Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Book Marketing Social Media Frustration

The new marketing is not only about informing customers or readers, but interacting with them and communicating with them in total customer engagement. I'm aware of this. I blog, I network, I use Twitter, Facebook, LinkIn, etc. I place the links all over my newsletters, websites, articles, and even business cards. I make sure I have these listed at the end of my presentations I do at schools or military meetings, and brochures I pass out at my non-profit organization, and even at the end of interviews I do in local papers. The only thing I haven't done yet is have them painted on my car, but sorry folks, that one won't happen as its a brand new car and my husband may get a little upset with that lol. However, I am moving forward with this new set of rules to marketing. I religiously send the newsletter out every month, post on the blogs, and write on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. In fact, I usually link all of my social media sites together so that when I post on one, the notice goes out to them all.

My problem is that I can't seem to get my audience to respond. I don't have a lot of subscribers, but even those that I do have, I can only get about 5 people to even enter a contest, reply to something, or even open the newsletter and visit my social sites. I can't invite a guest speaker to post articles because the visitor statistics are low and not worth their time. I can't afford to advertise in the large magazines or newspapers, if I could, I wouldn't have such a desperate need to reach out online to the social media aspect.

I am doing everything I possibly can think of to engage my readers and/or potential readers and I am completely at a loss. Is it my audience? I focus mainstream on military families, and as a military spouse myself I am consistently utilizing the web for everything (communication, relocation information, military resources, etc). I do not know what else to do from here. What am I doing/not doing to get more visitors and most of all, how do I get them to respond?

Beth Mahoney

Author

Robby the C-130

www.RobbytheC130.com

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Permalink Reply by Authors.com on February 11, 2011 at 8:41pm

Hi Beth!

Social media is a tough nut to crack. We will open up a new Group shortly that will just deal with social media. We hope this will prompt members to share some good tips with each other. We'll also produce a featured blog post on the subject shortly that will hopefully be of some assistance as well.

But in the meantime, you also might want to look into List Building (creating your own e-mail list of loyal followers). Here's a great blog post on this subject that could be of some help: http://mattsmarketingblog.com/email-marketing/list-building-advice/ .

Cheers!

Authors.com

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Permalink Reply by Margi Taber on February 12, 2011 at 6:11am

Hi Beth ... I'm involved with www.rockstarsuperstarproject.com. I hear you about spreading your message to others and building a following. My experience with RSSS (which I've been involved with for the past 6 months) is that it takes time and we've had to keep putting our stuff out there. As far as guest writers and feeling you don't have the audience, taking the risk and having guest writers might help to build your following. If you let them know in advance that their contribution is part of you spreading your message. RSSS has a CD and an upcoming book. We engage FB, e-mails, our website, twitter, to name a few. We've seen growth over the past few months but it's all about being persistent and finding your niche for subscribers.

RSSS has recorded a song, National Anthem 2.0. You can hear it @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNVl8Zh5_Jw. If you think there might be a way you can use this song in your work, let me know. This is another way we've found success in building our supporters; finding others who are on a mission and collaborating to support each other.

Good luck and don't give up!

Margi

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on February 16, 2011 at 1:17am

When you said you post on the blogs, I assumed you meant commenting on them. Have you thought about guest blogging? That helps get your name out there. I posted on my blog here about Diving into the Guest Blogging Pool if you're interested.

Also, don't be so sure people wouldn't be interested in writing guest posts for your blog. It's not always about the numbers. What they want is the exposure of having a guest post and another link out there. That alone makes people quite happy. :) Look at the content before the stats.

On print advertising, I'd say save your money for advertising online. Social media ad spending is becoming more and more popular all the time. It lasts longer, has a further reach and stays visible to a far larger audience than one or two issues of a magazine. Most individual bloggers or sites accept ads too, either in the form of links or sidebar ads. Just contact the webmaster to find out their rates and be sure to look for ones that are relevant to your niche.

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Permalink Reply by Francesca Cassini on February 25, 2011 at 9:19am

Hi Beth

I think if you're getting any responses to anything at all you're doing well! I used to publish a free magazine in London with a minimum print run of 10,000 and we knew most of them would be picked up and yet we'd still only get a handful of responses to some seriously lovely competitions. It took us a long time to realise how most people don't like to put their heads above the parapet.

So I personally suggest you focus on the ones who are responding and develop a relationship with them and they may well advocate on your behalf. I get a sense (maybe inaccurate) that you do all the social media stuff because its what you're supposed to do and not because you are truly engaging your heart.

Also, you never know the impact you may be having on those people who don't post responses - are you able to get stats on the number of people who see your posts? On my facebook page for my business I only have 102 'likes' but so many more people actually see what I post.

I hope this helps - have a great weekend, Francesca