Tuesday 27 January 2015


Are you using social networks wrong?

Statistically speaking, people only read the first few lines of anything they see on the internet. So if you’re preparing to bail on us in a second, here’s the message. Social networks are for content delivery, not content creation. This is so important that I’m going to repeat it in shouty letters. CONTENT DELIVERY, NOT CONTENT CREATION.
Ok, so if you’re hanging in there and want to know more, here we go. People can use social networks however they please. Photos of you and your cat wearing matching sweaters? Sure. A daily list of everything you ate? Go nuts.


But you’re a business (yes, authors are businesses), and that means that a social network is a a very different tool with very different goals than if you’re just posting for your friends or for social validation.
As a business, social networks are one side of a marketing coin. On the other side is the great content you should be creating on blogs, websites, guest-posts, podcasts… well, it’s a long list.
The point is this, though. Those two activities, creating content and sharing it, are two separate things. So here’s the strategy: Create great non-book content in places where it can live indefinitely, and then spread the word on social networks as they come and go.
If you’re in it for the long haul, here are a few reasons why this is they way to go:
Flexibility - you can move between social networks as some become popular and others fade
Diversity - you’re able to place equally good content in a lot of places efficiently
Discoverability - the broader your presence across the web, the more likely it is people will find you.
What about those days when you don’t have a fresh, hot new blog post to share? spend your time sharing great content from other places that your readers will like, and respond to your audience.
If you want to know more about that, it’s what we call the 1:5 ratio, and you can find a post about it 

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