Are you getting the most out of your social networking? A Blog by R. Clint Peters

Several months ago, an author friend of mine asked me two questions during a discussion of the best ways to sell her book.

The first question was how does social networking work?

The second question she asked was which one of the social networking platforms would provide the best bang for her buck with the least amount of time needed to use it?

After a great deal of thought, I had one question for her:  Do you want the most exposure for your book or do you want to spend as little time as possible on your computer?

As of September, 2013, the top five social networking sites were:

1) Facebook – 1,000,000,000 active users

2) Twitter  —  500,000,000 active users

3)  Google + — 500,000,000 active users

4) LinkedIN  —  200,000,000  active users

5) MySpace  —  30,000,000  active users

Does that mean Facebook is twice as popular as Twitter?  Probably.  Does that mean Facebook is two times more effective than Twitter?  Not at all.

Before we look at what to do to make social networking more successful, perhaps a short look at how social networking actually works would be helpful.

Let’s suppose my friend made a sign and stood on the side a busy road.  Many people would see the sign.  A few people would be interested in checking out the book.  Fewer would actually take the time to call the number on the sign and even fewer would go through the procedures to buy the book.  The people with the calculators estimate the final result would be 1 telephone call in every 1,000 cars.  Further, my friend would only sell 1 book in 100 calls.  Yes, that means 100,000 cars must pass her sign to sell a book.

Social networking is similar.  In the case of Twitter, my friend could tweet that she has a book for sale.  If she has 1000 followers, the estimate is that her tweet will be seen by less than 10.  The only time a tweet is effective is when a follower is online and looking at their monitor.  Most Twitter users don’t scroll back to see previous tweets.

Of the 10 who see the tweet, only 1 will actually follow the links to the sales point.  Perhaps 1 out of every 10 who follow the link will purchase the book.  The boys with the calculators estimate, again, my friend needs to be seen by 100,000 to sell a book.

One thing to remember:  My friend doesn’t have to be seen by 100,000 distinct individuals; she just needs the potential to be seen 100,000 times.  However, if she tweets once a month, my best guess is that she will sell one book every two years.

So, how does my friend increase the times she is seen?  Simple:  Increase the number of potential viewers who can see her and increase the times she can be seen.  In the case of Twitter, she needs more followers and more tweets.

Here are my basic rules of social networking:

1)     Join every social networking site possible.  However, be careful to stick with the sites that are relative to what you want to achieve.  Joining a hot rod rebuilder’s site to sell erotic love stories isn’t the best choice.  The hot rodders will want to hear about how you are doing on your 1957 Nomad.  They might not care about how your sci-fi hero is doing.

2)     Set up a blog.  The two top blogging hosts are WordPress and BlogSpot.  Pick one, create your own blog, and start sending out information about your book.  (More about blogging later)

3)     Set up a business account on Facebook.  Your family and friends have already decided they don’t want to buy your book.  You can link your business account on Facebook to your personal account, but a business account will have more success.  Basically, you establish an identity as an author.

4)     Set up a business account on Twitter (in addition to your personal account). Again, this is directed at the establishment of an identity as an author.

5)     Link your blog to your Facebook and twitter accounts, and then link every other social network account to each other.  What you want to have happen is that if you sneeze on Facebook, twenty of your followers on the rest of your social networks say “Gesundheit”.

6)     Tweet at least once an hour on Twitter.  My experience on Twitter has shown me that consistent tweeting will result in activity.  If your Twitter account is linked to your Facebook account, you will automatically post on Facebook when you tweet.

Why is a blog important?  If you use all the available search engine optimization on your blog, each time you post something on the blog, it will be indexed by the search engines. When the blog is indexed, you will now have your name and pertinent information available for anyone searching for you.

For a simple test, type your name into your browser and look for all the different locations you are listed.  Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and LinkedIn should be some of the places your name shows up.  If you have joined other social networking sites, your name should show up there, also.

Be consistent with what you blog.  If you are a romance author, blog about your books, blog about how they were written, ask other romance authors to submit blogs.  Do not use your romance author’s blog to blog about gardening or where you spent your summer vacation (unless gardening and summer vacations helped you develop your romance novel.)  If your blog identity is not consistent, the ones who discover you will not stay long.

Note:  When you create your blog, complexity is not a sign of a great blog.  Do not make your blog too difficult to navigate.  Simple is better.  If the blog gives your potential viewer a headache, they will leave.

Blog frequently.  Positioning in the browser indexes is based on relevance.  Your blog will be more relevant with two posts per week than with two posts per month, and you will be higher in the search results.

However, if you are not comfortable with creating your own blog, become a guest blogger, on, for example, The Book Reviewers & Authors Club blog.  The Book Reviewers & Authors Club blog has 2,568 followers and 6,322 hits.  The club is small, but growing.

In a nutshell, there is no single social networking site that will provide the results my friend asked about.  Additionally, the time spent on networking is directly proportional to the results.  No time, no results.  Most authors work hard to bring their books out of their thoughts to the final pages.  Working hard to bring those pages to the greatest number of potential buyers is the next big challenge.

#RClintPeters #TheAuthorsClub