Tactical Social Media for Writers, Authors, and Book Publishers. Shannon Bodie, Willamette Writers Conference 2014, Social Media Engagement for writers.

2. YOUR STRATEGY
1. GENRE/AUDIENCE: Understanding your
audience is key to planning your social media
strategy and goals.
2. TIME INVESTMENT: The time needed
depends on your goals as a writer and your
audience. Is your audience one that demands
a lot of engagement (entertainment, or youth)?
Can you hire out tasks that do not require your
brand and personality for authenticity?
3. USE ANALYTICS/ADJUST AS NEEDED:
To understand if your efforts are truly growing a
following or selling books, you need to use
analytics. Then try new options and adjust
based on what you learn. This process helps you
find new opportunities and eases stress
wondering about results.

3. WRITER SURVEY
Survey of
over 20
successful
writers on
their social
media use
First, learn where
your audience
engages: on
social media,
on blogs, on
the web.

4. WRITER SURVEY
Survey of
over 20
successful
writers on
their social
media use

5. WRITER SURVEY
L.Y. MARLOW
Award-winning
Author and Founder
Saving Promise
Broadway Books, 2010
(Random House). L.Y. started
the Saving Promise movement
to end domestic violence
based on her award-winning
book, Color Me Butterfly.
ColorMeButterfly.com
GENRE/AUDIENCE: Fiction, Women, Family Relationships
10 HOURS PER WEEK ON SOCIAL MEDIA: L.Y. feels she does
not have enough time to use her social media, but she enjoys
the time spent. She also feels it supports her career as a writer
and that it is helping to build her following. (ALL DIY)
Post often and be kind, honest, but not too
personal. Draw a line. I have found tweeting
during the airing of a TV series has an interesting
real time, moment-to-moment reality to it.
Broadway
Books, April 2014
(Random House).

6. DEMOGRAPHICS
Slightly more
women than
men, mostly
ages 18 to 49,
but a growing
audience from
50 and up.
Similar across
education
and income
brackets.

7. USE BY ADULTS
• Use by ages 50
to 65 and over
has increased
sharply.

8. DEMOGRAPHICS

9. USE FREQUENCY

10. YOUR TOOLBOX
Once you have
strong engagement in
one channel, see if
there is a another
channel your target
audience uses. Then
test content to see if
you can increase
engagement.

11. USE ON MOBILE
• Make sure your blog and
web site are
responsive/mobile ready
• Social media channels keep
their technology current and
compatible, you will need to
check your site. View on
multiple mobile
devices/browsers, and/or
use browser and device
testing:
crossbrowsertesting.com,
browserstack.com
• Short content is better
for demographics who
consume content on mobile.
Try breaking longer posts
into 2 parts or a series.
• Pictures/video also work well
on mobile.

12. BROWSERS &
DEVICES
Test multiple browsers,
readers, and mobile
devices. Through screen
shots and live testing,
both services have free
trial levels:
crossbrowsertesting.com
browserstack.com

13. FACEBOOK
• 71% of online adults
now use Facebook
• Usage among seniors
up significantly in
the last year
• 45% of internet users
age 65 or older now
use Facebook, up
from 35% who did so
in late 2012
• Women are more
likely to use Facebook

14. FACEBOOK
You can use an app
to sell your book on
Facebook. This app by
Random House on LY
Marlow’s page, includes
a feature to tab between
books, the reader guides
and synopsis. Also a
menu to filter for purchase
by retailer and format.

15. FACEBOOK
• Sell your book directly
from your Facebook
page. This page uses
a free level of StoreYa.
• Include apps for other
social channels in
your tabs, Pinterest
and GoodReads are
shown in the apps
widget and are
placed in the page
tabs.

16. FACEBOOK
Boosting your post, turns
the post into a mini ad,
to the people that like
you and their friends.
Facebook allows you
to narrow this down
and target, by certain
demographics.
The more you pay the
wider your reach, so
you can experiment.
You can review your
effectiveness, then
adjust the next boost
using Insights.

17. WRITER SURVEY
Women and Hollywood, one of the
most respected sites for issues related to women and
film as well as other areas of pop culture. Women
and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates
for gender parity across the entertainment industry.
In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing a
compilation of over 40 interviews that have
appeared on the site.
I wish I’d known before I started blogging,
how much work it is to keep a brand going
and to keep people interested in what you
have to say. Be authentic.
.
MELISSA SILVERSTEIN
Blogger and founder
Women and Hollywood
blogs.indiewire.com/wo
menandhollywood/
GENRE/AUDIENCE: Film Industry/Women/Media
“WAY TOO MANY/OVER 4 HOURS PER WEEK: Melissa feels
she has enough time to use social media well, and really enjoys
the time spent. She strongly agrees her time spent supports her
career as a writer. (All DIY)

18. TWITTER
• 18% of online
adults currently
use Twitter
• Twitter use is
particularly high
among younger
adults and African-
Americans

19. TWITTER
• Use a scheduler for
sending tweets:
write once, tweet
multiple times a
day (Buffer,
Hootsuite)
• Tweet images and
video (Vine)
• You can tweet your
posts too

20. TWITTER - HASHTAGS
• Anyone can create a
hashtag, capital
letters do not matter,
but do not use spaces
• Good form is no more
than 2 per tweet

