I really wanted to title this piece, "Is Web Marketing a Load of Crap?" but I think the graphic would have turned too many people off.
But I'm really steamed:
- In the last two weeks, my Web traffic has dropped by 50 percent. As far as I can tell, I haven't done anything differently. But part of the problem could be my over-dependence on Social Media to generate traffic. These services -- Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter -- can and do change policies and features as they see fit. They also seem to be over-saturated with users generating useless crap. (OK, I'm as guilty as anyone) I'm investing a lot of time in these services, what if they go belly up? What if they decide they don't like me and cancel my account? What there's a technical glitch I can't figure out -- where's the tech support? (Typically, we're reduced to Googling for help from other users.) Maybe it's just me, but I get the impression that their loyalty isn't to us customers who aren't paying them a nickel.
Here are my specific beefs as they relate to my online book marketing:
- My Facebook posts are being seen by half as many people. (A statistic called Reach, which used to average about 400 people, is now down to 200. I still have more than 2,000 fans, but only 1/10 of them are seeing my posts.) Here's a possible explanation that proves that I'm not insane. All I know is bad news about the company's stock price appears in the WSJ all too frequently. The company seems very concerned about its shareholders, but seems to have no compunction about screwing over Fan Page owners by limiting the number of our own Fans that we can reach.
- Linked In just introduced what appears to be another useless feature called "Endorsements," for enticing users to spend more time on the site. So, now there's a nuclear arms race to get as many of your connections to endorse you for all of your skills. Excellent! Now, you can go to Linked In and just start clicking away -- endorsements will be about as meaningful as Followers on Twitter.
- I've been spending more and more time trying to figure out Twitter. I post regularly, follow influential people and topic hashtags that supposedly are also followed by potential readers. Most of the stuff I see on Twitter is crap -- spam, inane comments, links to inane images. And all these folks that have thousands of followers but never tweet? Very suspicious.
- And I'm constantly getting e-mails from folks smarter than I am asking for help with their social media marketing. Something smells funny. (If you insist on an image...)
Sorry for the rant. Am I just in a bad mood or does anyone else think that the only people getting rich from social media are the folks who own the social media sites?
The last time I whined about online marketing:
Is online book marketing a waste of time:
Part II: Is Online Book Marketing a Waste of Time?
*Clock image at the top of this page is by Didofficiel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
*Link about Facebook changes provided by the very knowledgeable Carla Thornton.
27 comments:
I think I spend far more time on social media marketing than what I am getting in return. There is a lot more to marketing than just social media. I don't think most people sell books from social media marketing. But you do get impressions. There is a statistic that says that it takes 7 impressions before a person will make an impulse buy. Each time I post another book reviewers opinion of my book, that is an impression. I can't make my viewers read the post, but the hope is that 1/4 will. (That is another stat. When marketing, expect no more than 1/4 of your audience will purchase.) Do you submit your books for review on book review sites? That has been MY most effective marketing tool. Not only do I get sales from their viewers, but when I share it on social media, then I get more impressions.
Thanks for thoughtful comments.
I read a statistic that 1 percent of your visitors will buy a book. (Direct mail is supposed to yield 3 percent.) Social media is supposed to drive visitors to your site.
My big problem with social media: you can invest a lot of time and then the site changes its business model. I spent two years building 2,000 fans on facebook. Now, facebook will only allow me to reach 200 of them at a time -- unless I want to pay a fee.
Re: Reviews
My book isn't done, I'm just building my platform to hopefully impress an agent or publisher, or to sell any ebooks I self-publish.
I agree with your alternate title but an illustratiion may have offended some of your readers.
Thanks, Jean Marie!
Over the years I have found YouTube vids can be effective in reaching an audience and making an impression. Though I did get here from a Facebook email, I am a fellow writer and not necessarily your target reader (unless the book were about your experience with social media marketing). I for one would have enjoyed the "Is web marketing load of crap" title (as far as overall profitability) but there is something to be said for the chance at making that "one connection" that could change everything.
Good morning, Randy,
I just discovered your site while looking at a page on Linkedin. I'm really enjoying what I've read, so far and might even send you a buck, on payday. I will continue to read your stuff, contingent on figuring out how to set-up notifications from you. I'm nobody's version of tech-minded. Thanks and hope to continue reading your stuff,,,now, where is that subscribe button...
I have tried for years to deny that the effort I put into promotion/marketing...is worth the time, energy, and money. Facing the reality that my kind of stuff, multi-cultural-racial historical literary novels is not on the radar for most Americans, there is something not "right." From 2002, the first published novel, I thought I was through the door. Despite superlative reviews from published authors and interested readers (probably 5k) no launch emerged. Publisher and self-paid touring, radio and TV interviews (one, a state PBS) Nada. For the third book, 2010, I used social media the best I knew, plus a YouTube promo by a marketing company. I've sent free books to journalists, had books returned unopened by journalists, and academics.
