Happy freaking Friday, good people of the blogosphere! It's been a long haul, but we're on the final three posts. You'll get one today, one on Tuesday, and one on Friday. I have some awesome stuff coming your way next week: An author interview on Monday with B. J. Sheldon, a book review of
Off Target on Wednesday, and a cover reveal for
A Reaper Made on Thursday. So, it's gonna be an exciting week! By this time, if you've been following along, you should have a name, policy, look and feel with imagery, a posting platform, a well designed blog, and a rating system. Today, we focus on building your
social media presence. Okay, enough of my jawing, grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!
Here are the past posts and what's coming:
How many social media networks are there?
A ton. I'm not gonna list them all.
Here's the thing: You don't have to be on all of them, you just need to be on the
right ones. I'm referring to the places your target audience hangs out, which outlets you feel most comfortable with, and which ones will do what you need them to (drive traffic to your blog).
So, here's the link list of social media sites I encourage you to sign up with, and a little bit about how to build your audience once you're there:
Twitter - This is a place where people with short attention spans can gather a lot of news without being bogged down by huge chunks of text. It's easy to share tweets and simple to follow someone. Build your audience here by following at least thirteen new people every day. Do a search for this: #amreading Then, follow about thirteen people who use it.
Why? Because they're readers! Alternate with a search for this: #amwriting Give those folks a follow, too.
Why? Because they're the writers who'll want you to review their books. Alternate by days and give a follow back to anyone who adds you organically. Once you have a couple, go at least three times a week and retweet some content. You'll find your follower base grow by leaps and bounds.
Facebook - Create a page if you haven't already. Here's a trick you must know to succeed on Facebook: It hates auto-posts and buries them beneath muck. You'll be lucky if fifteen people see an auto-post. Seriously. You'll be better off posting to your Facebook page organically, with no links in the main message (put all links in the comments). Invite all your friends to like your page. Interact at least three times a week with folks. Join a reader group on Facebook. Go to your search and type in: readers. When the box drops down, click on groups. Get to know people. Once in a while, ask them to share your blog with any writers who may want a review. Now, go do the same thing with writer groups. Be sure you're sharing if you expect others to share in return.
Goodreads - Yeah. Just do it. Go poke through the groups and join a couple there, too. Goodreads has a ton of review groups. There are always authors there asking for reviews. But wait! Join
reader groups, too! This is a place where you'll be led to wonderful works of fiction, and it's a place where you can discuss books with others. Wow. Plus, you'll need a Goodreads account when you start writing reviews. More on that Tuesday!
Google+ - When you set up a gmail account (you did that, right?), you automatically got a Google+ page. Go to it, add your stuff, and set your custom URL. Then start adding people you already know. Yeah, I bet a lot of them read, too! Readers attract readers as friends.
YouTube - If you think you may ever want to do video reviews, go ahead and set up a YouTube channel. It can't hurt. Share videos by other book reviewers.
Here's another tidbit for thought: Go to one of the major book review sites (like Reader's Favorite or KBR) and apply to be one of their reviewers on staff. All they can say is no, right? You won't know if you don't try.
Two more places to put in your name: Netgalley and
Edelweiss
Both of those companies work with major publishers and will send you physical copies of books to read and review before the release dates. Just make sure you do it, or they'll drop you from the list.
Of course, it you want to stick strictly with Indie authors, we'll all love you forever and spread your name like wildfire through our ranks *grin*
I think I've given you all quite enough to do over the weekend. So get to it!
Any of you other book reviewers, where do you connect with readers and writers?
Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!
Jo