21. WRITER SURVEY
1) Do only what you enjoy, because it shows if
you don’t. 2) Choose a channel that works for
you and do it well. Better to do one well than
spread yourself too thin.
.
CLAIRE CAMERON
Award-winning Author,
Freelance for Publishers
Claire-Cameron.com
THE LINE PAINTER,
2007, HarperCollins
Canada. Won the
Northern Lit Award
and was nominated
for an Arthur Ellis
Crime Writing Award
for best first novel.
THE BEAR, is published
Little Brown & Co in the
US, Random House in
Canada and Harvill
Secker in the UK.
GENRE/AUDIENCE: Fiction/Media/Readers
3 – 4 HOURS PER WEEK ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Claire feels she
has enough time to use social media well, and really enjoys the
time spent. (All DIY)

22. INSTAGRAM
• 17% of online adults
use Instagram, up from
13% in late 2012.
• Instagram use by ages
18-29 has increased
from 28% in late 2012
to 37% in 2013, and
African American
users has increased
from 23% to 34% over
the same time period.
• Instagram was
acquired by Facebook
in April 2012.

23. INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a
great place for
showing some
personality and
creativity.
Could be
anything from
inspirational
images to
family fun.
Images in
header can
rotate for
movement.

24. INSTAGRAM
I enjoy how this
author, Claire
Cameron,
mixes in more
personal shots
with her book
images.

25. LINKEDIN
• 22% of online adults are
LinkedIn users
• LinkedIn usage is
especially high among
people with a college
degree or higher, with an
annual household income
of $75,000 or more.
• The only social
networking site PEW
measured where usage
among 50-64 year olds is
higher than usage among
ages 18-29
• Great option for
professional and business
authors.

26. PINTEREST
• 21% of adults use Pinterest,
up from the 15% who did so
in December 2012.
• Women continue to
dominate the site: fully
33% of online women are
Pinterest users, compared
to just 8% of men.
• Pinterest users skew slightly
towards the affluent side –
those in the highest income
bracket are more likely to
use, with a college degree
or higher.
(I think this will be much higher
in 2014 data.)

27. PINTEREST
• Pin your blog posts
• Pin your books, you
can sell directly from
Pinterest
• Create boards around
concepts of your
characters, settings
from your books, or
costume styles, what
your characters
favorite menu might
be, etc. Have fun and
explore!
• Use widgets of boards
on your blog/web site

28. Pin a board
widget in the
sidebar of your
website.
This author,
Andrea
Pflaumer, started
writing about her
Pins & Boards in
her posts, linking
directly to them
to build even
more visual
engagement.

29. GOODREADS
GoodReads offers
free author support
and tips, you can run
book giveaways and
feature your social
media, site and blog
on your author page.
You can run ads
targeted to your
audience.

30. GOODREADS
GoodReads offers
free author support
and tips, on how to
build your author
page, including your
blog posts.

31. GOODREADS
This book giveaway
helped to add to
over 430 “marked as
to-read” on
book/author page.

32. RSS
• Use links in your post
feed or e-newsletters
to bring readers to
your social media
pages. Don’t forget a
button to buy your
book too.
• I recommend
MailChimp. You can
include share buttons,
images, video, and
links to other posts to
increase engagement.

33. RSS
• The Secret Book Club
(thesecretbookclub.org),
uses video and fun images
for their youth and family
audience.

34. ANALYTICS
Survey of
over 20
successful
writers on
their social
media use

35. ANALYTICS
Bitly is a great tool: you can create short, customized urls
and then gather analytics on the links as they are used.

36. ANALYTICS

37. ANALYTICS
You can use the “starter” level of Hootsuite for free.

38. ANALYTICS
Login to admin
area of your
account. Look
for upper
menu
“Insights” tab.

39. ANALYTICS
Information
about how your
audience
engages with
your page is
tracked over
time.

40. ANALYTICS
Track key
measurements,
such as Likes,
Reach, Visits,
Posts, and
People to
stay more
connected
with how your
audience
engages with
your content.

41. ANALYTICS
You can set
benchmarks to
ensure your
posts are on
track.

42. ANALYTICS
Google
Analytics is
free, but you
need to signup
for an account,
then install the
tracking code
on your site.

43. ANALYTICS
Google Analytics
is free, but you
need to install the
tracking code on
your site, to each
page you want to
track.
If you use
Wordpress.org
many themes
have a special
area to add the
code that covers
the entire site.

44. ANALYTICS
Google
Analytics
provides an
in-depth look
at how your
audience uses
your site.
Dashboard,
shows key
measurements
including:
demographics,
interests, geo,
behavior and
technology.

45. ANALYTICS
Information
about the
traffic to
your site is
collected by
Google and
organized into
charts and
tables that
help you keep
on top of
your site’s
effectiveness.

46. ANALYTICS
Up-to-date
information
about how
your audience
uses your site
which helps
you to know
what’s working
and what isn’t.
View most
popular pages
and traffic flow.
Check for any
urls that had FB
post boosts.

47. ANALYTICS
View most
popular pages
and traffic flow.
Check the Social
Sources for
referrals from
your social
media channels.

48. ANALYTICS
Each key
measurement
can be drilled
down from
site-wide
usage to
individual
pages. You
can set goals
on these key
measurements
to track over
time.

49. LEARN ANALYTICS

50. LEARN ANALYTICS

51. THANK YOU
To all the writers that shared their
time and advice for this course.
This presentation was prepared for the
Willamette Writers Conference 2014.
If you have any questions please contact:
Shannon@BookWiseDesign.com