What an Internet campaign can do for you
May 13th, 2009 by Susan Schwartzman
As technology advances rapidly, traditional media outlets are being supplemented and sometimes even replaced by virtual opportunities as quickly as you can say “Twitter!” For every newspaper that folds, for every book review section that closes its doors, a new book blog or website appears in the virtual horizon. No, make that many book blogs and websites. The virtual landscape is vast and offers many opportunities for writers, especially novelists, that did not exist ten or even five years ago.
An Internet campaign can get you exposure to thousands of bloggers and their readers. I myself was surprised the first time I visited a book blog to follow the trail of bloggers. It took me an entire morning to read one book blog after another—and I had barely scratched the surface. Bloggers respond to other bloggers and before you know it, ten people, then twenty people, then thirt people are blogging about your book. Before you know it, you have a growing following of readers. That’s what’s meant by going viral. It’s mind boggling. And everyday new bloggers pop up on the virtual horizon.
Of course, the skeptical may ask, “Is getting mentioned on a book blog as good as a New York Times book review or getting a review in your local newspaper?”
Yes. Every type of media coverage helps. And a virtual tour may increase your visibility as much as a newspaper review. Perhaps more. There have been virtual tours that have propelled authors to the bestseller lists.
There are a variety of Internet campaigns, including:
• Website tours: getting review coverage on websites that feature book reviews
• Blog Tours: These tours are designed to get the word out about your book and website on relevant high-traffic blogs with links back to your website
• Social Networking: These tours can drive tons of traffic to your website
• Virtual Author Tour: these tours generate on-line buzz about your book through blogs, book reviews, article syndication and genre-specific ezines.
• Twitter tours: yes, these are now becoming popular and generate a lot of buzz
One of my clients, whose book was reviewed in many newspapers and had a very successful media tour, handled her own virtual tour. She has established a presence on the Internet and has created a fan base which grows incrementally with each new book that she writes.
In my last post, I wrote about the advantages of authors doing a media tour. If your budget permits, I strongly recommend combining a virtual tour with a traditional media tour. If you are on a very limited budget, a virtual tour is the way to go. It’s all about generating a buzz about your book. Going viral is one way to reach many readers and build a fan base of bloggers who will return to your blog and website to see what you’re up to—and, more importantly—when you’re next book is coming out.
Image by tipsyfairy.
4 Responses to “What an Internet campaign can do for you”
Out of curiosity, what exactly does a Twitter tour entail?
I’m curious about a Twitter tour too. I’ve recently bitten the bullet and am now on Twitter. Hopefully, being on all these social networks will add up.
Thanks for this post, Susan. Like Kristan and Kath, I’d love to hear more about these Twitter tours. How do they work?
Hey there! This is something I recently wrote up on Twitter, hope it’s helpful! You can follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Bookgal :)
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Twitter is a micro-blogger platform that allows users to create entries that are only 140 characters in length. These entries are referred to as “tweets”. Originally designed to keep friends and family up to date on what you’re doing, Twitter can also be a great place to share your latest book project, promotional ideas as well as interacting with fellow tweets (folks who twitter) and writers. And yes, you can have a blog and a Twitter page. I have both but I feed my blog into my Twitter site so that my Twitter page gets updated each time I add new content to my blog. There’s an easy application to add your blog feed to Twitter, it takes just minutes to do. Head on over to: Twitterfeed (http://twitterfeed.com/).
Don’t feel bad if the first time you go to Twitter it seems like a mess of conversation, most people feel confused when they first enter Twitter-land and many don’t see the point. When I made my first entrance into micro-blogging none of it made sense to me. It seems a bit useless to be honest but then I got the hang of it and saw the real benefit to having and managing a Twitter account. That’s really the key. Much like any social media tool we’ve discussed in this book it’s more than just having an account: you have to manage it too. But give yourself a little time on Twitter before you give up on it, at some point it’ll either all make sense or it won’t. Either way you’re only out a few hours and, perhaps, a few informational tweets.
To sign up for a Twitter account just go to http://www.twitter.com and complete their short sign up form. Remember to brand yourself! This is important. Once you create a Twitter account you can’t go back and change your name so find something that works for you. Maybe it’s fictionwriter or businesswriter or whatever you want. My Twitter page is @bookgal, (note that all Twitter names are preceded by an @ when referenced on the site you can also find me at http://www.twitter.com/bookgal) this is fun play on words for what I do (and what I love). I don’t recommend that you use an underscore (so stay away from Michael_the_writer) since underscores can be tough to remember and if someone is trying to tweet to you from their cell phone or blackberry those underscore keys can be tricky. Once you have a Twitter account you can immediately start tweeting. The service is completely free and you can also keep up with other people’s tweets by “following” them. Their micro-blog entries will show up on your Twitter home page so you can easily keep track of them. You can also be notified by phone when they add a tweet. You can twitter from anywhere, even your phone. I’ve been known to twitter from my blackberry.