Our guest blogger today is Chris Syme, principal of the award-winning agency, CKSyme Media Group. She is a former university media relations professional, a frequent speaker, and the author of the popular SMART Marketing For Authors book series. She is also the co-host of Smart Pants Book Marketing podcast. Her new book, The Newbie’s Guide to Sell More Books With Less Marketing, is available for at a special pre-order price of $.99 until June 5. 

Three keys to selling more books with social media

By Chris Syme

There are hundreds of social media networking sites on the Internet. Of those, there are 10 or so that most people can identify. Five years ago it was pretty easy to be found and followed on social media. Now the Internet is bulging with information.

This proliferation of bits and bytes has caused some authors to throw up their arms and declare that selling books on social media is not possible. But the keys to selling more books with social media are not about doing more, but doing less.

Key #1: Win the right to sell: Engage first, sell second

Social media content gives us an unprecedented opportunity to build loyalty, trust, and endearment like no other platform out there. And that loyalty translates into more sales. How do you do that? In the book Content Code, author Mark Schaefer concluded that, “Heroic brands, or businesses that people love, exceed customer expectations and stand for something other than selling stuff.”

Social media’s strength is connecting people. In my new book The Newbie’s Guide To Sell More Books With Less Marketing, I teach one golden rule of selling on social media: You must engage where you want to sell. These two are inextricably linked. You will not sell successfully without engaging first.

Here lies the conundrum. How can you do both?

The answer is to follow The 80-20 content rule.

The 80-20 content rule simply states: To sell books with online media, 80 percent of your posts must give something valuable to your fans and 20 percent should ask for a sale. The rule is based on a long-established marketing principle called the law of reciprocity. Show yourself to be a source of value and people will want to buy your books. Not only that, they will recommend them to their friends as well.

Jay Baer said it this way: “Smart marketing is based on help, not hype.”

Key #2: Go narrow for more engagement

Let’s start with a look at data.

According to Pew Internet Research, the majority of people on social media interact on more than one channel. The most common overlaps are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Facebook users make up a whopping 72 percent of the adult online population. The other two have less than 30 percent. Facebook’s demographics are the best across the categories of age, gender, education, ethnicity, and location. Facebook is indeed king of the social media universe.

And the good news is, Facebook has the second highest ability to help new readers discover you and to sell products—surpassed only by YouTube (AOL Platforms).

Choose a primary channel for engagement

Three of the major social media channels now have engagement-restricting algorithms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That means they have a formula that chooses how many of your fans get to see your posts. As a percentage of your fans start to engage with your posts, they send the post out to more of your fans.

So instead of reaching a small portion of your fans on many channels, I encourage authors to spend time and money sticking to one channel that has the best overall ability to reach the majority of their fans. For 90 percent of authors, that venue is a Facebook business page. Some call it a Facebook author page.

Choosing one primary channel for fan engagement will boost your engagement rate. I’ve seen it happen time and again to students in my online classes. Instead of spreading themselves paper thin across several social media channels, they narrow their focus to one primary channel and build a strong engaging presence that creates the best sales environment.

The rest of the social media channels become outposts where you redirect fans to the channel where you are engaging with a holding message or graphic. You don’t engage on an outpost, just redirect.

Key #3: All social media channels are not created equal

According to marketing research done by AOL Platforms, there are only a couple of social media channels that are any good at selling anything. One is YouTube and the other is Facebook. Of the six main channels measured, Twitter was at the bottom when it came to aiding discovery and ability to sell.

Facebook is wired to help you sell. It has a number of tools to help:

• Shop tab that operates as a one-click bookstore on your business page.
• Advertising options from inexpensive boosted posts to full-blown campaigns.
• Ability to embed email sign-up forms with direct integration to the most popular email providers.
• Call-to-action buttons that host a variety of conversion actions.

According to Marketing Week, 26 percent of Facebook users say they are looking for something to buy there. The next channel in line, Instagram, only boasts 8 percent and Pinterest is at 6 percent.

I would be the first to admit you can sell books on any social media channel if you work at it hard enough. But if you’re looking to get the maximum ROTI (return on time investment) I would put my money on Facebook burying all the rest.

What’s working for you on social media? Tell us in a comment. 

