As you try to promote your book, do you feel as if you were drowning in work? Are you overwhelmed with all the various social media marketing tools?
When I started promoting my book online, I spent way too much time tweeting, blogging, and updating my status on Facebook. I was creating so much content that I no longer had time for writing. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t see this as a drudgery; I was having fun, my writing was getting more precise (thanks to the 140 character limitation on Twitter), and I was finding my voice and gaining confidence as a writer.
When the fun stopped and I felt pressure to produce, I started using tools like HootSuite to schedule my tweets and give me more time. After limiting the tweets to only four a day and using a shuffler function in Excel, I greatly reduced my workload. Yet, I still felt that I needed to keep my readers happy with more content. Upon the advice of other bloggers, I started guest posting more often and commenting on forums and various networks. Once I again, I was drowning in the social media sea.
When I left on a research adventure hiking and biking around Europe, I made a startling discovery. During the twelve-day transatlantic crossing, I had no contact with my readers. At first, I had withdrawals from lack of constant feedback. I never realized how addicted I was to social media. Not only was I missing the constant ego stroking, I was also concerned that I would lose my readers if I only posted or blogged sporadically. This really bothered me. For some reason, I felt I had to constantly be in their face or they would forget me. When I realized that I was just trying to placate my needy ego and that the need to constantly be using social media was self-imposed, it was as if I had been thrown a life-preserver.
Don’t ignore social media. Your readers and followers need to have contact with you; just not constantly. Make a commitment to provide them with good content on a regular basis and stick with the schedule. If you need to change the schedule, tell your readers that you are doing so. One blogger I follow changed his posting schedule from one per week to once every two weeks when he became a father. I did not unsubscribe to his blog because he was writing less. What was important is that he continued to write meaningful content.
Beware of those who tell you that you need to tweet so many times a day to get new followers. It is better to provide one interesting tweet than twelve that get ignored.
To keep from drowning in self-promotion
- Write interesting content on a regular basis. Define a schedule that works for you.
- Quality counts, not quantity; don’t overwhelm your readers.
- Don’t feel as if you have to do it all. Use only the sites that provide the best interaction with your readers.
- Some self-promoters suggest how often to contact your readers on various social media. Question if this is reasonable for you, and for your readers.
- Don’t become addicted to the allure of social media—it can be time suck.
While I am away, I will be posting bi-monthly. I will also be posting about my adventure on Woman on her way. I hope you will sign up for my new blog. Thank you.
