Maneuvering the Media Ocean: Social Media for Authors

Vraeyda Media executive's presentation on social media marketing specifically for authors. Discover platform demographics, proper posting numbers per week, time/effect ratios and good campaign practices.

1. MANEUVERING THE MEDIA OCEAN
Social Media for Authors

2. “
You can sell books using social media.You
also can’t really sell books using social media.
The cat is both dead and alive.
For quite some time, social media has been
promoted by nearly everybody, including
publishers, as a Very Good Way to SELL
YOUR BOOKS . You have a Certified
Platform. It is the place where you express
your Authorial Brand.
- Chuck Wendig

3. THE PROBLEM
➤The Lie: With time, talent,
followers and luck, anyone on
social media will make 1,000’s
of front end sales.
➤Overstimulation:
➤Too Many Voices
➤Too Many Platforms
➤Takes Time & Money
➤Followers = Buyers

4. “
One of the most important factors
that traditional publishers use to
decide whether to acquire a book is
the marketing platform of its author.
- Guy Kawasaki

5. YOUR TIME IS WORTH
MONEY. SPEND WISELY.
Decide how much your time is worth, & how many books you have to sell from each
campaign. Is it worth it? Is it feasible?
What’s your budget financially & chronologically?

6. PROFIT = # BOOKS + NEW FOLLOWERS
TIME + MONEY

7. THE TIME FACTOR
➤Most Social Media Campaigns can be undergone with nothing
but a computer, a head on your shoulders, and time.
➤How much time is enough?
➤Take 2/3 time as a curator/creator, and 1/3 time to interact
with the followers who reply. Build Community.
➤Twitter: 5 - 8 tweets per day.
➤Facebook: 1 - 10 per week.
➤Pinterest: 1 - 10 per week.
➤LinkedIn: 1 - 5 per week. (Weekdays)

8. CONTINUITY & FREQUENCY
➤Facebook pages which posted once
per week reached ~ 12% of users/
followers.*
➤Facebook pages which posted 10
times or more per day reached ~
6.51% of users.
➤For increased reach rates, promotion
costs apply payable to Facebook.
Frequency = Increased Reach
Interest = Increased Reach
* Statistics from Locowise study.
LESS IS MORE AS A
FACEBOOK PAGE
MORE IS BETTER ON
TWITTER

9. CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Find the sweet spot of posts per week to which you can commit.

10. FIND & OWN YOUR
DEMOGRAPHIC
Join the social media platforms where your readers/potential readers congregate.
Not all social media platforms will give you positive results.
Streamline your promotional process.

11. DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF SOCIAL MEDIA
All graphs property of PEW
Research Centre

12. DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF SOCIAL MEDIA
All graphs property of PEW
Research Centre

13. FACEBOOK WWW.FACEBOOK.COM
➤71% of internet users
➤Most users are on daily at 1 - 3 PM
➤Thursday & Fridays are peak days
➤Most users are White/Hispanic
college educated women aged 19 - 49.
➤More monthly users than WhatsApp,
Twitter & Instagram combined
➤Posts are liked for relevance,
entertainment, contests or social need
➤Monetized posting to majority of
audience through Promote & Ads

14. PINTEREST WWW.PINTEREST.COM
➤28% of all internet users
➤42% of women users
➤Active users spend more time on
Pinterest, than Facebook.
➤Most users are white, college
educated suburban & rural women
aged 25 - 64.
➤Pinterest is graphics-oriented &
based around secondary links.

15. LINKEDIN WWW.LINKEDIN.COM
➤28% of internet users
➤Most users are Urban, multicultural
college educated men & women btw
30 - 64 making $75,000+/year
➤LinkedIn impacts the community
with the highest amount of
disposable income
➤Business & Professional oriented
➤The best place to build a
professional community

16. TWITTER WWW.TWITTER.COM
➤23% of internet users
➤Most users are urban, college
educated, multicultural 18 - 49 year
old males who make $50,000+/year.
➤Interaction & Engagement is Key.
➤Reply to your followers.
➤5,700 tweets per second globally.
➤Best used with infographics, photos
& #Hashtags between 5 - 8 times
per day.