Tip of the Month

I always share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

Most of you who blog know by now that it’s important to use high-quality images in your posts. There are several reasons for this, but the primary one is that images make your posts more visually appealing.

My favorite source of paid images recently changes its terms, which sent me looking for an alternative source of images. While looking for paid image sources, I stumbled upon an excellent free source: LibreStock.

LibreStock is a search engine that scans and indexes stock photos from more than 40 websites. Type in your search term and get free. high-quality. stock photos.

All the photos indexed on LibreStock are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means you can use these pictures freely for any legal purpose.

Learn more at the LibreStock site.

There’s no question that Chris knows what she’s talking about. What’s more, she communicates clearly and effectively. As I was reading, just as I reached a point where I thought, “It would help me to see this in a chart,” POOF! a chart appeared! She understands what her readers need.

Who can benefit from this book

In the book’s introduction, Chris explains who will and won’t benefit from reading this book. She makes it clear that she wrote it for authors who believe they are responsible for marketing their own books and who are willing to learn how to do it — then spend time doing it. If you aren’t going to do the work, there’s no point in learning about how you can use less social media to sell more books.

I’ll expand on that, though. If you look at learning opportunities through the lens of college course numbers, you know that a 101-level course is entry level, 201 is  more of an intermediate level course, and so on. This book isn’t Social Media for Authors 101. It’s at least a 201-level guide and maybe even 301.

That means that if you know nothing about book marketing or social media yet, this book might not be the best starting point.

There’s lots of helpful content on this site about how to use social networks for book marketing, including a recent guest post about Facebook, an article on the three Facebook options (profile, Page, group), and a good Twitter primer. You might also appreciate a popular article here on how to promote your book without using social media at all.

In addition, Chris advocates spending on Facebook advertising, so keep that in mind. If you’re dead set on never spending a cent on book marketing, you’ll get less value from this than someone who embraces the concept that you have to spend money to make money.

Fiction-oriented

You’ll also want to know that the book addresses novelists more than nonfiction authors. The concepts and content apply to both, but there’s no question that Chris was thinking mostly about fiction when she wrote this. There are occasional references to nonfiction in the text, but if this were truly an equal opportunity book there would be a section on how to use LinkedIn for nonfiction marketing purposes.

Don’t let that stop you, though — just be aware of it. Nonfiction authors can get just as much out of Sell More Books With Less Social Media as novelists can. I just want you to know what to expect. What you’ll learn from this book applies to nonfiction, too.

What to expect and what not to expect

Understand that this book doesn’t cover everything you need to know about book marketing (and it doesn’t claim to). For example, there’s nothing in it about book publicity. Book publicity, as you might know, is that free news media exposure you can get that is said to be 10 times more effective than advertising.

It also doesn’t cover blogging, guest blogging, virtual book tours, or public speaking, among other book marketing tactics.

The emphasis is on these topics:

• Platform
• Content you’ll create
• Social media with an emphasis on Facebook
• E-mail marketing

It covers those topics well. I especially like the guidance on email marketing — what to send to your list, when, and so on.

The real value in this book, I think, is Chris’s work to help you identify your platform level — she defines and explains four levels for fiction and three for nonfiction — and then match your marketing activities to that level. With that “label” in place, she helps you figure out which marketing activities or tactics are the best fit for you.

Bonus video content

Finally, there’s both a plus and a minus to one of the book’s features — the one that makes this part book, part multi-media training program. Chris has created companion videos that expand on what’s taught in each chapter. On the one hand, I see this as generous. On the other, I find it frustrating because it forces me to stop reading and go online.

It interrupts my flow.

Plus, I like my training to be all-inclusive.

But, to each his own, right? It might end up being your favorite part of the book!

And . . . let me point out that the book is a whopping 99 cents. To get top quality written and video instruction for that price is quite a deal. Kudos to Chris for working so hard with Sell More Books With Less Social Media to help authors learn.

What’s your most successful book marketing tactic?

She posted that she was “flattered” to have been selected for a promotion that would cost her $1,500. The promoter had convinced her that being selected for the “opportunity” was a privilege she had earned. She believed him, too naive to know how it really works.

How does it work?

Some sales people will take as much money as they can from anybody.

