- What should you do to build a profile and following
on social media as an author?
A question that came in from one of my YouTube followers
that we're gonna tackle right now!
(energetic electric guitar music)
Hey there, I'm Julie Broad of HaveMoreInfluence.com.
If you're thinking about writing a book it's a great time
to start building a profile on social media.
If you've already written one,
well, there's no time like the present.
Now, I'm gonna come at this from the perspective
of a non-fiction book because that's where my experience
has been when it comes to writing and publishing a book.
But, I think a lot of these tips will apply to anybody
when it comes to social media.
So, number one, before you do anything,
you want to think about who is your audience?
So this is the answer to the question that you will hear
a lot, who did you write the book for,
or who are you writing the book for?
So, depending on who you're writing the book for,
that will impact where you probably want to be online
in terms of the social media channels because there are
so many you can pick from.
Plus, you can even get down to things like Goodreads
which has book-specific profiles.
So, where do you want to find your,
or where are you going to find your ideal
readers for your book?
LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook,
there's so many to choose from.
So first of all, you want to know who you're looking for
and where they're already hanging out.
Once you've got that figured out, pick a couple,
no more than two, right now,
social media channels to focus on, okay?
Eventually you can add more but you are diluting
your efforts if you spread yourself
over too many different profiles.
Because how many profiles do you want to manage?
And, yes, you can get tools like Hootsuite to manage
integrations, but, it looks weird, right?
If you post something in LinkedIn that goes to Twitter
that goes to Facebook, it actually has slightly different
formats in all of the different places.
It doesn't work that great.
So just start with two profiles and manage them,
or even one, and manage it exceptionally well, okay?
So that's the foundation.
From there, I've got five tips for you to help
you grow a following.
And by the way, if you're in YouTube,
one of the things that I would love
your help with is growing mine.
And all you have to do is subscribe to my videos, okay?
So that's one thing, right?
You want to be growing your community,
which in YouTube it's subscribers,
Facebook it's likes on your page or friends,
on Twitter, of course, it's followers, and so on, okay?
Now, tip number one.
Good content is not enough.
You are going to have to work really hard to create
curiosity and engage with the people who are following
you and tweeting to you or talking to you
or commenting on your posts, right?
Seeing that you're involved will help build that community.
And again, good content is not enough.
Be fun, be engaging, create curiosity, create interest.
That'll go a long way.
Number two.
Saying you're the expert doesn't make it so.
So, ideally, in social media,
because you're creating curiosity,
because you're creating great content,
you will hopefully create engaged followers
who talk about how awesome you are.
But, in the event that that's not starting out that way,
showcase some of your finest points on social media.
Give insights into current events that are
applicable to your topic or share some little teasers
of some of the cool advice and tips that are gonna
come out in your book so that other people are seeing
your expertise versus having to just hear you say
how much you know about a certain subject
or have to read it in your profile about how
awesome you are, right?
Number three, and I think this one's a really big one.
Focus on quality, not quantity, okay?
Yeah, you know what, there's a lot of people who have
50,000 followers but,
do they really?
Because there's an awful lot of bots out there,
there's an awful lot of fake people, fake accounts,
fake things where somebody might have paid to
have all these followers, all these friends,
all these whatevers, right?
So, are they real?
So, engagement is more important.
Quality people who are engaging, who like your content,
way more important than a bunch of fake followers.
Number four.
Once your book is published, resist the urge to sell it
and talk about it all the time.
Promote other authors, promote some things that are cool
that you see out there.
Share little tid-bits, share pictures.
There's nothing that makes me un-follow, unsubscribe,
un-friend, dislike you more than constantly selling
whatever it is that you have to sell.
And if that's all you're saying, you're going to get boring,
fast, and people are going to stop paying attention to you.
Number five.
When you choose your social media profile picture,
choose carefully.
Create something that has intrigue.
It's not just about the beauty shot.
I mean, you want to look professional,
you want to look friendly
and approachable in most situations,
but think about the color, think about what people see
when all they see is these little, tiny,
little, tiny, itty-bitty profile pictures, right?
How can you stand out in the sea of little,
itty-bitty, tiny pictures.
You know, bright colored shirts, a nice picture,
a unique angle, something cool in the background.
So think about these things carefully when you choose
your profile pictures.
Now you might have been looking for the magic solution
but growing a social media profile takes a bit of time,
takes a bit of effort, absolutely takes consistency.
Yes, some people blow up and get 100,000 views or 100,000
friends overnight but most of those people were on TV
or had something that made them go viral.
That can happen but it might not.
So, in the event that it doesn't,
you're going to need to have great content,
create curiosity and just focus
on building a fantastic community of quality, real people.
Cool?
Alright.
Join my community at HaveMoreInfluence.com where we have
awesome monthly training session via webinar.
Plus, you'll get these video trainings sent straight to
your inbox along with a cute,
along with a few cool other insights and stories
that I only share with my community of subscribers.
Come back again soon.
I can't wait to see you then.
Bye!
(kids cheering loudly)
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