Guest Blogger, Elissa Liu, Co-Founder of Spark Growth Partners
To listen to Elissa’s interview on the show: http://wp.me/p1KmwD-6ky
We’re huge fans of Your Book is Your Hook, so we were excited to chat with Jennifer and share thoughts on how writers and authors can use social media effectively. Most of us consume social media in some form every day – whether it’s checking out restaurant recommendations on Yelp, seeing Twitter hashtags fly across the screen while watching TV, or seeing what’s new with our friends on our newsfeeds.
And of course, social media can be a great way for writers and authors to connect with their audience and build a community around their business. The combination of a visual brand identity, the images/photos/videos you share, your tone, voice and messaging all come together to make your brand as a writer or author so much more tangible and real.
That’s why it kills me when I see social media not being used to its full potential! Here are the three biggest mistakes a writer can make when using social media, and what they should be doing instead:
Mistake 1: Inconsistency in posting
Sporadic posting means you are not building a relationship or staying top of mind. Since only a fraction of your followers see your posts to begin with and Facebook’s algorithm values past interactions and engagement levels, inconsistent posting is a recipe for a low engagement and low value community.
What to do instead:
Plan posts ahead of time and create a schedule so you know when to post, whether it’s hourly, daily or weekly. Being able to look at your posts all together and plan ahead will help keep you posting consistently, but will also help stay brand-appropriate while adding variety and creativity to your content. As a general guide, for authors, we recommend posting on Facebook 1 – 4 times per week, tweeting about 4 – 5 times per day, and posting on LinkedIn 1 – 3 times per week.
Mistake 2: Unclear brand, voice and strategy
Flip flopping between overly personal/mundane status updates and posts with a professional tone.
What to do instead:
Have a clear strategy and plan upfront for your social media, including how you plan to use it and what kinds of posts and content your audience would value and engage with. If personal, random updates fit your brand and would be valued by your audience, that’s great, go for it! But if not, ensure you have enough content planned so that you don’t feel the need to revert to these kinds of posts to ‘fill in the blanks’.
Mistake 3: Overly salesy and promotional posts
Don’t think of social media as a marketing brochure or broadcast channel.
What to do instead:
Think of it as a community of friends, advocates, partners, readers and other supporters. Again, think about what kind of content they would value – whether it is educational, interesting, funny, something they relate to, useful, etc. There are lots of ways to add value, but it should be much more about your audience than about you. Something becomes shareable because the user identifies with it and wants to associate it with themselves, not because they want to be nice and share someone else’s content. They share things that reflect their values, wants, and needs.
Keep this in mind and get ready to build a great community!
If you have any questions, please email me at elissa@sparkgrowthpartners.com.
Sources:
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timing-1/?wide=1
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/how-frequently-should-you-tweet-stats_b30568
About the Author
Elissa Liu is a Founding Partner at Spark Growth Partners, where they focus on creating meaningful human connections that inspire action. She brings digital strategy advisory, program leadership, and project management to her clients across a range of industries. Elissa left Deloitte in 2011 as a Senior Manager in the Corporate and Competitive Strategy consulting practice, focused on the Telecommunications, Media and Technology industries.
Website: http://www.sparkgrowthpartners.com
Blog: http://www.sparkgrowthpartners.com/blog
Twitter: @elissa_l @sparkgrowth