The Social Media Marketing Plan for Writers
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While many authors might prefer to live a life of Gentle reflection and creativity as artists and leave the business of book sales and marketing to agents and publishers, the changing market demands of economy and technology require that authors not only be artists but savvy marketing experts as well. This is your crash course in the most effective author and book marketing system available to writers today: social media marketing. What I will outline here is an in-depth social media marketing plan utilizing all of the major social media outlets available. There is a time investment involved but all of the tools I suggest in this social media marketing thought are free.
I will provide you with the steps to develop your own social media marketing conception as well as examples from mine. Your marketing plan can be as comprehensive as mine or you might choose to use some tools and disregard others. The beauty of this marketing conception is that it can be tailored to fit any author’s schedule and still be successful. Time Frame for the Marketing Plan 
The first thing you’ll need is a time frame. Leaving a plan open-ended allows for procrastination and ultimate failure. Setting a deadline on your marketing plan makes it possible to break down your goals and strategy into simple tasks to attain in months, weeks and days. I suggest setting an initial time frame of 10-12 weeks which is time enough to get started on a very effective marketing program. As you become more comfortable with the use of a marketing idea and develop a comprehensive career plan you might want to seize a more long-range advance and plan for six months to a year or more. For our purposes, I’ll include my own initial 10-week plan as an example. Who is Your Target Audience? Next, you’ll need to identify your target audience. Who will read what you write? Do you write fiction, non-fiction, freelance articles? Will your readers be older or younger? The heroine in the Task Force 125 series is thirty so targeting young adult audiences is a destroy of time for me. Since I do not write erotica, that is another audience I will not target. Determining Marketing Strategy You’ll need to consider how much social media you want to make use of in your marketing plan. Following are several of the basic social media tools to choose from. I suggest you use the ones you are most comfortable with in your initial foray into social media marketing. MySpace WordPress Yahoo Groups Blog Talk Radio Youtube Tumblr Setting Marketing Goals Start with basic goals. If you’ve never considered social media as part of your marketing program then you’ll want to begin now with the basics in order to lay a strong foundation for future growth. Goals should be big statements that define what your efforts will yield at the kill of your chosen time frame. Breaking Down Goals into Strategic Tasks Once you’ve decided what social media you want to focus on, and I suggest you limit your initial efforts on just three or four, you’ll want to set the specific tasks that you will need to accomplish in order to reach your goals. When you do this, reflect specific milestones you’ll need to reach during your chosen time frame. For example, if you’ve given yourself ten weeks and you want to schedule twenty guest bloggers on your website to Cover your month off in the summer, then you’ll need to schedule two guest bloggers every week to meet your goal. This may mean contacting two to ten people every week in order to find those guest bloggers. Contacting ten people every week with an invitation to guest blog would be a specific task leading to your goal. Putting it All Together Here is an example of how it all falls together into a marketing plan: Time Span Ten weeks from February 19 to May 1, 2010. Target Audience(s) I have two target audiences: The romance reader who reads e-books and does not require explicit sex. The author striving to learn how to make their social networks equate to book sales. Goals To be accomplished by May 1, 2010: • Inventory Facebook, Myspace & Twitter Social Networks • Recreate Website with WordPress • Acquire Website followers to 100 • Establish directory of book reviewers to submit to • Schedule Guest Blogs (other authors) at www.lisapietsch.com • Join/Participate in Yahoo Groups allowing author promotion • Create a series of 30-second videos (3-5) previewing upcoming releases • Build and Schedule Workshop for Author Promotion Overall Strategy I will increase website traffic, overall web presence and monthly sales by: • Improving www.LisaPietsch.com web station and infrastructure • Posting weekly insist at Associated Content (AC) • Blogging regularly at www.lisapietsch.com • Posting links to blogs and articles on Twitter, Myspace & Facebook • Linking to AC and Sapphire Blue Publishing from www.LisaPietsch.com • Guest Blogging on other authors’ blogs • Participating in Yahoo Groups allowing author promotion • Releasing short videos that preview future releases • Developing a workshop on Author Promotion for authors Week-by-Week Activities
Yahoo Groups. Many Yahoo Groups have been established for readers to read excerpts, interviews, book reviews and news of giveaways hosted by romance authors. • Search Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ for keywords like “author Promo“, “author promotion”, “book reviews, romance”, “novel excerpts”. Website and Infrastructure. My current website does not encourage reader participation and is in need of updating. I will be transferring my hosting from GoDaddy.com to WordPress in order to create a more user salubrious, sticky website. • Transfer current data and links from http://www.LisaPietsch.com to http://lisampietsch.wordpress.com/ Blogging. This refers to scheduling guest blogs by other authors and artists for my new website as well as my blogging on my own and other authors’ blogs. • Write boilerplate message to offer guest blog opportunity. • Post guest blog at Sapphire Blue Publishing blog. • Post blog update on A Taste of Liberty. Product Development. This item refers to my posting original non-fiction material at Associated Content (AC) as well as writing novels and short stories. • Post two articles at AC • Complete publisher edits on TF125 Book #2, A Taste of Liberty Week 2 February 26-March 5, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Review Promotion Loop Schedule and subscribe to appropriate groups. Website and Infrastructure. • Add book blurbs for TF125 series to http://lisampietsch.wordpress.com/ Blogging.
Product Development
Week 3 March5-12, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Review group practices and posting rules. • Introduce myself to groups subscribed to. Book Reviews. This refers to book reviews by reviewers outside of those arranged by Sapphire Blue Publishing. • Identify reviewers within my Facebook, Myspace and Twitter networks. Website and Infrastructure. • Begin posting guest blogs to launch new site. Blogging.
Periodicals. This refers to identifying periodicals that cater to my fiction target market and querying them for serialization of The Path to Freedom.
Product Development
Week 4 March 12-19, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Set up promotional posts for each group using Outlook. • Attend Coffeetime Romance chat. Book Reviews. • Write boilerplate book review request. Website and Infrastructure. • Transfer hosting from GoDaddy.com to WordPress.com. Blogging.
Workshop Development. This item refers to my developing a workshop for authors on Author Promotion.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 5 March 19-26, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. Book Reviews. • Qualify list of reviewers from within my Facebook, Myspace and Twitter networks. Website and Infrastructure. • Announce new website and offer giveaway to followers/subscribers. • Situation LASR Easter Egg promotion. Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 6 March 26-April 2, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. Book Reviews. • Seek Information From book reviews. Website and Infrastructure. • LASR Easter Egg promotion begins. Promote. Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 7 April 2-9, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. Book Reviews. • Schedule book reviews. Website and Infrastructure. • Create storyboards for preview videos Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 8 April 9-16, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. Book Reviews. • Schedule book reviews. Website and Infrastructure. • Gather appropriate photos at Morguefile for preview videos • Purchase appropriate music for preview videos • Choose appropriate text for preview videos Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 9 April 16-23, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. • Appear at Coffeetime Romance Chat Book Reviews. • Schedule book reviews. Website and Infrastructure. • Layout graphics/audio for preview videos Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Week 10 April 23-30, 2010 Yahoo Groups. • Participate as available. Book Reviews. • Schedule book reviews. Website and Infrastructure. • Final edits on preview videos. • Release to Myspace, Youtube, Viddler, Amazon, WordPress. Blogging.
Workshop Development.
Periodicals.
Product Development
Creating a social media marketing plan requires a future vision, the overall goals you want to achieve in the allotted time, as well as an ability to break down those goals into small, achievable tasks. Your investment here is time and sweat equity. If you achieve in the time, you can make the most of the many free promotional tools available through social media and accomplish even the loftiest of goals. |
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