January 17 Book Marketing Tip: Be consistent with your social media!
January 17, 2014 by Marcie Brock

January 17 Book Marketing Tip: Be consistent with your social media!
Woo-hoo! I’m delighted to share the news that the Write | Market | Design Facebook page has reached 500 Likes! Sure, there are pages with Likes in the thousands, but every one of them started somewhere. Thanks to all who’ve liked our page and shared the link. If you haven’t checked us out yet,
come on down!
Here’s a bit of chronology:
Thanks to the best social media teacher in the world (
Scott White, of PersonalPowerTraining.net), I was a very early adopter and jumped

on Facebook back in late 2006. Back then, there were no Pages. The only option you had was to use your personal profile for business marketing, too. I did that, and have steadily built my “friends” to 2,565, with 109 subscribers to my personal page. The challenge has been bringing those friends over to my business page.
We were hanging out at 474 Likes for the l-o-n-g-e-s-t time. Then I started doing a few things differently.
ONE. I used to duplicate a lot of content between the my personal page and business page — but I do that less frequently lately. I’m very selective about what I post in both places, and I always post it on my business page first, and “share” it to my personal page. There’s a strategic reason for this: people on my personal page can see where the post originated, perhaps clicking over to my business page to see what other goodies I’m posting there.
TWO. I invited/reinvited a bunch of friends to like my page. They may have been people I never invited in the first place, or people who just never accepted an original invitation. At any rate, I had 7 additional likes from my own personal page once I sent these invites.
THREE. I changed the kinds of things I post. As you can tell from the title and content of this blog, I’m all about book marketing. My Facebook page is more representative of all aspects of self-publishing — although my posts did, for a long time, lean more to marketing tips. Lately, I’ve been posting a combination of humorous literary posts (see below), self-publishing/book marketing tips, and the occasional promo piece for my business. In short, I made the page more interesting.
FOUR. I started posting much more consistently — not just more often, but more consistently.
FIVE. In order to post more consistently, I started using Facebook’s scheduling feature to time my posts to go out at regular intervals throughout the day. To do so, go to your page and find the status box.
Type your text or upload your image, as you normally would.
Then click on the clock icon in the bottom left-hand corner of the status box.

Doing so will bring up a calendar. Choose the date on which you wish to publish your post.

If you plan to stagger your posts, add the time you wish to publish your post.
Be sure to check that you have the a.m./p.m. correct.

Click the SCHEDULE button.

That’s it! Your screen will gray out and you’ll see a confirmation window
telling you that your post has been scheduled.
Of course, this is an inexact science. But I know I added nearly 30 people in little more than a week once I started changing the way I post and doing it more consistently. If Facebook isn’t your thing, I believe these strategies will work for you on many different social platforms. Next up, more interactivity!
Here’s to more consistency in your social networking!
Laura
__________________
We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.
__________________
Want a professional book cover that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg? Visit our website to
peruse our selection of 25 book cover templates, and download our complimentary special report, “Book Elements:
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Hi, what a great post. I’ve been in Facebook since 2008 but only since January I started my business page. Better late than never. I do the same thing post on my page and then share to my personal profile.
Thanks, Liliana. I think interactivity is also a huge component. Ask questions and give people a reason to keep coming back to your page, sharing your posts, and recommending it to others.
Terrific post. And, I’m going to go “Like” your FB business page.
I self-published a book myself, and I could certainly use some ideas for marketing. I also help others with self-publishing, which is fantastic. It’s wonderful to see people make their dreams come true by helping them publish their own books.
These are great suggestions. Thanks.
Good on you, Dr. Wixy, for helping others live their dreams! We’ve got lots in common. If you have a book blog, send me the link and I’ll add it to the sidebar.
Laura (aka Marcie)
Great info, Laura! I wondered why / if I could schedule posts. ‘Soon’ I will set up a marketing page, pre-book! I am ready!
Woo-hoo, Beth! That’s fantastic news. I’ll help any way I can.
LO
You also need to use different types of content for different social networks – what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another, and content should be specifically crafted for what works for each one. We recently did a post on this ourselves and found a great infographic that lays out the ideal content for each different social network – you can check it out here: http://magicmarketingmachine.com/autoposting-to-your-social-networks-is-not-good-heres-why/
Excellent point, Meredith. I’ve blogged on that before – and bookmarked your infographic when I came across it last week. Thanks for taking the time to add to this post!
This is an excellent follow-on for this post. Read it for great info about increasing your FB Likes! http://www.postplanner.com/4-facebook-posts-guaranteed-to-get-more-likes-and-comments/