Social Media Monday—Gain Traction with Social Media instead of Spinning Your Wheels—Part Two

Social media isn’t a fast pass to a super Internet presence. As I said last week, anything worth having takes…well…work. If you didn’t catch last week, click for Part One of Gain Traction with Social Media Instead ofSpinning your Wheels.

BUT that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work at it. It can give you a distinct advantage when you’re looking for a publisher for your book, and when you’re trying to connect to readers for your book.

So what work pays off by helping you gain traction and what is just useless wheel spinning? Today I’m gonna give you what you need to gain traction and move forward.

Gain Traction

The Basics: I’ve said this so many times before, but it still bears repeating. To build a solid foundation you need to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Blogging. You don’t have to be a superstar on all three, but to reach the part of your audience that’s on social media you do need all three.

Consistency: You need to have a regular presence on Social Media. So what does that look like?

• Blogging—a minimum of once a week if you have a personal blog, or bear minimum of twice a month if you’re part of a group blog.
• Facebook—comment on and/or share someone else’s update a minimum of twice a day, five days a week. Update on your timeline a minimum of four times a day, five days a week.
• Twitter—update a minimum of four to six times per day, five days per week. 

Work Smarter, NOT Harder: This means utilizing a scheduling program to help spread out your social media presence without interrupting your writing schedule. I recommend Hootsuite. If you haven’t used this before, here’s a link to a post a wrote on How to Schedule Social Media in Hootsuite. Also, don't spend more than thirty minutes a day on social media.

Find Your Sweet Spot: Wouldn’t it be awful if you only tried two of the three basics and it turned out your sweet spot was the third? That could have easily happened to me. I resisted Twitter for a long time—but with ten thousand followers I have to tell you it’s my sweet spot. Give yourself a chance to succeed. Don’t quit before you even try.

Promote Others: I know it’s counter-intuitive but the quickest way to build a strong social media following is to update about things that your followers find valuable. Not only does it build your value, but it also makes you someone that others want to promote. Both of these are HUGE to your success online.

Don’t Abandon Your Strategy: You’d be amazed at how quickly someone will decide their social media strategy isn’t working and will either give up entirely or change what they’re doing or get discouraged and back off in consistency. So how quick is too quick to change strategy? Minimum SIX MONTHS. And that means six months of consistent posting and updates. If you lay out for two weeks, you need to start that six month clock again.

Look back at the list above. All I have a are six simple things you need to do to grow your platform through social media. Today I challenge you to a six month trial. Give these six things a try—consistently—for six months and see where you are. What do you have to lose?

If you’re willing to give it a try, leave a comment below. We’re stronger together than we are apart. Periodically I'll ask for updates, and I'm always available to help you through email.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie