Most writers are not marketers and many writers are not comfortable with social media. But both are a reality of today’s writing and publishing world.
And, let’s face it, even if you love book marketing and live to post your opinion of last night’s exile from Survivor or American Idol to the masses, writers need to write–and every tweet/post/share is time away from writing.
If you are a writer who wants more time to write and to get more out of every social media and marketing minute. Here are a few tricks to try.
- Add books to your Linked-in Profile.
•Go to Linkedin and click on “More”
•Under Apps choose “Amazon Reading List Application”
•Mark your books as “read.” - Add RSS feed from wherever you blog to your Goodreads author page and to Author Central page at Amazon.
- Link Twitter to Facebook or vice versa. I love both Twitter and Facebook, but while my brain is filled with tons of useless 140 character or less bits of oh-so important knowledge, my time for sharing those bits is limited. By linking the two, anything I post on Twitter automatically goes to Facebook too.
Here is a link to the official Twitter app for Facebook (but there are other methods too.) Use Hootsuite or similar site/program. Hootsuite is a web site that lets you post to and monitor up to five social media profiles in one place. It also lets you track clicks, check your Google analytics, make assignments to other team members who share responsibility for certain profiles with you and a lot of other things. Some of these extras are now only available if you upgrade to their paid service, but the basics are still free. - Fill out your Google or Yahoo Profiles. Both Yahoo and Google allow you to put a lot of information about yourself on these profiles and if you use them to comment on blogs, etc. it is a great easy way to let people know more about you and your books. Yahoo also links to Facebook and Twitter when you upload photos. A great way to share your latest cover of book signing with your Facebook/Twitter friends.