Social Media Posting Gets Authors Free Book Publicity

Authors use social media posting to get free book publicity and to market books and products they sell online.

Samuel E. Washington
& Sunny Nash
with Sunny's book,
Bigmama Didn't Shop
At Woolworth's

Now that you've written the book, learn to use social media posting to market your book online. Social media posting is the new, next big thing to get free book publicity.

Your friends will support your literary efforts and tell their friends to invite you to speak to their groups who will tell their friends about you and your book and so on and so on. 

Sound good? 

Turn email address books, organizational membership lists and business cards into a social media posting potential and followers. And business cards are not dead! Business cards are piling up as fast as ever in these times of technology.

Learn business card storage and use 

in this era of high technology.

I'm not claiming to have so many friends, fans, followers, subscribers and members that I will never have to hustle another book sale. I'm always looking for the next singular book sale and methods of multiple book sales. But I have terrific people in my life who have become part of my social media network and have helped me in numerous ways, including showing and telling to market the book I sell online. People like Samuel Washington, philanthropist and businessman, who invited me to speak to his group, and Carolyn Smith Watts, who introduced me to Sam, led to book sales, and editorial and production contracts, such as BREAKING THROUGH Lighting the Way.

Martin Luther King
Leads Montgomery Improvement Association Meeting
Rosa Parks, center front

I use social media posting to sell my book, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's, chosen by the Association of American University Presses for its value in understanding U.S. race relations, allowing me to create a theme. I can write about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the Woolworth's sit-ins and other topics of the Jim Crow era, as well as current issues and news. Within my social media networks, I form groups and communicate with each group according to the interest they share with me. I market my books, services, products and announce my blogs and articles.

Had Rosa Parks owned a cellphone or had access to social media that day on the bus, the Montgomery Bus Boycott would have gone viral in an instant.

Plug Your Book!:
Online Book Marketing for Authors

Get Free Publicity for Books You Sell Online

Before you buy a cheap new laptop and jump into social media posting to claim your free book publicity, you need have a theme. And before you try to sell online, you need to know about formatting your writing for standard print and online submissions.

Today, web presence and online content through social media posting can help you attract a target audience and start building a plan for social media marketing in the same way personal and professional relationships did in the past, when most authors' careers depended on word-of-mouth for free book publicity and printed promotions and flyers. 

However, with web-based communications being more widely utilized today, the friendship concept is still in play with social media networks using the term, 'friends.' Web content includes social media, forums,  newsletters, Internet press releases, online articles, blogs and other means of Internet communications. These services make advertising more affordable.for video producers and writers of all kinds.

One of the best things about about getting free book publicity using social media posting and marketing is the technology IS free. Be aware, they do sell things and ask your participation in promotional programs, but you are not obligated to purchase them unless you want to. As an author, I find that the free resources are plentiful enough to keep me busy selling. It's up to you, though. Get a decent digital camera and take a picture of your book or a scanner to produce an image to upload to your social media.

LIST OF AUTHORS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT THE JC CAFE

Authors depend on the Internet to get free book publicity and advertising for their public speaking engagements. In order to capitalize fully on these free tools, we need to create a web presence by writing web content in the forms of mini blogs, micro blogs, interest groups, forums Internet press releases, online articles and other web copy. Creating a web presence can be as simple as joining a social media network to developing a website or blog. There is a vast amount of virtual real estate in between, including other crowds vying to waste your time and get you to spend your money.



FaceBook (FB) is a large social media posting network around with more than one-half billion users, called 'friends,' a loose use of the term, 'friend,' in my opinion. However, FaceBook is a resources that can be used to get free book publicity. It is an easy platform to use and allows you to create pages for your books. The pages you can easily share on your blogs and websites.

According to Definitions Online, “Friendship is the cooperative and supportive relationship between people, or animals. In this sense, the term (friend) connotes a relationship, which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis.” According to Wikipedia, “The Roman philosopher Cicero believed that in order to have a true friendship with someone, one must have complete honesty, truth, and trust. He also thought that friends would do things for each other without expectation of repayment.”

Friendship Quote by Muhammad Ali

Well, I rest my case about the loose use of the term, 'friend,' although Facebook made a wise choice. Without thinking about what it really means to be or to have a friend, people trust the word, friend. which is a dubious designation, in that, names on 'friend' lists represent, in some instances, no more than a collection of virtual acquaintances met over the Internet. But like Facebook, friendship is free, or a least, it should be if it is truly friendship. 

Sunny Nash on FaceBook

I am not picking on Facebook or those who invented or use it or singling it out for negatives. I am using Facebook and other social media networks more and more for the benefits of social media networking and marketing. Social media networks have positive measurable value and free book publicity for those using them.

The dangers in using social media are being discovered daily. 

Usually the dangers of using social media are revealed after someone has been harmed. 

Use all social media posting with extreme care. There are many social media sites being created now that the market is figuring out how to commercialize and make a profit off of them. I use FaceBook as the example because it is so large and so well known by all, including a paltry few folks who don't use it but know enough about it to decline. FB is a social media site allowing people to declare themselves ‘friends’ and to communicate through a status post, message, update, link, photograph, YouTube ads or share buttons all sorts of important and trivial information about news, trends, thoughts and sometimes just plain nonsense. I love it!

Facebook and other social media posting networks are tiny personal blogs that are meant to keep your friends up to date about anything, on which you want them up to date. Those things include what's on your mind; what you are doing; what are you planning to do; where you are going; where are you planning to go? Anything! However, there is debate over the issue of privacy within these sites that are telling you to relax and enjoy. Don't worry about what we know about you and what we intend to do with what we know about you.

Be careful about how personal you get out there on your social media networks. Anyone can see the stuff you share, unless you enable certain privacy settings. And, as you have probably heard or read, once posted, this stuff is out there forever. Now, everybody knows and so will everybody in the future, including parents, children, potential spouses, and future professors and bosses--everybody for all time to come.

Sunny Nash on Linkedin

Linkedin is the world's largest professional social media posting network, boasting more than 100 million members and representing more than 200 countries around the world. I like Linkedin because it's not personal. It is a social media site that is meant for professional and company profiles. There is no better way to get free book publicity than this type of format and exposure.

You've heard the stories about how someone didn't get a job they interviewed for because the company checked Facebook and found all those half-naked party pictures. That is not the kind of web presence most authors can really use, unless your name is...well you know who they are and they can't write anyway.

Authors can use Facebook to market books and services, not in a sleazy or hard-sell way, though. Be gentle. The people on your friends' list are real people, not to be treated like your open bank account. 'Friends' won't let you treat them like that. If they think you're attempting to exploit your relationships with them, they will turn you off,  remove your posts and may un-friend you.

You know that little button at the bottom of the list of the 'friends' list? There have been occasions in my own life long before Facebook that I could have used a de-friend button on people I felt didn't come through for me when I really needed them. So, approach with caution when asking your social followers for favors. You don't know most of these people and you don't have any idea what the payback for that favor may entail.

One effective use of Facebook and some other social media networks is video. Most of my friends don't use this option for their own productions. They use it to share videos they found on websites such as YouTube. As an author, you can produce a video book trailer to place on your profile under the video section, excellent for showcasing your book. Learn more about Authors Making Money.

So, do not forget about the video websites and communities like YouTube (my channel) to get free book publicity through social media marketing. A book trailer, a device borrowed from the motion picture industry, can result in sales. I have made several video book trailers of Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's for different websites and uses. Video book trailers, a truly hot advertising tool among authors and publishers. Many authors expose and sell their books through video book trailers if they can find the right hook.

The hook I chose for my book is race relations because of the designation by the Association of American University Presses as a tool for understanding race relations in the United States. My book covers the period of the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Sunny Nash on Twitter

A big player in the world of social media networking is Twitter, a social and micro-blogging service enabling Twitter users to send and read messages or tweets, text-based posts up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to the user's subscribers or followers. Known for social messaging and news service, Twitter is also popular among mobile users.

Twitter is a favorite for marketers to get free publicity about products, and a natural solution for authors to market their books on a small marketing budget. Social media marketing is being used by almost anyone with something to sell or money to raise, including politicians, peddlers of purses, popcorn vendors and pornography pushers. They have all found a way of using social media networks to advertise their wares. Utilities like Twitter feed can convert an RSS feed into Twitter updates. This makes it easy to use Twitter as social media marketing. Again, be careful. You don't want to over do it and make your subscribers and followers tired of your message. Keep it fresh.

Use Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin sharing and social media networking services. 

Many social media networks are comprised of groups of interested parties and hosts who say they want to know what is on your mind and, more likely, what personal information they can convince you to share with them.

Information seems to be a chief motive for getting you to join the services, which can be useful if used wisely. My philosophy about joining a social network is to stay away if they want to know my home address, where I work, my mother’s maiden name or anything else of a personal nature. Sometimes the price for free book publicity is too high. I have my standards.

There are hundreds of social media networks, In fact, there are so many crowds out there yelling at the tops of their lungs that it is mind-boggling! Pick one or two to start your social media marketing plan. Everybody has a group or is forming a group with something to say or complain about, some interesting, some not so much. In fact, you can start your own group. It's unnecessary to belong to all of them. I try to identify the websites, blogs, forums and groups that apply to my needs as an author because staying active with all of the groups can eat up a great deal of my time, time that I need for writing and promoting my books.

I have a marketing plan for my book, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's, has been honored by several organizations. If you have a chance to brag a little without really bragging, by all means brag a little on your social media network, but not too much. No one will be angry with you for that. Glad you have something to brag about and wish they did. My book is listed in the Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies by the Schomburg Center in New York and recommended for Native American collections by the Miami-Dade Public Library System in Florida.

Tips for Creating Web Presence

Include at least these types of links on pages where you are directing your social media friends, followers and subscribers:

• Website featuring your book
• Purchasing page
• Website about you
• Outside website that features you

Finally, have an action in mind that you would like the social media visitor to take when they arrive at your destination. On some of these pages you are directing your target audience to, place ordering information: Buy:  Bigmama Didn't Shop at Woolworth's  by Sunny Nash. ~Thank You~

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How Internet Press Releases Help Me Make Money

Internet press releases help me sell books, services, knowledge 
and public speaking events by letting my target audience know who I am,
what I have to sell and what I can do for them.

 

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Bigmama Didn’t Shop 

At Woolworth’s 

Sunny Nash

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at Woolworth's

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at Woolworth's

Sunny Nash 
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Sunny Nash is an author, producer, photographer and leading writer on U.S. race relations. 

Sunny Nash writes books, blogs, articles and reviews, and produces media and images on U.S. history and contemporary American topics, ranging from Jim Crow laws to social media networking. Sunny Nash is the author of Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's (Texas A&M University Press), about life with her part-Comanche grandmother during the Civil Rights Movement.

Sunny Nash’s book is recognized by the Association of American University Presses as essential for understanding U.S. race relations. Nash's book is also listed in the Bibliographic Guide for black studies at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York; and recommended for Native American collections by the Miami-Dade Public Library System in Florida. Nash uses her book to write articles and blogs on race relations in America through topics relating to her life--from music, film, early radio and television, entertainment, social media, Internet technology, publishing, journalism, sports, education, employment, the military, fashion, performing arts, literature, women's issues, adolescence and childhood, equal rights, social and political movements--past and present—to today's post-racism.

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~Thank You~

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