Using social media to promote your books can feel a lot like trying to set cold water on fire.
You can spend a lot of time, energy, and money in the hopes of growing an engaged audience of fans who love you, devour your books, and recommend them to friends and family.
No doubt, there are authors who testify social media launched their careers into a six-figure orbit. It happens.
Sometimes cold water does catch fire.
Or does it? (We’ll get back to this.)
Last week I asked for suggestions on our next topic. I received an email with some great questions on social media. This isn’t the topic I’d have chosen. If I wrote a book on social media, I might title it Social Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Wretched. (Hey, don’t steal that…I think I might be onto something there.)
Social media has burned me and burned me out. I’ve taken breaks from it. I’ve sworn never to return.
But I am a marketer. People pay me to run their social media campaigns. So, I’ve had to reactivate that Facebook account I wanted to cast into the abyss. (Stick around, I’ll tell you how I really feel.)
I’m sharing all this so you know where I’m coming from. I’m not a curmudgeon. But I am conflicted. I’m not going to sell you on social media with some idealistic, dreamy It Could Happen to You line. Sure, it could happen. You could skyrocket into notorious fame by rocking your author brand on Instagram. Or, you could work your tail off and feel like, well, like setting water on fire isn’t the best way to achieve success after all.
Am I being too negative? I admit it–I’m imperfect. I see only in part. I am perhaps jaded, or perhaps wise. Either way, I am willing to listen. Willing to learn. Willing to try, to experiment, to test and evaluate my convictions. If you’re willing, let’s grapple social media together. Even if we see things differently, we can learn something from each other.
Don’t bail out on me yet. The goods are coming. ↓↓↓
Let’s talk about setting cold water on fire.
I’m going to share one of the most important marketing lessons I’ve learned. I got it from Rob Eager’s Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, which is now out of print. It was published in 2012, and while some of the concepts the book addresses may be outdated, there’s at least one nugget that remains true. One nugget that I have tested time and time again. One nugget that still helps me solve marketing problems. As a matter of fact, I shared this concept with a client last week. It wasn’t an author selling books…it was a library programming director who wasn’t having success with a book club she'd launched. That’s the great thing about this nugget. It has a very broad and practical application.
It's solid.
It works.
And here it is, in Rob’s own words.
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