The Digital Era and Your Readers

My daughter is currently taking a class dealing with Online Marketing. One of the units focused on using social media to drive traffic to your product. As I listened to her tell me about this, I started thinking about what I am seeing authors doing. And so many people are missing the point. 

The key with advertising your book is to know who your market is? While you might believe everyone from every demographic reads your books, the reality is that you likely have one dominate group. That is the group you should be targeting. I know, this might seem like a "no duh" statement, using social medai that your readers don't access is a complete waste of time.

Think of it this way. If your main readers are people in their 40's, 50's or 60's, the odds are they are not on TikTok. Yes, this is currently a popular trend, but it is not for your demographic. 

In simple terms, think of who they are and what they do on the computer or their devices. If they are primarily on Facebook then stay there. Maybe they go to Instagram, then link that account to Facebook. If your readers don't read blogs, then skip it. 

Maybe you think taking on Podcasts. Again, stop and ask if your readers use Podcasts. If they do, where are they accessing the Podcasts. If they aren't on Spotify, then you need to figure out where they are going to. Remember, you are looking for the majority of your readers. You are not going to reach them all.

Finally, I want you to think about what you are putting on that social media. It has to be valuable enough to make the readers want to "follow you." If it is a pointless post, then you are wasting your time. There are a couple of authors I think the world of, and they are trying hard to use that social media to drive in traffic. But they look like complete goofs on their posts. Sitting there nodding your head and making some comment such as "When I am thinking of how to write my hero's conflict" does nothing. The same goes for you smiling with a silly grin as you open your box of books you got from your readers is also pointless. If you want to be successful, then you need to talk about your book. Show them the books, talk about it, and show them how to get to buy the book. That is useful.

I get all of these social media options seem exciting, but you have to pick the approaches that truly connect with your readers.