{"id":13099,"date":"2015-10-28T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T20:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisatener.local\/?p=13099"},"modified":"2024-09-30T08:58:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T12:58:44","slug":"5-fresh-ways-successful-authors-use-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2015\/10\/5-fresh-ways-successful-authors-use-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Fresh Ways Successful Authors Use Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Be Creative and Spontaneous With Video<\/h2>\n
\"kimber
Kimber Simpkins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Kimber Simpkins<\/strong> went out to shoot her book trailer, she hit the road with questions and an openness to what might occur as she interviewed “women on the street” about how they felt about their bodies. She didn’t exactly start with their bodies, however. Her opening question was, “Does this dress make me look fat?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

The resulting video about body image went viral on social media and was picked up by Self.com and the Huffington Post. Here, Kimber offers her experience and advice.<\/p>\n

I had an idea for a funny and provocative video percolating in the back of my head for several years. When my publisher asked me to make a book trailer for Full, I realized it was time to bring the idea to life.<\/p>\n

I’d never done anything like this, so it was a big deal for me… I had to write up a script, lasso a few friends to help out, hire a camera person and an editor, and get everyone to show up on the same day in the same place.<\/p>\n

We had no idea what would happen, because the ‘script’ was just a series of questions to ask ‘women on the street’ about body image.<\/p>\n

We’d scheduled four hours to shoot and hoped we’d get some good answers that we could edit into a 3 minute video. We probably asked about ten women to be interviewed for each one who was willing to appear on camera, so it involved a lot of leg work: approaching total strangers with a smile and shrugging off rejections with, ‘Have a great day!’<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
The publisher New Harbinger contacted the author directly after she self published.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the end of the day I was amazed at how thoughtful and wise the women we talked to were. We had a ton of great footage, and luckily our editor did a fantastic job putting it all together and adding music to create an ‘I laughed\/I cried’ video.<\/p>\n

A couple of things that happened behind the scenes, were that I had an eating disorders therapist friend there to debrief everyone who was interviewed, and passed out educational information about eating disorders and negative body talk. I knew we were going to trigger people and wanted folks to have a chance to talk about it if they needed to.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of what made the video footage work on the first try was that we chose a great location, with lots of women walking around on the weekend in a busy beautiful area of Oakland, a city where people are known for speaking their minds.<\/p>\n

We posted it on Facebook and on my YouTube channel and my publisher’s publicist sent it out to places she thought would be interested. It was picked up by both Self.com and Huffington Post. We also paid a bit to promote it on YouTube.<\/p>\n

I shared it on Facebook and asked folks to tell their friends about it. Sharing it on social media, it’s good to keep posting repeatedly for a week or so, so it keeps showing up in people’s feeds. I also shared it via my email list. Body image is a hot topic right now and that\u2014combined with the emotional content of the video\u2014made it compelling for people to watch and share.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Quiz ’em<\/h2>\n
\"Rusty
Rusty Shelton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People love to take quizzes! Rusty Shelton<\/strong>, Digital Media Strategist<\/a> and co-author of the forthcoming book Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset<\/em>, has encouraged several of his clients to offer a free quiz as a way to attract new visitors to a website and immediately engage them. It’s also a great way to build your mailing list. You can offer the quiz on your website and mention it on social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as in your blog posts.<\/p>\n

\"book<\/a>Says Rusty, “The name of the game right now for authors and thought leaders is growing your email list so that you own the connection to your audience. Creating a magnet on your website gives people a reason to visit\u2014and engage.”<\/p>\n

\"author
Dr. Craig Malkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Quizzes seem to be a particularly effective “magnet”: More than 50,000 people have taken Dr. Craig Malkin<\/strong>‘s Narcissism Test<\/a>. And more than 150,000 people have taken The Confidence Code Quiz. Check them out and think about what you can do for your own.<\/p>\n

3. Subscribe to Relevant Blogs\/Bloggers and Comment Immediately on Hot Posts.<\/h2>\n
\"Victoria
Dr. Victoria Dunckley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I saw a post on banning handheld devices for children<\/a> under 12 on the Huffington Post, I had a feeling it could go viral. I emailed Dr. Victoria Dunckley<\/strong>, author of Reset Your Child’s Brain<\/em> and encouraged her to respond immediately so that her comment would be an early one\u2014a comment that added relevant information and linked to her latest Psychology Today<\/em> article<\/a> within the comment. She received nearly 20,000 hits to the article due to viral Facebook activity and her single comment had nearly 100 replies just to that one comment.<\/p>\n

\"Reset<\/a>The original Huffpo article received more than 1 million views, and over 300k likes on Facebook. While Dr. Dunckley’s book wasn’t out yet, many of the people who responded become followers of her blog and joined her mailing list, supporting book sales later. The single comment also resulted in three media interviews: Scholastic News<\/em>, a publication that goes out to over 3 million children ages 10-12 about screen-time effects on the brain, A PBS Magazine publication in New Mexico on Electronic Screen Syndrome<\/a>, and The Carlat Report, a child psychiatry newsletter on childhood obesity\u2013which Dr. Dunckley tied into screen-time reduction.<\/p>\n

The Huffpost comment also put Dr. Dunckley in contact with experts in her field throughout the nation who are now helping spread the word about her book. Some have even invited her for high profile speaking gigs. This one comment was the gift that kept on giving.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”Some keys to successful social media commenting are…”]<\/p>\n