How To Market A Book Online: Step 5, Social Media

We're all the way to step 5 of implementing an online marketing campaign for a book you're trying to publicize. I know there are a lot of steps, but keep in mind that you don't have to start all of them at the same time--you can work up to these, and add each step when you're ready. 

This step is actually an easy one-- You have just two things to do:

1 - Set up a Facebook page for yourself or the book.

2 - Also, set up a Twitter account for the book. The Twitter account will need to be regularly updated--updates are very short though--no more than 140 characters are allowed. A few updates a week should do it.

Social Media on Auto-Pilot: TwitterFeed

Here’s an easy way to make updates to Facebook and Twitter--use a free service like TwitterFeed.com to set things up so that whenever you post on your blog or whenever you publish an article on a certain article directory, your Facebook and Twitter account are automatically updated. That will help put some of your posting on auto-pilot.

You should also monitor the comments that come in via Twitter and Facebook, because you may need to respond to them. Interaction with potential readers of your book is beneficial.

Streamlining Your Social Media Profiles

Now, I know you don't have all the time in the world, and neither do I! One service that I have found to be essential is HootSuite--this is a service that will let you manage your social media accounts in one place. 

You can:

• Manage multiple social media profiles
• Schedule tweets and messages (extremely helpful in keeping up with your accounts!)
• And do some analytic reporting

It's very easy for social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to become overwhelming with all of the influx of info and trying to stay on top of other people's comments and tweets, but HootSuite makes it manageable.

Your Homework:

1. Set up a Facebook page for you as an author or for your specific book.
2. Set up a Twitter account for you as an author or for your specific book.
3. Get set up on TwitterFeed.com so that you can put some of your tweets and messages on auto-pilot.
4. If you like, look at HootSuite.com and see if it would be of value to you. They have a 30 day free trial at this time, so you can test it out beforehand.