As soon as you say “Yes!” to $1,500, they tell you that you’ve qualified for a Super Duper Gold Star package that they are only offering to Super Duper Gold Star Authors — you! It costs $500 more, but you will be among the most elite of all authors when you take advantage of this amazing opportunity to showcase your book!

The next thing you know, your credit card is charged for more than you should spend for a promotion of questionable value.

Fortunately, the hive mind revealed that the sales person was re-selling an opportunity that the originator was offering for just over $300 to anybody with a book – no screening, no “your book is so special” B.S., no hard sell. Just pay the fee and you’re in.

Oh, you flatter me

Flattery will get you anywhere, right?

(I hope you answered, “Wrong.”)

And yet, there are some promotions that are worth their cost. For example, I know of one virtual book tour service that charges a fair fee for good work for fiction. And Facebook advertising is both smart and affordable when you have the right pieces in place before spending the money.

To be successful at selling books on social media, authors need to be able to answer these questions:

• How do you assess the value of an online book promotion opportunity? (Did you know there’s a tool for that?)
• Where will you find the readers for your books? (You don’t want to be spending your time on the wrong network as so many are.)
• At what point should you consider paying for opportunities to get your book discovered by the right readers, especially when it comes to Facebook ads?
• What can you do online to sell books without spending anything?

How to do it the right way

I’ve asked social media expert Chris Syme, who has advised hundreds of fiction and nonfiction authors, to answer those questions and many more in a webinar titled, “How to Sell More Books With Social Media.” It’s a live training event, but we’ll send the replay link to anyone who registers, so go to the information page now to see what you’ll learn and to register.

What you learn could save you thousands of dollars while it generates thousands in book sales. (And, you’ll get that promotion evaluation tool I mentioned above!) How can you lose? Get the details now and register here so you don’t miss out.

What question would you like to ask social media expert Chris Syme about how to sell more books with social media?

Tip of the Month

I always share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

My friend Amy Collins at book distribution consultant New Shelves Books clued me in to this month’s, “Adobe Voice.” It’s an easy-to-use free app that lets you create a short video using your iPhone or iPad’s microphone and Adobe’s clip art, photos (or your photos!), or text.

To show you how it works, I created this little video in just five minutes as soon as I downloaded the app. I can’t wait to play with this great tool some more, but in the meantime, here’s my very first video:

Pretty cool, right? Imagine how much fun you could have creating short messages to share with your social networks! Sharing icons built into the app make that process super easy.

If you know other authors who will find this tool handy, be sure to share the link to this blog post with them. Tips help everyone and I’m so glad Amy shared this one with me!

I suspected I would like it because I’m familiar with the author’s work. I first connected with Chris Syme when she referenced one of my blog posts in an article she wrote for DigitalBookWorld.com. We began talking after that, and as a result, she wrote an excellent guest post for us here, “10 terrible social media myths authors should avoid.”

Still, I often find that books take too much of a high view of a topic — lots of what and why, but not enough how — so I managed my expectations as I sat down with this book over the weekend.

I was not disappointed in the least.

Here’s why:

• The marketing basics recommended in the first part of the book mirror what I teach authors. I was glad to see that we share the same philosophy about how to attract more readers.
• The information and advice gets very, very specific, whether the topic is tools that will save you time or instruction on how to do something the “right” way.
• It has examples that help the reader understand the concepts. Those that accompany the section on the differences between goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics are particularly helpful, as is the list of sample book launch activities in the chapter on social media campaigns.

Still, will this book help you? Read on.

Who should read this book

Although this book will help the novice social media user — someone who has just opened a Twitter account or who has a Facebook profile, not a Page, and uses the site mostly to stay in touch with family and friends — much of it will overwhelm that individual, too. It (fairly) presumes a basic understanding of social networks already.

It’s also not a good fit for those of you who have decided that you don’t need social media or simply aren’t interested in using social networks to promote your books.

It’s better suited to someone who has already incorporated social media into the book marketing mix or has decided to do so and wants to know how to do it effectively. These authors will learn more about to make their social media activity SMART — sustainable (regardless of the ways networks change or come and go), manageable, audience-specific, relevant, and tactics last.

