Social Network Marketing [ Edited ]

[Keith Shovlin]

For my first book, Polk's Soliloquy, I have launched a multi-tiered social network marketing campaign. I started with the standard fare, Amazon Author Central, a web site, PolksSoliloquy.com, and fliers in select areas. I have also been distributing press releases in my target demographic areas. My book, a coming of age novel about recent college grad Polk Fauxston set in 2005 Washington, DC, requires a focus on readers in their 20's. A majority of these people rely on social networking in their everyday affairs. I wrote AOL Instant Messenger into the book, which is unfortunately largely defunct. I set up the free Facebook page and have used Facebook ads to gain nearly 800 fans in three months. I recently launched an Xtranormal account and have produced several cartoon advertisements introducing characters from the book. The Xtranormal account necessitated setting up a YouTube account, aois21pub, which allows all of my videos to be shared in the viral environment. This has done well with awareness but unfortunately sales are still lacking. So the question remains, should I start tweeting?

Any thoughts?

Keith F. Shovlin

Author, Polk's Soliloquy

[Otoabasi Umonting]

By all means, start tweeting!

[thegoodnewz]

Definitely! I just sponsored a Twitter contest where I gave away an autographed copy of the book and I had many people tweeting my daily cartoons each and every day. Twitter is a good way to reach people quickly.

[guthesq]

Keith,

This may not be applicable for your book, but for others that read this thread...  In addition to FB and Twitter, I also recommend using LinkedIn.  For my non-fiction books, I join applicable groups (i.e., my target audience) and promote my books there.  It's helpful to include a bit of wisdom in the post promoting your book so as to not be categorized as a spammer.  I've also used LinkedIn's ads (they're like Google and FB ads) with success.

Best of luck,

Stephen

[Keith Shovlin]

I actually have started using LinkedIn recently, as well as Behance, but haven't really explored all of my options with the two sites.

[NickPopio]

Excellent advice on Social Network Marketing. I am not very familiar with Behance, but it looks like an interesting site!

[AntonMaurice]

Yes start tweeting! You have to use any and all available outlets that you can, never you can reach next. I'm about to start tweeting myself.

[Keith Shovlin]

OK, I'm tweeting now - more specifically the main character from my book is tweeting now: twitter.com/PolksTweet/

Anyone have any opinion of The Gatekeepers Post as a Social Networking avenue for writers?

Keith Shovlin

Author, Polk's Soliloquy

[thegoodnewz]

Today is Follow Friday on Twitter. You can use it to mention folks you'd like to have follow you, but don't pick big names like The New York Times, they probably won't follow you, or even pay attention to the fact you mentioned them. Find local reviewers around your subject matter, thought leaders in your field, people who go on TV/Radio talking about your subject or fellow writers in your field. If one of them reciprocates or thanks you, some of their followers might start following you.

It's easy to do, just tweet something like this:

My favorite tweeters for #FollowFriday: @name1 @name2 @name3 #FF

Put the each person's twitter handle with an @ sign in front of it and add the hashtags #FollowFriday and #ff. Don't make it longer than about 110 characters so others can retweet your #ff list. And do as many posts as you want. If someone else mentions you in a #ff post, reply with a thank you mention by starting with @mentioner and writing a quick thanks.

Doing #FollowFriday every week can get you a nice new group of followers.

[NickPopio]

Jeff,
Great point about #FF. Thanks for sharing!