Social networking is a major area in which publishers can build relationships and have a greater level of interactivity with their audience and customers.
Below, a list of five considerations which publishers should look at when embarking on a social media strategy.
Social media marketing and networking will not make a overnight difference to your digital performance, it is something which needs to be built up gradually in order to become a useful part of your digital strategy in conjunction with the other areas.
1.
Make connections before you need them.
There's no point starting to communicate about a book now that's launching next week.
You need to start developing your audience long before you have something to market to them.
Encourage your friends / fans / followers to promote your fan page / twitter feed etc.
This could be done by offering a competition and prize or using a reward such as a money off voucher for such introductions 2.
Around 60-70% of the time you should try to tweet or post something that will be able to be retweeted (Twitter) or shared or liked (Facebook) by your social networking audience.
This is likely to be interesting content not involving selling your books but related to your followers or fans.
This is how your content will go social, other people will start seeing your content and they may then follow you.
The rest of the time can be spent promoting your books.
3.
Encourage non marketing members of your team to get involved.
It's likely that to get to your 60-70% of non promotional content you will need help on the subject matter.
Social networking will need input and help from your staff especially when beginning and trying to grow a following of your company.
4.
Reach out to other influencers.
That is, follow people you feel are likely to have a similar audience to yours.
Begin to communicate with them and build relationships.
They may then follow you back and retweet or share / like your content which further increases your audience.
5.
Use your social presence to help your PR efforts.
There are many journalists lurking on Twitter or Facebook, it's amazing how just sending a tweet to one of them about a new book could well be more successful than sending a press release.
If journalists are interested in your subject matter try and have a genuine conversation with them first before sending information on new books etc.
Again, follow the journalists you are interested in and hope they follow you back.
Using social media as part of your overall online marketing strategy, will add to and help your digital presence.