How to get more out of Social Media

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If you read my last post, you can tell this has been on my mind. Social media is a great way to build community, but it can be infuriatingly difficult at times. This article from StandoutBooks (LOVE their helpful posts) tells you more about how to use social media for maximum effect. It's clearly written and gives thoughtful, practical advice. Let me know if you have any other methods for negotiating the online social territory!  

Level Up Social Media Followers

Whether you’re a newly self-published author or someone who’s been around the block a few times, chances are you’ll wish that your social media following was a little more engaged.

Some writers struggle to gain a single ‘like’ online, while others who’ve patiently cultivated their following can become frustrated when even after months of building hype, many of their followers fail to buy their latest novel.

I find that there are four levels to any author’s fan community. I like to call them the Disinterested, the Interested But Lazy, the Engaged Who Don’t Follow Through, and finally, the Die Hards. The trick, as far as I’m concerned, to an effective social media campaign is to encourage followers to climb the ranks, slowly rising through the levels to become Die Hard fans.

Influencing fans isn’t always easy though, and as such, in this article I’ll talk a little about each of the three lower levels, and how you can encourage your fans to level up.

 

Read more on StandoutBooks

Twitter Campaign for Independent Authors

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Hello all! I've got some exciting news. I've just launched a twitter campaign to help promote self published authors. I'm so glad to give to the indie community and offer a little bit of exposure to my fellow writers who are working to promote their own work (and find time to write the next novel!) Twitter has been a tough social media format for me. It's so loaded with garbage it's hard to sift through to find the gems. Instead of scrolling feeds, I decided to find a way to check out new authors as well as use twitter to promote them. With an open-invitation system (just email info@freeflyingpress) and author-designed tweets (send me 140 characters and an image of your book) I can quickly schedule in 4 tweets to help spread the word about new books.  

I hope this model will connect me with other authors & help strengthen the indie community while sharing news about hot new titles. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts about how to use twitter to build community and help each other grow our author online presences!

& in the meantime, check out a preview my latest ebook release The Heart of the Lone Wolf  coming in September. For only .99 you can get your preorder copy today!

The Heart of the Lone Wolf