    OTJ
    Outsourcing
    Outsourcing Solutions
    Photoshop
    Portfolio
    Posters
    Project Management
    Promotional Material
    Promotions
    Proofreading
    Proquest
    Publicity
    Publisher Relations
    Publishing
    Publishing Industry
    Rachael McDiarmid
    Recommendations
    Review
    RM Marketing Services
    Sales
    Sales Material
    Sisters For Sale
    Small Press
    Social Media
    Social Media Marketing
    Social Media Strategy
    Special Accounts
    Supplier
    Supply Chain
    Thorpe-Bowker
    Time Management
    Tips And Tricks
    Training
    Website Management
    Wholesaler
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Recommendations

There are few aspects of the publishing industry that Rachael McDiarmid hasn’t thought about in her career in books and publishing. I had the benefit of her insights as a colleague at Frankfurt Book Fair over a number of years, and trusted her to give me advice about our interest in finding meaningful direct contact with libraries and schools, an entirely new area for UWA Publishing. I would have followed up with additional small projects at the time had Rachael not moved into a new position in publishing. Back out in her own right again, I thoroughly recommend her for her insights and intelligent analysis. Rachael is trustworthy and smart, and thus a great asset to those of us working in the publishing trade."

Professor Terri-ann White
(Former) Director, UWA Publishing

Like to know more?

    Get in touch with us today!

Submit
  • Home
  • Ideas for Publishers
  • Blog
  • About us
  • Contact us