I Help Authors Get Discovered Online

Social Media Just for Writers

I Help Authors Get Discovered Online

13 Steps to Improve Your Facebook Reach

13 Steps to Improve your Facebook Reach

I often hear authors g-r-o-a-n about their Facebook reach.

You know how it is. If you have a Facebook author page, two percent of your status updates penetrate your fans’ newsfeeds, if you’re lucky.

Unless …

The unless is this: you can better penetrate your fans’ newsfeeds if you buy advertising.

If you have a Facebook author page and you don’t buy advertising, I can tell you that it’s phenomenally difficult to get engagement on a Facebook page without advertising.

Difficult but not impossible.

If you’ve been reading the social media blogosphere these past few weeks, you might have noticed that nearly every social media blogger has complained about the same problem: the precipitous drop in our Facebook page posts penetrating our fans’ news feeds.

In other words, fewer of the posts you carefully plan for your Facebook page are visible to your fans.

If you want your posts to reach more fans, you need to follow a two-pronged strategy: provide the best, original content you can and allocate some funds – even a few hundred dollars annually would help – to an advertising budget.

If you can afford more on advertising, super.

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7 Tips to Networking on the Social Web (Part 1)

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Don’t you get tired of broadcast media?

I unplugged my Comcast cable eight years ago, and I’ve never regretted it.

Television programming would interrupt my favorite shows with annoying and idiotic commercials and cancel the few programs I really liked.

The worst part is that I had to conform my personal schedule to my favorite program’s schedule.

In comparison, social media is perfect.

There are no interruptions, and I can visit the networks whenever I have time and the inclination.

And it allows me to interact with colleagues and friends across the country and around the world.

Most importantly, social media enables me to nurture relationships with readers and friends. Petty cool, huh?

Just as a reminder, setting aside time to be social is the fourth step in my four-step cure to social media suck. Here are the four steps:

  1. Be where your readers are.
  2. Curate information in your niche every morning.
  3. Select an application and schedule your tweets, posts and updates.
  4. Make time to be social every day.

Make Time to be Social

Social media is all about nurturing relationships.

Did someone retweet one of your messages? Find a tweet they wrote that you like and return the favor. While you’re at it, consider sending a note of thanks to everyone who retweeted you.

Do you have new followers? Spend some time getting acquainted with them by reviewing their profiles or visiting their websites. (It only takes a second or two.)

Is there an agent or editor on LinkedIn with whom you’d like to connect, but can’t because they are a third degree connection? Ask a friend to introduce you.

Did a colleague just publish a new book? Help her promote it by informing your friends and connections about it.

Socializing on social media involves these three steps: meet, connect, and repeat. You are constantly meeting new people, connecting with them, and then repeating the process with someone new.

Remember to be positive and open-minded and stick to neutral topics.

If you have an iPad, iPhone, laptop or Android, you can socialize online whenever you have some idle time. (If you don’t have idle time, then it’s important to schedule some in.)

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Book Marketing and Facebook Advertising with Ricardo Fayet


Ricardo Fayet is a cofounder of Reedsy. He started Reedsy with a few friends after business school.

Ricardo FayetA partner came up with the idea of creating a venue that offers expert consultants in self-publishing, such as editors, book cover designers, and marketing experts. Reedsy vets applicant experts before accepting them into their program. Experts submit applications and Reedsy employees review them. They accept 3% of the applicants they receive. Right now they have 800 vetted consultants that self-published authors can hire.

At its core, Reedsy is a marketplace for professionals: various forms of editing, cover designers, illustrators, interior designers, publicists, book marketers, and advertising specialists. They recently added 80 ghostwriters. Finally, they recently added website developers. Reedsy has a blog and every two weeks they offer webinars.

In this webinar, Ricardo discusses marketing but spends most of the time explaining how to use Facebook advertising.

Frances CaballoAuthor of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She’s a regular speaker at the San Francisco Writers Conference. In addition, she’s a contributing writer at TheBookDesigner.com, and blogger and Social Media Expert for BookWorks. She’s written several social media books including the 2nd edition of Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, finding new readers, and selling more books. Her clients include authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for my free email course.

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

 

Avoid Social Media Time Suck
Want to learn how to save time on social media? You can get my book on this topic for free from Smashwords!

Are You Ready for Video Because It’s Huge!

Are You Ready for 2018 Because Video is Huge!

Video is incredibly popular. Experts estimate that in 2018 and beyond, video will just continue to expand.

Listen to what Marketing Insider Group stated:

“As we turn the corner to 2018, the evolution of video marketing isn’t slowing down. In fact, with one more year of technological innovation and creativity behind the camera, the world is in for more captivating video content over the next year.”

Facebook Live

Back in 2015, consumers spent an average of five-and-a-half hours a day watching video content. That number continues to rise. On Facebook alone, some 500 million users view 8 billion videos on a daily basis.

And since Facebook Live debuted in April 2016, its popularity has soared. Here are some interesting numbers:

  • Facebook Live stream search popularity has risen over 330% since it’s rollout.
  • Between January and May 2016, Facebook saw a 300% increase in live videos.
  • 5% of all Facebook Live broadcasts happen inside Groups.
  • One out of every five videos on Facebook is live.

Video, because people watch so much of it, is useful in marketing. At the same time, it’s important to keep your videos to approximately 90 seconds. Five percent of viewers will stop watching a video after 1 minute and 60% by 2 minutes.

Video in General

In 2016, HubSpot, a software and internet marketing company, published a list of statistics about video. I’ll just mention the highlights.

  • 90% of users say that product videos are helpful when deciding whether to buy something, such as a book
  • People recall great video ads, even up to 30 days after seeing them
  • 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others
  • If a consumer enjoys a video, the intent to buy increases
  • Video can improve your website’s SEO and will improve click-through rates
  • Videos increase consumer conversions or purchases

Video and YouTube

As if all these facts and findings weren’t sufficient reasons to create videos and post them on YouTube, consider the following significant benefits as well:

  • Videos on YouTube tend to be highly ranked, so your video could appear high in Google search results. That’s awesome for SEO (search engine optimization).
  • The human connection is important in book sales and videos allow your readers to hear and see you.
  • Videos can drive traffic to your website, blog, book landing pages, or Amazon.
  • You can use video for your blogging.
  • If you write nonfiction, you can create training videos.
  • If you write fiction, you can talk about why you wrote your books.
  • And let’s not forget that you can be creating a book trailer – which is essentially a video commercial for your book and the link to this can then be promoted on your website, blog, and across all your social media platforms.

 How to Get Started on YouTube

Just go to YouTube.com and click the signup link. Sign in with your Gmail account or create one. When you click upload next to the empty avatar, a popup will appear confirming your name. Click Create Channel, and you’re on your way to creating a YouTube account. Remember to use your author name when selecting a name for your channel or YouTube account.

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