Tips and Results for Writers After Experimenting with Marketing

by Karen Whiting @KarenHWhiting

In marketing, we experiment to see what sticks. I do that too. I grew my Pinterest views from less than 2k monthly views in December to 5k in February. I focused on it more in March and by early April it climbed to more than 18k monthly views. 

I also decided to do a bit more social cross sharing. So I have shared articles to Pinterest, pins to Facebook, and Facebook posts to Instagram. It’s good to see what works best for you, but that also means having a strategy. Like have a hypothesis in a science experiment, we consider what the outcome might be and what steps to take in our marketing experiment. Here are some thoughts and a few results I noticed in a few social medias.

Scheduling Posts in Facebook

I can schedule a few months of posts at a time in Facebook. I can usually manage 30 at a sitting and can also have them post on Instagram. I tend to get more comments on Instagram but usually from male scammers that I block. The few on FB are better. However, I keep scheduling as it has grown one of my pages a lot and I hope it will impact the other page at some point. There’s a theory that you can reach a tipping point where things move in your favor and I saw that on my author page.

You can also repeat posts from past schedules. If you are growing followers and don’t have many that tends to be fine. If your followers are getting engaged they will want new posts from what I have found.

Other Facebook Notes

I do best when I do live videos. As it seems to inspire much more engagement. Other popular engagement posts flow from sharing something personal or an anecdotal story.

I notice friends who get great engagement often promote their friends’ books. It is such a generous thing to do if you have the books and time. I did that in December as a special event to promote peace books. For us who they might feature, this is a borrowed platform.

When I started posting book news to my author page and sharing the posts so FB would not penalize me ad type posts on my profile, my author page started growing at a slow steady rate. 

A friend shared how she did a daily Facebook ad to grow her page and in a few months had more than 20k followers plus good engagement. I did a simple Facebook ad to recently to grow my likes on a page and it has been growing steadily. 

Pinterest Experiments

It’s better to use original photos than copies. I have tons of photos and quite a few videos However that takes more time and I noticed a friend who had great growth used a combination of posting photos from others as well as original pins. I created my own pins to go from 2k to close to 18k in 2a little over 3 months, but now started adding in re-pins so I can populate boards faster. To keep the numbers up., it means to continue posting and developing a strategy of what to post. 

I started pinning a few times a week, but now pin a few daily. If I start slipping in views I can bring it back up in two days of adding several pins. My most popular pins include ones that link to my articles, plus craft and cooking videos In the past few days I added hashtags and that also increases the views. Pinterest also puts up a list of trends that can provide ideas of what to pin.

I track the audience through the analytics and find I am close to my target audience of moms of young children with a secondary audience of grandmas My boards reflect the audience with board for motherhood, crafts, kid activities, and family boards.

Friends' Experiments

TikTok

Sharon Elliott started experimenting with TikTok a few months ago with simply putting up a quote a day set to music and a little animation.. She found this an easy way to grow a following and reached more than 4k likes in a few months. Consistency always helps.

LinkedIn

Video content is great for promotion and the most popular content on LinkedIn. But it needs to be professional.. I get my best FB results when I do a FB live video and then post it in other social media. But what’s surprising is how popular video is on LinkedIn. According to marketing gurus it’s the second most popular place to use videos, right after YouTube.

Experimenting Tips for Writers & Marketing

Develop a strategy and then test it:

• Allow a few months for testing and observing results.

• Note likes, views, and engagement responses as well as any purchases if you link to sales.

• Boost engagement by responding to legitimate comments (not the opposite sex saying you look enticing). 

• Plan for a variety of posts from very simple ones to carousels and videos. 

• Try live videos if the platform includes that option.

• Cross promote by sharing popular posts to other social media.

• Check the analytics to track the audience and see if you come close to your target audience. Be strategic in creating posts or boards of interest to your audience.

• After your set months end, decide if it is worth continuing or not.

Have fun and let me know how your experiments work.

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Tips and Results for Writers After Experimenting with Marketing from author @KarenHWhiting on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Karen Whiting (WWW.KARENWHITING.COM) is an international speaker, former television host of Puppets on Parade, certified writing and marketing coach, and award-winning author of twenty-seven books for women, children, and families. Her newest book, The Gift of Bread: Recipes for the Heart and the Table reflects her passion for bread and growing up helping at her grandparent’s restaurant. Check out her newest book Growing a Mother’s Heart: Devotions of Faith, Hope, and Love from Mothers Past, Present, and Future. It's full of heartwarming and teary-eyed stories of moms.

Karen has a heart to grow tomorrow’s wholesome families today. She has written more than eight hundred articles for more than sixty publications and loves to let creativity splash over the pages of what she writes. She writes for Crosswalk. Connect with Karen on Twitter @KarenHWhiting Pinterest KarenWhiting FB KarenHWhiting.