I said I’d share a few marketing secrets with you as we created and released and sold and marketed – continue to market – our scary anthology. This is the next installment.
Here’s another marketing tip.
I have a Facebook author page. From there I can boost posts and create ads, but I can get a lot of free marketing, too.
Take this example.
A few days ago, knowing I had a book coming out, I shared a popular image from a funny website. I put it on my persona FB page and my FB author page, and when I shared it, I marked both posts “public.”
That silly meme has gotten lots of people to comment. I’m not sure why. It’s harmless and fun, but when they see their friends reply, it makes it seem okay for them to reply.
It’s also a little naughty, and I posted it on a Friday night, so maybe people already were at happy your when they saw it…
People do what other people are doing.
(Remember that. It’s called the empty restaurant theory in my free marketing book.)
But that silly meme gets them seeing my page and sharing the post with their friends, so the friends might also see my page as a result.
If people engage with your page, FB keeps your posts more on their radar screen.
If they don’t engage, FB lets you drift into the distance.
By commenting on the silly underwear post, they were now much more engaged,
so when my book posts come out, more of them are seeing it organically.
By the way, I commented on each of the first 100 or so replies – just something simple like “That’s a good one!” or “Nice!”, and liked every one of the 200+ it’s gotten. Because engagement works both ways.
It took less than 30 seconds to post/share the original meme, and about 15 minutes over 3 days to reply to all the comments.
(From my phone, during commercials while I was on the couch watching TV.) That’s cheap interaction that might sell me a few books, but even if it only sells one, it’s only a few minutes and I might gain a reader for life. (It’s not like the commercials are something I wanna watch.)
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Totally worth it – and free!
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9500 people reached
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200+ comments
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All for free.
You should do stuff like that on occasion. Like right before you have a book come out.
Oh, and save the meme.
It’ll work again in six months when your next book is coming out.
While you’re here…
Dan Alatorre 