I'll be honest with you, I hate dealing with social media in regards to my business. I would far rather be writing, completing a book or beginning a new one. After all, it's the product I want people to see, not my online persona.
But alas, I must build my platform online in order for my books to have any chance to be noticed. Connecting through social media goes far further today than advertisements, especially in the book world. And so I set about having an online presence on several networks. At first it was chaotic and scattered. I did it when I could, but in doing this I would put it off, forget to do it, or do something that was half-assed. I often entered conversations and disappeared from them.
I had to make a plan that would be effective. The biggest obstacle for me is the way I work. I'm the sort of person who can sit down and concentrate on one project for hours and hours. If I stop, getting back into it takes a huge amount of time and makes the process very inefficient. So I finally settled on one day a week in which I would work on social media, Sunday. I created a list and go down it. The most important things are at the top, and the priority list drops the further you go down the list. It's too long a list for right now. Perhaps I'll put it up another day. But here's the gist of it:
Blogger: I write the blog. Today, it's this one. I do this first because it has to be kept up each week. I then put the link to the blog on the connected Google + page, the Twitter feed, and a Facebook group I created called Bandwagon Books. I also place it on my Goodreads blog, and occasionally try to put it on Reddit.
Scan social media networks: I then go through my various social media networks to see what everyone else is talking about, and I respond to them. It's important to not always be about yourself, so I go in and find things people are talking about and only talk about them, not about myself. If they're interested in me, they'll come check me out.
Update projects: I then go into each major project and upkeep the social media and websites for them. This includes blog posts, connections I've made, and groups I've joined.
Lately, I've discovered one major flaw. I've been doing this all under Bandwagon Books. The reason I did this was to keep my business separate from my personal life and other projects. I wanted to keep my own name free to post about various things. However, it's recently become clear that people are looking up authors when they like their work. They're not going to look up Bandwagon Books so much as they're going to look up Jeff McArthur.
Therefore, I'm going to have to post as myself. I don't want to drop this blog nor anything associated with Bandwagon Books because I think it's a good way to make a distinction that I'm writing about publishing. So what I'm going to do instead is do the same blog as myself and as Bandwagon Books. That way I'm posting in both places without overworking myself. (Spreading myself more thin is the last thing I need.) So if you see this blog post up twice, it's because I'm putting it in both places. Every now and then I'm sure I'll have separate things to post, but most of the time, it's up there both times so one can find me either as an independent publisher or as an author.
I'll probably be connecting with people more as myself, too, but I haven't figured that one out completely yet. Bandwagon Books sounds more like an authority figure, and you know what it's about just by its title. However, it's good to get my name out there. So that might wind up being double the work. I'll let you know how it goes.
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