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Dear Authors, Is Social Media All That Effective?

By 07/12/2011January 28th, 2017Uncategorized

My blog had slipped into hiatus for a while because I got locked out of my blog,  but am now back with a guest post by Sabine Reed, in which she talks about authors on social media.

The topic of self-promotion by writers has been discussed in my blogs before —Sabine offers her take on the subject today.

Take it away, Sabine!
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Authors on Social Media
Social media are widely used by authors, print on online, to promote and market their books. However, according to a study done by company called Outbrain, the social media sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and Twitter are not as effective as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. In fact Google leads the pack, by driving most of the search traffic.
What does it mean for an author looking at social media as a means for promotion? Well, for one, it shows that the most effective way to get traffic to your website or blog is to have it listed on google, yahoo and other such sites. Also, creation of new content is more effective as a way to promote your book than time spent on facebook and twitter, among other social media. If you have a blog, it’s crucial that you update its content on a regular basis. Blogging twice a week minimum is a good idea.

For a writer, however, creation of new content mainly refers to new books.

Writers should write. The more books you have out there, the greater the number of people who will find out about you.

In fact, most experienced writers such as JA Konrath have been saying the same thing for a number of years. And don’t forget that Amanda Hocking had a number of books published within a span of one year, and shot her way to fame not because of her promotional activity but because she had a lot of work that was read by a lot of people who generated sales for her future work. And, of course, because she wrote great book that were well-liked and readers recommended her to others widely.

Self-published authors have a distinct advantage over authors with publishing houses because they can publish their new books according to their own schedule. You can read more about this here.

In light of the same study, another way to get your name out there is to generate new content by way of a blog or articles. It will also raise your ranking on Google, and if you create good content, people will be driven to your blog. It’s your choice of course whether you want to spend the valuable time you have writing your new book, or writing a new blog post.

In the long run, I think, for a writer, another book would be a better bet.

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Sabine A. Reed is the fantasy author of The Black Orb. She also writes her own blog Writing and Publishing Resource to help new writers.
Twitter handle: @SabineAReed
If you’re an author, how do you work on your social media presence? As a reader, what do you like to see from authors on social media?
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Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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9 Comments

  • Paul Dixon says:

    Re: social networking as a means of promotion – I think this will be an ongoing debate for manmy years. As a newly published author myself, I have found twitter and facebook to be useful initially, but in order to spread word of my novel further I am forming the impression it is more vital to get my book into as many libraries as possible. People reluctant to purchase a novel by a new author may be more inclined to purchase an author's future work if they have enjoyed the experience first time around.
    Paul
    http://www.tworubbersouls.com

  • Rent says:

    Social media is the part of the Internet where the content is generated by users of the service rather than conventional publishers. Such content ranges in scope from short comments on blogs, status updates on social networks and 140 character "tweets", to lengthy blog posts sometimes even containing original research. In comparison to conventional academic publishing, the social media landscape is extremely varied. Although the age demographic of social media users is becoming older and more inclusive, the typical social media user is aged 18-30, spends more time online and gaming than watching television, and gains a much higher proportion of their information by searching and social recommendations than through traditional publishing channels. Social media is the backbone of their information infrastructure. This talk will address the following questions:Social Network Analysis

  • M Pax says:

    Getting more product out there is important. A friend of mine, who is successful, told me series work best. So when beginning, it'd be good to concentrate our time on developing one or two.

  • The main thing about social networking is if you use it, use it wisely, but i certainly agree, the most important thing is to write. Having said that I've found Twitter to be hugely useful for researching my novel, which I'm starting serious work on in the New Year.

  • I agree, but at the same time I think that every little bit can make a difference if used cleverly.

    Still, I agree completely when it comes to the fact that more books increase the likelihood of selling. Unfortunately a lot of us can't just churn out books in short order.

  • Joanna says:

    Am in total agreement too. New to writing and promoting this year, I feel I have spent too much time on networking and plan on reversing that trend next year. However, getting to know other authors has been a huge encouragement as a newbie!

  • Angela Brown says:

    Amanda Hocking has mentioned, on more than one occassion, exactly what you said here, Sabine: She wrote stories she liked and she wrote a lot of them.

    So off I go to get on with my writing thing.

  • I think all writers should friend Damyanti and then spam her constantly with advertisements for their book and asking her to buy their stuff.

    I'm just kidding Damyanti. /hugs.

    I agree with you Sabine. You are very wise.

  • Richard says:

    I agree with Sabine all the way.