That is a lengthy title to tell you social media can be your friend and agent in helping you to grow your business as a published author. There are a few clues that you might want to follow:
PR Three Months Before the Book
Start your PR campaign on social media three months before the actual publication date of your book. By promoting ahead of the book release, you create an excitement and expectation for what is coming rather than waiting until after the book is released and the excitement is over.
Building Your Audience Before the Release Date
By building up excitement and expectation on social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, as well as other platforms you may be on, you will also grow your audience. Everyone wants to be in on the latest and being there before it is even released does create excitement.
Create Awareness
One of the values of having a large following on social media is to create awareness within the publishing market – in this case, the local newspaper, television and so on.
Grow Your Social Media Numbers
What is the correct number of followers to have? There is no magic number but consider 3 – 5,000 followers will get you attention, particularly if your following is rapidly growing. If you have 500 followers, you probably won’t get much attention from the media so try to grow that number.
Use Local TV
Most communities have local TV stations that do early morning or afternoon talk shows about what is going on in the area. Try to get on there as a local interest person, announcing the soon release of your book and where the book signing will be. Be sure you have your website and email address available for the TV station to post on the bottom of the screen.
"Coming soon... Save the date"
What to post on social media? “Coming soon…save the date” posts are always fun. Get a definite release date for your book and then begin to leak a little bit about it. What type of book is it: mystery, romance, spiritual…slowly leak that information out to your audience. Offer a discount when buying from you – in person – if they’ve added people to your mailing list. How would you know? Ask them to bring that person(s) complete mailing information with you to the book signing.