After an ignorant review by a Publisher's Weekly reviewer, and all the above, plus, I am of the opinion that the celebrity society of today demands"pop star" endorsement. Remember the Oprah Book Club? I heard that many people bought but didn't read her interviewed authors. It was because cool to have a connection with Oprah.
I have a non-fiction and a fiction ready to go. I am twelve years older, not well, and hit by a fallen economy. I am angry---mad--and feel terrible about the waste-pollution of time, talent,work, and money for little return on investment. Nice words don't buy gas.A 24 year conclusion.
Hi Randy,
I blogged about this too this week. I agree with you.
http://lkwattsconfessions.blogspot.com
Thanks, LK!
For Richard Myers: Drop me a note with your email and I'll send you info on how to subscribe. (randy@randyrossmedia.com)
Some quick options: enter your email in the box at the end of the article
or you can copy this link into your browser and then it will take you to a box to enter your email:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/WdRJM&loc=en_US
Randy: I understand your frustration and it took me a while to get Twitter and it's value. As for FB ..."like",we start getting into some redundancy. I do not use FB for business.
We are all better at some artistic mediums than others. If FB and Twitter are not working for you, I think its a waste of negative energy. I had to go back (from this page) to make sure I was still in the Humor Writers group :). I say that smiling.
While I have lots of legitimate followers (lots of resources to insure this), only the people I really connect with and share comment interests go to my blog. Last night, I received a tweet for the world to see from a new follower. She said she could not remember the last time she went to a blog, stayed on it for 30 minutes, and it had nothing to do with her business. Wine.
Twitter is like courting, but it certainly isn't speed dating!
Best of luck!
Randy: I understand your frustration and it took me a while to get Twitter and it's value. As for FB ..."like",we start getting into some redundancy. I do not use FB for business.
We are all better at some artistic mediums than others. If FB and Twitter are not working for you, I think its a waste of negative energy. I had to go back (from this page) to make sure I was still in the Humor Writers group :). I say that smiling.
While I have lots of legitimate followers (lots of resources to insure this), only the people I really connect with and share comment interests go to my blog. Last night, I received a tweet for the world to see from a new follower. She said she could not remember the last time she went to a blog, stayed on it for 30 minutes, and it had nothing to do with her business. Wine.
Twitter is like courting, but it certainly isn't speed dating!
Best of luck!
I don't use automated services and a message fromone.
I have five books up on Amazon and Smashwords. I don't sell very many, but I sell fairly regularly. Lately, a lot of tough stuff has been going on around me and I haven't felt much like writing or doing the usual promo. I looked at my blog stats and they had gone from about 50 -60 a day to 17. So I went in and posted the usual provocative chapters and good reviews and blogs that got good comments on twitter about ten oclock at night. I had 91 blog hits. I have a blog post called "The Blog Whore". I feel like I know what strings to pull and sometimes I just don't want to. I hate promo. I am not vested enough but you seem to be. You have to keep at the promo. Post provocative stuff and humorous stuff and go back and tweet an oldie if you don't feel enlightened. And get your damn book out. I think the whole web wave about phony reviews and phony "custom" (paid for) covers has changed the milieu. Do it yourself.
OK. Messed up first line. In a bad place. You get my drift.
Thanks for Virginia! I'm not sure how vested I am. I'm going to stick with the Web promo stuff for a year (four more months to go) and see where it goes. And, yes, this is all nonsense if I don't get my book out to agents!
You shouldn’t spend more then 20 minutes on social media in a day. More than that is simply a waste of time. Sitting on social media and searching for readers or potential book buyers is akin to randomly selecting numbers out of the phone book, calling the numbers, and asking the person who answers to buy your book. It simply isn’t effective.
But that isn’t to suggest that social media is a waste of time. In fact, social media can be really effective. BUT the vast majority of people don’t use it in the most proactive ways.
Twitter:
Twitter is about a quick personal connection. Of course there are people who post “I just bought broccoli” or something else inane. But authors can get a lot of millage out of twitter if they think of it as a personal connection with a new friend. A friendly message left on a new friend’s answering machine….
“I’m going to be reading from my book “Best Book in the World” tonight on the BTR internet radio show Book Bites at 7pm. Join me!” (link)
Or
“I need help picking a book cover. Do you like book cover A or cover B better?” (link)
Or
“Do you know any independent book sellers in Nashville? I would love to add an independent store to my book tour.”
Or
“ I just read Randy Ross’s blog post Is Web Marketing a Waste of Time? It’s really thought provocking. What do you think? (link)
It’s also a great idea to add the occasional picture..
“This is Tom and I at the Brooklyn Book Festival…” (picture)
Or
“We had a great turnout at my book signing at Barnes & Noble last night…” (picture)
Lots of people watch celebrities twitter and think that they need to be on twitter all day long. They get disheartened when people aren’t re-tweeting their posts or engaging in conversations. But they forget that: 1) Most celebrities have a team of people that do the majority of the twitter posts on their behalf and 2) Many celebrities use twitter to chat with other celebrities, increasing the profile of both.