17. GOODREADS
➤“Goodreads has become the most
important book networking site
on the Internet…” Forbes
➤40 Million Members. 1.3 Billion
Books. 47 Million Reviews.
➤The Goodreads Author Program is
free, functional & fantastic.
➤Self-Serve Advertising is relatively
cheap. Choose $/click, $/diem, $/
campaign, demographics.
➤View, choose, sample, add, review,
list, quiz, Q & A, read Author
blogs…

18. THE BLOG: TUMBLR/WORDPRESS/BLOGSPOT
➤The blogging “revolution” started 7 years ago.
➤The average blog reader is a 41 year old man or
woman, looking for information.
➤The best Origin-Point of all social media
campaigns. It’s your “Read More”.
➤All self-generated social media content should
come back to the Blog/website.
➤A consistently curated blog is the best way of
keeping new followers interested.
➤Post a minimum of once per week.
THE
MUST
DO

19. FOLLOWERS
DO NOT EQUAL
BUYERS
VIEWS
CLICKS
BUYS

20. BECOME AN
INFLUENCER CURATOR
A person who curates the tsunami of social media content into an intelligent,
fascinating & easily followed package.
A person who focuses on one or two themes & becomes an expert, adding their own
created content to fill in gaps.

21. HARD SELL
➤A direct, forceful marketing technique which aggressively pursues overt
sales.
➤eg. “Buy my Book for $14.97 off my website. Buy it! What’s stopping you
from buying it now?”
➤eg. “Novel the Novella is $4.99 on Amazon Today. Buy it.”
SOFT SELL
➤A subtle, casual marketing technique which persuasively
pursues through amity & implied selling.
➤eg. “Here’s chapters 1 - 2, and a link to the book for sale”
➤eg. A well designed colourful banner for your book on your
Facebook/Twitter Page.

22. CREATED CONTENT
➤Content which you personally created to be used on social
media platforms.
➤eg. A short story/book preview, An Author Interview, book
trailer, cover art photos, quotes.
CURATED CONTENT
➤Content from outside sources to be used on your social media
platforms, with appropriate credit given.
➤Content chosen for its’ similarity, impact or proof to yours.
➤eg. A scientific paper/article on gene splicing, while you’re
writing your science fiction novel about super-soldiers.

23. THE SOLUTION
➤Soft Selling is social media gold. Hard Selling is social media
lead. Focus on 90% soft, 10% hard.
➤Become both Creator and Curator of content surrounding
your genre, books & readers.
➤Focus on building a community of like-minded people who
enjoy & get excited for your content.
➤Remember the reason social media calls it ‘friending’ or
‘following’. Becoming a social media success is about building
trust, emotional bonds with your material, and community.
➤Include links to your books in your primary content, so
interested people can buy them.

24. “
Inspire us. People follow conviction.
We don’t take orders well anymore.
We come to our own conclusions, on
our own.
- Followers

25. ANATOMY OF GREAT
Social Media Content

26. A GREAT POST CHECKLIST
➤Specific & Builds Curiosity
➤Eye catching colourful art or
words
➤Consistent in Frequency
➤Relevant to Overarching Themes
➤Call to Action (Link/Buy/
Follow)
➤Incites Conversation
➤Shorter is Better for Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn
➤Longer is Better for the Blog
➤Share Buttons on Bottom
SPECIFIC, RELEVANT AND
ENTERTAINING SOCIAL MEDIA
IS A GATEWAY FOR YOUR BLOG
OR WEBSITE

27. Putting quotes/phrases into graphics or pictures makes them more viable to clicks.
“We are all broken, that’s how
the light gets in.”
#ErnestHemingway #Quote
#LitQuote #Encouragement

28. “
Future behaviour is fully determined
by their initial conditions.
Calvinistic Atheists,
Predestination Scientists
Rubbernecking at deep sea steam
vents
For bacteria which gets no
nourishment from the sun.
“Uncle Bob? Is that you, 400 million
years ago?”
-Excerpt from Chaos Machines and the
People Who Buy Them (Link)

29. RIDE THE WAVE
BETWEEN ACCESSIBILITY
& REDUNDANCY.
Find your area of expertise & live it, research it, post about it & share it.

30. THE ‘FREE’ REVIEW
➤Consumers are more likely to
purchase books their peers say
are worth the read.
➤Consumer reviews on Amazon,
Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter,
Shelfari are filling in the gap from
professional, critical critique.
➤Giving free eBooks to ‘layman’
reviewers can supplement your
publisher’s search for traditional
print reviews.
➤tweetyourbooks.com,
goodreads.com,
bookwormsandwriters.com have
free listings of reviewers.

31. “
Social media is an intangible
community created by and for people
who want to expand their world.
Being successful with social media is
less about the hard sell and more
about creating and curating a
community around you, and your
works.
-Sapha Burnell

32. FOR QUESTIONS CONTACT
➤Sapha Burnell
➤[email protected]
➤saphaburnell.tumblr.com
➤Twitter: @UsurperKings
➤Facebook: Sapha Burnell
➤WattPad: @Sapha_Burnell
➤Pinterest: @UsurperKings