Chances are, you’ll be reassured by some of the author’s advice because it will tell you that you’re doing some things properly. For example, you might know already that how you present content should vary from network to network. Chris uses the infographic on InstaMom101, “Social media explained with wine,” to address this. But do you know the different roles of influencers and advocates and how they can support your efforts? Chapter 11 on how to build raving fans helps with that.

Content flows from basic to advanced level

What I found most valuable about this book was the methodical, logical, organized way the author presents information that will no doubt take your social media marketing up several levels if you follow her advice. It starts with the most basic information in Part 1, moves you through that to intermediate-level content in Parts 2 and 3, then helps you become an advanced social media user in Part 4.

If you haven’t been very thoughtful or strategic about what you share on social media or how you share it, that will change. The “content bucket” approach — one that I use informally but will now get more serious about embracing — presents an interesting way to think about what you share, where you share it, and how often you do it.

If you’ve been looking for guidance on how to use social media for book launches, you’ll get the knowledge you’ll need presented in a way that you understand.

I will caution you, though, that because this book does have a great deal of specific information, you can get overwhelmed quickly. Don’t try to read it in one sitting. Instead, read a few chapters and use the questions at the end of each to take action. Don’t move on to the next few chapters until you’ve acted on what you’ve just learned. That way, by the time you reach the how-to information on campaigns and paid advertising, you’ll have the foundation in place to support what you learn.

What to expect

SMART Social Media for Authors will not teach you how to set up social media accounts, create profiles, and so on. It presumes that you’ve got those in place or will use the readily available information found elsewhere to do this. If you’re looking for a book on “how to get started on Twitter” or “how to create a Pinterest board,” this isn’t for you.

Instead, it’s about the strategy you’ll use on the various sites and how you will employ specific tactics so your time spent on social networks makes a difference and isn’t wasted. It’s about the thought you put into what you share, not the mechanics of sharing.

A special word to fiction authors: While Chris handles social media campaign for both novelists and nonfiction writers through her social media agency and the book’s content applies to both, I think that novelists will struggle to understand how some of the concepts presented in Part 1 will relate to them. While there are fiction examples later in the book, I think it would have helped to have more of them early on. For example, Chris states that “Sustainable social media adds value.” In my experience working with authors, nonfiction writers can grasp how to provide free content that builds trust between an author and a reader more easily than fiction writers can.

But that’s a small point, and I have faith that the fiction writers who want to get smarter about social media will get what they need without getting too stuck on some of these points.

Learn more about  SMART Social Media for Authors: The practical guide for anyone to sell more books on Amazon.com. It’s available in both Kindle and print formats.

10 terrible social media myths authors should avoid

By Chris Syme

When it comes to social media, it seems like we will believe just about anything. If we see it on the Internet it must be true, right?

Much of what we’ve come to think about social media is just wrong. It’s time to tear down those tips and tricks that people keep telling us and close the door on bad social media advice.

Sometimes it’s obvious that some practices are wrong; other times not so much—especially if we see them over and over again online.

In order to produce content that people will love enough to pass on to others, we need to clear the table of bad practices so our fans can see the real value in what we post on social media.

If you see yourself in any of these 10 myths, take heart. We’ve all been there. I want to challenge you to challenge yourself. Together, we can stamp out these terrible social media myths.

1. Copying and pasting the same content word-for-word on all my social media channels will help my message reach more people.

This myth basically infers that all social media audiences are created equal.

Today, if you post the same message verbatim on every social media channel, people will think you are lazy and ignorant.

Every channel has its own demographics and channel culture. If you go to a black tie dinner wearing your yoga pants and sweatshirt, people will know you didn’t take time to understand where you were going. You’ll stand out and not in a good way.

Learn how to reframe your message in the channel culture’s frame. This fun infographic from instamom.com does a fantastic job explaining how your social media messages should differ in approach.

And don’t forget age demographics. Some channels have younger audiences and require a different approach. If the channel’s target demographic isn’t in your audience, you are really wasting your time there anyway.

2. The more hashtags I stuff in a tweet, the more people I will reach.

There are just so many ways this is wrong.

Hashtags have strengths, but stuffing is not one. I could list a million reasons but I’ll just stick to data. In 2014, Buffer published data from an extensive study by Buddy Media to find out the exact science of how hashtags affect a social media post. They found that tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without.

