When talking with new authors about marketing their book online I’m constantly being asked “What sites should I be on?” This is a great question, because it’s a proven fact that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs can all be valuable tools to use for influencing potential readers to buy our book.

Online social networking has become a critical component of successful book marketing, so choosing which sites to use for your book marketing activities shouldn’t be taken lightly, nor should these decisions be made quickly. As a matter of fact, you should be thinking about this before your first book comes out–even six months to a year in advance. I’ve worked with too many authors that don’t do any book marketing until their book is published. It’s not hard to guess that they got “kicked into” the marketing phase as a result of disappointing initial sales. Don’t let that happen to you.

Another thing to keep in mind is that online social networking and book marketing plans should be tailored to the author’s personality, online skills, and the book’s genre and market–because one size certainly doesn’t fit all. Romance novelists, for example, are better off focusing on Facebook vs. LinkedIn when trying to build a community around their first book. Business consultants, however, will probably find LinkedIn as a better fit for their online author-centric presence. Choose your online venues carefully, and build your online presence deliberately and per your plan. Again, there’s no hard rule, but I generally set my fiction, memoir, and self-help authors up on Facebook first. Consultants, experts, trainers, etc., are often better suited for LinkedIn.

Some of you might think that you should just “cover all your bases,” and join all the top social networking sites and make a go at it. Just one word of advice–don’t. Too many first-time authors have learned the hard way that setting up and maintaining multiple social networking profiles not only wears you out, but that this approach is far less effective. For one, you’ve only got so many hours in the day–so use them efficiently and with purpose. Secondly, you’ll find that a single growing, interactive and exciting community is more effective than several smaller, sputtering communities. Do yourself a favor and start smart by starting small. Tackling several of these new platforms at once–especially for newbies–can do more harm than good for you and your budding community.

Lastly, go slowly. Building a social network community–and interacting with that community–is a craft that takes time to learn. For instance, when you start on Facebook don’t start bombarding everyone with your newest Amazon book review, latest sales ranking, or with your calendar of upcoming book signings. Yes, those are important (by all means they’re very important!), but if your Facebook Friends list so far consists only of family and work associates you’ll want to hold back a little. Odds are that they’ll get an earful from you “offline” as well, so save your strongest marketing posts for the right audience and follow the basic rule of quality vs. quantity.

We’ll talk about finding and building that audience–and how to interact with them–in future posts. But first, choose your social network presence with care. Do some research, and scour the Internet for successful authors and peers that write in your genre. What online social networking tools do they use? Which ones do they not use? How strong, interactive and exciting does their community seem to you?

As much as anything, social marketing is a learning process for new authors. Start slowly, don’t spread yourself too thin, and most of all–have fun. If you keep at it you’ll have a ready-made audience for your next best-seller!

Until next time–keep publishing!

Henry Hutton
PublishandSell.com

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