How is a writer who’s struggling to complete a manuscript, probably juggling a full-time job with personal commitments, supposed to do all the work involved with social media? Your publishers, agents will tell you to use social media. Folks like me will all tell you to have a social media program. Yet another buzz word!
What’s a writer to do?
Well, have no fear, I’m here to talk about this.
Let’s get started!
First, What Is a Social Media Program?
Let’s start with a simple definition.
A social media program is nothing more than a series of well-defined tasks with expected outcomes laid out in a timeline leading to a completed and working approach to a working social media program for either an individual or organization.
That’s all that’s to it, nothing more!
You may ask why does a writer, or anyone else for that matter, need a social media program?
To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there.” But you do know where you’re going, or at least where you hope to go, so you’ll need to know which road to take.
There’s nothing like having a good map to guide you to exactly where you want to go, right?
My point here is that if you approach social media in an unstructured way without having any goals in mind then you’ll more than likely going to end up with anything but the results that you expect.
How Does One Set Up a Social Media Program?
Now, I’m not going to leave you hanging. I’m going to walk you through the eight-step approach for developing a social media program that I use with my clients. If you’d like more information on each step then simply follow the link from the topic heading to a more detailed article on my blog.
Here they are:
1) Establish the social media footprint
- • Identify the social media channels necessary to accomplish your goals and objectives (Don’t forget to include Goodreads, BookBub, and your Amazon author’s page too)
- • Determine what types of content are needed
- • Establish the expected outcomes to achieve success (For example, increasing readership, encouraging Amazon reviews, or having fans come out for your signings or other events)
2) Normalize the social media identity
- • Present yourself consistently across all your social media channels
3) Community development
- • Identify whom to follow (e.g., Readers, reviewers, publishers, agents)
- • Attract your own followers
- • Participate constructively and effectively in the social discussion
4) Social media integration
- • Make your message and content consistent across all social media apps
5) Content creation
- • Understand what your community wants to hear about from you
- • Methodize your writing process
6) Publishing
- • Organize your content to enable its orderly posting
- • Ensure that your readers, both regular and casual, know when and where to find your latest content
7) Measuring results
- • Determine how successful your social media program has been
8) Continual improvement
- • Develop an approach to gather data to determine where quality can be improved and defects corrected
That’s all that’s to it!
My advice is to go slow as you start out and get comfortable with social media. Make it part of your everyday routine. You won’t be successful with your social media if you only think about it the week before your next book is being published. Also, you don’t have to do everything at once. And, most importantly, don’t be afraid to experiment!
I’ll be blogging here about writing and social media for the next several months and I’ll show you how you can develop your own successful social media program and how it can help you. I’ll also be happy to answer any questions that you may have. In the meantime, please feel to check out my blog at someddi.com.
Or, feel free to contact me at my email address below and I’ll answer your questions or discuss social media impact on you as a writer.
Thanks for reading and best wishes for your writing!
Con Patrick Sweeney is the Managing Director at Someddi LLC, a social media advisory practice, focusing on small and midsized organizations, and independent professionals. His website is http://someddi.com/ and he can be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com He welcomes queries about social media for writers!