Social Media Overload, or How to Network Online and Still Have Time to Write

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LinkedIn. MySpace. Facebook. YouTube. Shoutlife. Twitter. Digg.

And the list goes on. With so many options available today, it’s easy to experience social media overload.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a big fan of social media and how it can help you develop your author platform and sell more books. But it can be overwhelming, even addictive for some.  With new social sites popping up every day, how do you make the most of the opportunities social media provides and still have time to write?

Here’s my advice:

  1. Be choosy. You don’t have to participate actively on every available site. Pick a few sites that best match your goals and your target audience and invest your time there. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t have a presence on MySpace or Digg just because “everybody” else does.
  2. Check your web analytics. Review your web stats to see where your traffic is coming from and focus on the social sites that bring the most traffic. A great free tool that helps you analyze your web traffic is Google Analytics. You may be surprised when you view your results. For example, I didn’t expect much when I created a MySpace profile, but I generate a lot of traffic from this site even though I update it infrequently.
  3. Schedule time for social networking. Whether it’s every morning for 15 minutes or once a week for an hour, having a schedule helps you set limits. Your schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone, however. When you’re busy promoting a new book, you may spend more time on social networking sites. When you’re faced with a major deadline, you may spend far less time.
  4. Categorize sites based on effectiveness. If you discover that your Facebook profile generates far better results than your MySpace profile, for example, you may want to invest time on Facebook on a weekly basis and update your MySpace site only once a month.
  5. Consider automation. Using tools like Ping.fm enable you to update multiple social sites at once. Linking between your social site profiles, your blog, and your website also helps increase visibility with little effort.
  6. Get focused to get results. Just because you spend an hour a week on social sites doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to generate the results you want. You need to understand the best ways to use each site so that you spend your time effectively. Fifteen means of strategic social networking can be worth far more than several hours of aimless social surfing.

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November 18, 2008 | Filed Under Social Media & Networking | Leave a Comment 

Promote Your Book on Social Networking Sites

If you participate on a social networking site, don’t forget to promote your book to your network. Just looking at the industry statistics should tell you why social networking book promotion is a smart idea:

Looking for a way to get started? Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, XING, and MySpace. Also look for niche sites that fit your target reader profile. There are social networking sites for dog lovers, moms, skiers, surfers, mystery lovers, romance readers, and dozens more. To find them, just Google “social networking.”

Remember to follow the required etiquette of each site in terms of promotion. In general, you’ll get better results as an active participant than you will as a mere promoter.

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August 31, 2008 | Filed Under Social Media & Networking | Leave a Comment