What's the perfect social media platform for my business book

This is a question I am always asked by business people who are thinking about writing their book, are half way through a book or, in some instances, have published it and are not sure what to do or where.

The first thing I discuss with people is what they mean by social media? Most respond by saying, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and perhaps LinkedIn. Yes, these are all social media channels but there’s literally hundreds of other general social media channels and then a whole bunch of industry specific channels, and I’d also include mainstream media outlets as a form of social media.

For me, the term social media means any form of targeted engagement or advertising and this includes traditional media channels such as magazines, radio, television, billboards, the sides of buses . . . everything.

Then, there’s really targeted social media such as Podcasts, Influencer marketing, YouTube, SlideShare and so on.

The short answer is that there’s no perfect social media platform for books.

The most important thing to understand about marketing your book through social media channels is that you have to have a clear understanding of your target audience and you need to engage them on the social media and other channels that they are on. To do this you need to be really clear about who your target audience is and spend some time researching where they are going for information, advice, knowledge and engagement. This is where you need to be seen and be engaging.

Just because there are lots of options/channels/platforms available doesn’t mean you need to be engaged on all of them, or the main ones even. And, you probably don’t have the time and/or money to spend covering too many, so the real art of leveraging social media to market your book, your brand and you is to be really selective about what platforms/options you are going to engage and then engage seriously and consistently.

It’s hard work creating content and leveraging across a range of social media platforms so you need to pick the ones that are likely to give you the best exposure and that you’re going to enjoy engaging with otherwise you won’t do it for very long. And the BIG KILLER is social media is longevity and consistency.

Here’s five tips to working out what social media platforms might work for you and how to engage them – this of course is directed to those writing business book.

1. What industry associations and organisations do your target audiences belong to?
2. What magazines (print and online) does your target audience subscribe to and engage with?
3. Is your target audience on LinkedIn as individuals or as part of a LinkedIn Group, and if the latter what groups?
4. When does your target audience have the time to seek out knowledge and advice and how do they acquire it. I.e. are they reading books, downloading eBooks, listening to Podcast of Influencers, watching short videos? You need to work this out.
5. What major events, conferences, Masterclasses are coming up over the next 12 months in your area?
6. Which speakers agencies represent people from your industry area (or not)?

If you do nothing else, working through each of these questions and taking the time to research the answers properly will give you a significant insight into what social media and other channels you should be with, what type of content you should be delivering (i.e. repurposing your book content) and how you should be delivering it.

It will also help you to map out a 12-month program for your targeted social media so that it has a strong and consistent theme and messages, reinforces your content across the various channels and, most importantly guides you (or someone you contract to help you) actually deliver your content across your selected social media and other marketing channels.

There’s not short-cut to marketing your book across social media but the above 6 points will help you focus on which social media and other channels will deliver the best return, exposure and book sales.

And, it’s critical that you’re social . . .  that you engage in conversations – that you are social. Otherwise you’re in danger of becoming just like all those automated content marketing, sales pitches that we all get and don’t even look at. Don’t get me wrong a bit of automation in your social media and marketing activities is a good thing. But nothing beats personal interaction and engaging people. Let’s face it most of us are ‘real people’ and most of us want to actually engage.

If all of this sounds more like a chasm too far and too deep this is one of the areas we cover at some length in The Book Adviser program and, we cover it quite early on as it’s critical to know and understand your target audience, their challenges, where they are going to get knowledge and insight to solve their challenges. If you get this right you’re way ahead of most business book writers. Contact us if you’d like to know more, just Click here.