But more is not better. After two hashtags, engagement levels started to drop off drastically. Bottom line: a post full of hashtags is never a message, it is a distraction.

3. I need to join every social network to reach more people.

This myth violates a couple basic principles of effective marketing:

• Your marketing has to be manageable to be effective. You need to be able to write, promote your books, and have a life. It won’t happen if you spread yourself too thin.
• You want to key in on the channels where your readers are and develop an effective audience there. You don’t want to necessarily reach more people, you want to reach the right people. Facebook is the only platform out there that has enough range in demographics and captures enough online traffic to justify saying everyone should be there. After that, it’s iffy.

For marketing purposes, it is not enough to just join a network. You have to be working at producing engaging content and building loyal relationships wherever you are.

Be smart about which networks you use. Some may return much less than the amount of effort you are putting in.

4. Buying followers and fans will help me sell more books.

There are several reasons buying followers is a waste of your money. Besides being unethical, here are a couple:

• “Followers for dollars” are not qualified customers. Heck, they may not even be real people. Chances are very high they are not your targeted audience.
• Buying followers just increases your reach (number of people that might qualify to see your posts). Reach is a low-level goal. And it is a no-level goal if the followers you bought don’t care about what you have to say.

Note: There is something to be said for the credibility of having lots of followers but today everyone knows that people are buying followers and scamming for auto follows, so who are you trying to fool? Concentrate on engaging the number you have and they will grow organically.

You can run contests and giveaways to increase your qualified followers (people who want your books). I would rather have 1,000 people who like to read my kind of books than 10,000 bots and fake followers who will never buy one book.

5. Social media will not help me sell any books.

This is a particularly common misconception for authors. If done correctly, social media does help sell books.

The problem with this myth is that represents a misunderstanding of the benefits of social media marketing. Authors have two basic needs when it comes to marketing: sell more books and build a dedicated fan base. Social media is better at the second but it can certainly do the first.

6. Social media results cannot be measured.

Social media can certainly be measured, but you need something to measure first.

What is your goal? Increase followers? Build an advance reader team? Increase sales with a launch campaign? Build an email list?

Most people don’t know how to match goals to measurement. But don’t worry—this can all be learned. The backbone of good marketing is a plan. If you have a plan that includes goals, measurements, strategies, and tactics, you will know exactly what you are measuring.

If you are just playing darts with a blindfold on, even if you hit the bullseye, you won’t know how you got there.

7. Social media is only for young people.

This myth is easily busted with data. Just take a look at the latest data from Pew Internet Research, the top internet research organization in the world.

A whopping 71 percent of American adults online use social media—53 percent of them use more than one network. As of last year, for the first time in history, the majority of online adults over age 65 now use social media. The 18-29 group has the highest percentage at 90 percent, but all age groups are on social media now. The 30-49 age group is second at 70 percent of online adults.

This myth is a lame argument anymore.

8. I am too old to learn how to use social media.

This myth is vaguely related to number seven.

Social media savvy is not the domain of the young. If you are adept enough to write books, you can certainly learn how to use social media.

The trick is finding help learning how to do it right. Find some resources you can trust. Take some free online webinars from trusted sources, follow bloggers who know what they’re talking about, and network with other authors who are in your same boat. I think the really intimidating piece here is the learning curve. But once you get around the curve, the road is pretty straight.

9. Social media is free.

Boy I wish. Most of the platforms are free to use but maintaining a consistent presence takes time and resources, and sometimes money. You know the old saying, time is money. And time will be your biggest cost.

In addition, email providers, website hosting, images, and advertisements all cost money. Although it is possible to do social media well on a shoestring, reaching a wider audience often costs money. The good news is, there are ways to control your budget and still be successful.

10. Social media is a soap box for me to sell my books.

I don’t know if anyone really says this, but they certainly act it out. If all you do on social media is tweet or post “Buy my book” then you are failing. If you sell a handful of books with this method, think of how many you could sell if you actually built a platform to sell more books and develop a dedicated fan base.

The formula for selling on social media is “you have to earn the right to sell.” You do that by producing entertaining, helpful content that shows people you care more about them than you do about selling books. It doesn’t matter if you write fiction or nonfiction, this is still the formula.

What can you do to bust some of these myths in your own social media today? Share your thoughts in a comment below!