For most authors, three or four twitters each day is plenty. You even can use a service (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc) to schedule twitter posts in advance. This way, if you know that you will be at Barnes and Noble signing your book next Friday at 2, you can schedule several tweet posts. Maybe one on Monday announcing the signing, one on Wednesday reminding people of the signing, one on Thursday about how excite you are about tomorrows signing and one an hour or so before the signing telling people that you hope that they will join you.
For my clients, I schedule 3 posts a day in advance for the week. I then suggest that the client post a twitter a day, of their own. This way, they stay engaged and the over-all feel of the social media is personal.
I also tell clients who aren’t well established, not to get too excited about the numbers. It is so much better to have 200 people following you that are fans and are interested in you and your work then having thousands of followers who don’t care about you or even know who you are. This is the problem with paying for followers. You are paying for empty numbers. Not for fans.
The real benefit of Twitter for authors is that it can create impressions. It creates movement and dialog, especially if a twitter feed is embedded on their website. Retweet positive reviews. When someone sees that Jane liked your book, they are more likely to tap on the link and check it out. Retweet blog posts. If you have an informative title, funny title, or otherwise intriguing post title, it leads people to tap on it, taking them to your blog and potentially to your book.
Twitter is a bit like the impulse buy items at the checkout counter. Dangling a tempting little tweet in front of people can result in a purchase or at minimum, a connection that can turn into a purchase later.
----Facebook next!
Facebook
Facebook can be problematic. People like to use facebook as a place to connect with their family and friends. To post funny pictures. To express their religious or political feelings. So personal facebook isn’t really appropriate for authors to connect with fans.
Facebook pages, which were supposed to be designed for businesses, don’t really allow you to connect with people in an effective way. In an attempt to monetize facebook, the powers that be have made it very difficult for you to dialogue. In fact, people have to really go out of their way to connect with you and get your updates. As it stands, most of the things that you post on a facebook page will be seen by no one.
So, to use facebook effectively, you really have to think ahead and divide your personal life from your professional life. This is something that I personally failed to do and now have several thousand people on what has become a sort of catch all facebook page.
I suggest that clients keep their personal facebook page personal and create a professional facebook page for their author information. They can then use the professional page for more formal bits of information. If you think of your professional facebook page as your own press release site, it makes more sense.
Don’t make the mistake of making a new fan page or professional page for every book. Instead, you might be www.facebook.com/WilkieCollins (as your personal site) and www.facebook.com/WilkieCollins.author (as your professional site).
It should be noted that facebook, because of the difficulties is falling out of favor with companies, especially mid-sized companies and small businesses who simply don’t have the ability to pay to connect. The current facebook business model is designed to allow major companies to connect (Coke, Nike, etc) but isn’t really friendly to anyone else. This may change in the future as facebook continues to tinker. But as it stands now, your fan has to find your page, like it, and then go into settings to allow your updates to appear on their page. Most people don’t know this and so they simply Like you.
Frankly, most other social media is a fad based. There will come a day when your thousands of pineterest links will go the way of myspace. And believe it or not, facebook and twitter will probably be gone one day too. So dedicating your life to social media is simply not effective. BUT, in the meantime, using it effectively can and will bring you fans and ultimately book buyers.
Alex
Alexandrea Merrell
Orndee Omnimedia
www.Orndee.com
Alexandrea: Great stuff, thanks for sharing!
Well, I found you via Linked In so that's something... Thanks for an illuminating article! I am floundering with figuring out how to make $ writing. This site is helpful!
Thanks, Columba Lisa!
You make the comment that you're angry because Facebook is expecting you to pay to reach your contacts beyond the first 200. I'm not sure why you think Facebook should let you conduct endless marketing for free on its site. I consider social media marketing to be a trade-off, just like everything else. Social media can be a way to reach people for free, but it takes a lot of time. An alternative is to pay for the privilege of reaching the right people --- and Facebook is offering you that opportunity. Why don't you pay for the upgraded service for a year, and see if it's worthwhile?
Hi Kevin,
Your point is well taken -- Facebook needs to make a living as well. In my opinion, for most writers and small businesses, their site is not worth the money. Note all the large companies, like GM, who stopped advertising on Facebook because it didn't work. (I paid for a promotion of one of my posts and it proved to be a waste of money. I posted about it:
http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2012/11/book-marketing-is-facebook-fan-page.html
Might just be the holidays. In the early days of my blog, I once got down because my traffic dropped to virtually nothing some days over Christmas. But then they passed and traffic picked up again.
With that said, I still don't like fb, even though likes have been helpful to me.
Maybe it's not all that bad. Those ny ad agencies also experience these slumps once in a while, but they just make notes of algorithm updates and move on. The FB observation is a bit spot on though.
Web marketing and business website development goes hand in hand so if your web development is not good, web marketing would be a waste of time. It's all about the balance. Also, there are times that your marketing strategy will not be good as your projecting to be. So just find ways to innovate and learn new methods to be effective.
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