Video #2: Sharing Your Magnet for Free with Social Media
Letting the World Know
Once you’ve got your landing page, freebie, and automation set up, there’s still more work to do.
The best way to realize the rewards of all your hard labor is to make sure people know about your list. Some are tempted at this time to dive right into ads, but a simpler and more affordable approach is to share your list for free.
Every reader that you’ve ever gathered on any social media site needs to be moved over to your list. This means that you’ll have to tastefully, but frequently, make it clear that you have a wonderful offer that relevant readers should utilize.
Here’s What You’ll Learn
- How to place yourself in the best social media opportunities for your readership
- How to get over the feeling that you’re “spamming” when you post about your list
- The types of posts you can share to get the word out about your freebie and your books in general
Here’s What You’ll Need
- Enough time to watch the video and do the homework
- A willingness to participate in the group and share your work
- An openness to get slightly out of your comfort zone to help readers find you
Where Are Your Readers?
This is a question that many authors rarely ask themselves, even though it may be one of the most important queries.
One of the reasons you don’t have to be on Every Platform is because one of the social media sites probably has a higher percentage of your readers. It’s a good idea to think about, and then research where these folks spend their time and where they connect with friends.
For example, Facebook has a lot of older readers and TikTok has younger readers, but your genre (especially YA) may have a lot more older readers than you think. Remember to consider who is buying the books (i.e. children’s books are purchased by parents, friends, and grandparents).
Does It Bring You Joy?
After doing some digging into where your readers hang out, then it’s time to think about whether or not you like the platform. Much like trying to get my five-year-old to eat vegetables, I suggest the “three bite rule” of testing each platform.
Do you like spending time on the platform and do you enjoy creating the content that goes into it? Are you more of a text, image, or video person? Do any of the platforms cause you more stress than others? While you may have to do some things in publishing that you don’t enjoy doing, you should never be subjected to a platform you hate or that causes you to be mentally unwell.
Picking Your Platform
Factoring in where your readers are and what you enjoy, you’ll want to plant your flag into the sand of one of the sites. Even if you’ve already got an established platform, it’s important to ensure your link is everywhere (profiles, bios, pinned posts, Call to Action buttons, etc.).
Social media is a great place to connect with readers, but it’s poor form to share your link in groups or directly with readers without permission. You’re allowed to post about your offer to get a freebie as much as you want, and it’s possible to do it in creative ways. But first, it’s likely a good idea to research and connect with people just to be friendly and not worry about your offer in the very beginning.
Spamming vs. Informing
You want to make sure your existing and new followers see your freebie offer on a regular basis, but it’s frowned upon to just copy and paste the same thing over and over again. Much like with our emails, we want to have components of a story, an offer, and a question in some of our social media posts as well. People like following you on social media if you entertain or inform. So as long as you can reframe your offer in fun or educational ways, you can post and get traction on your offer multiple times per week.
This means you have to get creative with how you share your landing page so that your potential readers continue to pay attention.
Types of Posts, Part 1
Simple Posts: There’s nothing wrong with a hook and a Call to Action that conveys the benefit of your offer and how to get it.
Cliffhanger Posts: You can set up your readers with some info from your freebie but leave something out so they have to download to learn the answer.
Colorful Posts: Using posts that are pretty or easy to read (like a FB color background post) can grab attention and get readers clicking.
Meme Posts: You don’t have to be funny all the time to get readers, but using a silly customized meme can get more reactions, attention, and clicks.
Poll Posts: Readers love to vote on things and if your poll is related to your genre or your freebie, so much the better.
Types of Posts, Part 2
Character Posts: Using a character from your book or simply the POV of anyone other than you can help inject humor or make readers feel like it isn’t you asking for something.
Review Posts: Even when sharing your freebie, there’s nothing wrong with sharing a quote from a five-star review of your books.
Giveaway Posts: These should be done infrequently, but every so often having an incentive for folks to comment or share can certainly boost your engagement.
Personal Posts: Tapping into the same energy as the stories from your emails can have readers scrolling all the way to the end and making a deeper connection with you.
Support Posts: It’s OK to ask for your readers to support you and your author dream by connecting with you via email, and that may be the thing that gets some readers to join.
Scheduling is Your Best Friend
Because social media can be a time suck, it’s a good idea to plan ahead as best as you can. In nearly all of the platforms, there is a way to either schedule your posts ahead of time or at the least have a “draft” ready to go. You need to consider yourself an assembly line of content by creating the posts in bulk, scheduling them in bulk, and posting them (or preparing them to post) in bulk.
This has been one of the most important changes I’ve made to improve my efficiency and make it seem like “I’m posting all of the time.” I’ve sometimes scheduled a month’s worth of posts this way and it’s saved me both time and energy.
You Deserve to Share This
There’s a lot of mental baggage to deal with when you’re out in the world sharing your offer.
You may wonder if you’re good enough, or if people want anything to do with you. Once you’ve written something to post, all you need is 30 seconds of confidence to take a deep breath and post it.
At first, you’ll need to gather up all the courage you can to even click the button, and while the fear never goes away, it becomes easier over time. Please remember that you deserve to share this offer and to get more readers to find out about you and your books.
Overcome Your Obscurity
In the book, The 10X Rule, Grant Cardone discusses how the #1 problem of any business is obscurity (people not knowing who you are). This is our biggest challenge as an author and one of the best ways to tackle it is by spreading the word far and wide about our email list offer. Sometimes the difference between $10 a month in sales and $100 a month in sales is just a few dozen more people knowing who you are.
Spread the word on a regular basis using the tactics in today’s video and you’ll be able to see more signups in less time. Remember that you are providing a great service of entertainment or education and these people will be happier and/or healthier because they read your book
Video #2 Homework Option #1
- If you don’t currently have or use an author social media account, then use today’s video to select the platform you want to use.
- Create an author account on that platform and update your profile and bio.
- Share an introduction post about yourself on your new account.
- Let us know what platform you chose and why in a new post in the Email Challenge Group with the hashtag #EmailVid2.
- Please make sure to comment on another author’s homework post with a virtual high five.
Video #2 Homework Option #2
- If you do already have a social media platform you’ve decided on, update your author bio and other information to include a link to your landing page.
- Share one of the post types we mentioned in today’s video as a new post to your account.
- In our Challenge Facebook Group, describe which platform you use and why with the hashtag #EmailVid2.
- Please make sure to also comment on another challenger’s post to encourage them and keep the party going.
Video #2 Extra Credit
- Using the platform’s scheduling or drafting tool, create a second post that you plan on sending over the weekend or early next week.
- Make sure to include a strong Call to Action to join your list, if appropriate, for the post you’re making.
- Take a screenshot of the post you plan to send and post it with your commentary in the Email Challenge Group with the hashtag #EmailVid2EC.
- Please do be sure to comment on another author’s extra credit post to let them know they’re doing a great job.
In The Next Video
We’re going to tap into another essential “free” space for authors like you to get readers to your list. By optimizing your back matter at the end of your book, you can get readers to buy your next title AND join your list. This has been one of the keys to success for many full-time authors and we’ll share the ways to get it right in the next video.
Thanks so much for being a part of the Challenge!
Sincerely,
Bryan and the Email Krewe