There are a lot of social media sites out there, but Facebook remains the big kahuna (estimates say it’ll hit 1 billion users by August), and Twitter is no slouch with 140 million users at the last tally. Twitter seems to be particularly popular with writers, and you can find a lot of publishers and literary agents tweeting throughout the day there.

But if you’re an up-and-coming author with limited time in the day, and you can only manage one social media site, where should you be? Well, as I pointed out in last week’s post on self-published authors making a living e-publishing, blogging and social media may be less important than simply getting a lot of books out there, but let’s assume you’ve got some work published, and you’re struggling to get sales. Maybe you want to get involved in the social media sites; you’re just not sure how to do it effectively and what sort of results you can expect. I’m going to talk about my own experience with Twitter and Facebook today, so maybe that’ll help!

Twitter — My Experiences

I’ve never been terribly social online (unless slaying dragons was involved — ex-Everquest/WoW addict here, yes), so I didn’t flock to the social media sites when they first started getting popular.

About six months before I decided to self-publish (when I was getting close to finishing my second novel, Encrypted, and was thinking that I’d query agents with it), I decided to hop on Twitter, with the vague notion that I could build up some followers that way. That’d be sure to look impressive to an agent, right? Ultimately, I picked Twitter first because I didn’t think I could waste much time on a site that forced one to leave such short posts (hah?).

Well, I mostly chatted with people from my writing workshop. It wasn’t until I’d decided to self-publish and do it all on my own that I got serious about marketing via Twitter. I perused lists of writers and fantasy fans to stalk, er, follow, and I started this blog at the same time. I had a hunch that Twitter wouldn’t work well for selling books, but that it could be effective for driving people to my blog (this has turned out to be true, and many people who’ve visited my blog over the last year have ended up checking out my books).

I now have 4,000-odd followers (after the first 500, I stopped seeking them out, and just adopted a policy of following writers/readers back) and am active on Twitter every day, mostly because I can tweet from the dog park or when I’m stuck in line at the grocery store — sit-down computer time is for writing the next novel and blogging, thank you very much.

How effective has Twitter been for selling books?

Enh. I do know that people have tried my books (especially my freebies) after seeing my tweets (or tweets others have “retweeted”). Several readers have told me so. But as far as it being worth all the time I put into it, I’d say that Twitter is more for networking with other people in the business.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve had a number of guest posts appear on popular writing/publishing blogs because I first “met” the authors via Twitter, and some influential bloggers have mentioned my posts of late. That’s definitely sold some books for me, if in a roundabout way (increasing readership and links to my blog, so that my site shows up when people search for things like fantasy author or steampunk books).

An observant reader will note that Twitter seems to be intrinsically linked to my blog, and that I credit my blog with more book sales. I see Twitter as a tool to get people to visit my site. Would Twitter be as effective for me if I didn’t have a blog? I don’t think so.

A regularly updated blog gives me something new to plug every day on Twitter. Your followers might get tired of it if all you do is promote your book links, and, as I mentioned, I haven’t found the hard sell to be particularly effective on Twitter. In fact, as a reader myself, I ignore the tweeps who do little besides try to push their books. As I’ve observed before, I think most of the successful authors you see doing constant book-promotion tweets are selling well despite it rather than because of it (the successful ones who come to my mind also have large bodies of work out there).

To sum up my thoughts on Twitter, I’d say do it if you enjoy it and can be a regular fixture there (tweets fall off the radar quickly, within minutes, so you’ll find it tough to get much traction if you’re only posting once a day — or less), and especially do it if you have a blog that you want to grow. As for simply selling books, I don’t think you’ll get your biggest bang for your buck here.

Facebook — My Experiences

I was dragged kicking and screaming onto Facebook. I only made a personal account because some buddies I took a trip with held our group pictures hostage (they put them on Facebook and made it so only “friends” could see them). The punks. I made an account, but wasn’t on there much, and it wasn’t until last August that I made an official author Facebook fan page.

At first, I harassed my Twitter followers to get them to run over and “like” it, and I received my first 100 “fans” that way, but it’s grown organically since then, and I’m closing on 1,000 fans (though, being a fan on Facebook only means someone gave you a thumb’s up).

Where’d these folks come from? It’s hard to know for sure, but I mention my blog and social media links at the end of my ebooks. Also, my Facebook page appears right after my home page on a Google search for my name. Either way it’s my readers who are stopping by (I actually see very little point in asking fellow authors to “like” your page, though you might, like me, want to get a few likes in the beginning that way for social-proof purposes).

The first week after I put up the fan page, one lady popped in and said something like, “Yay, you’re finally here!” and that was a reminder to me just how much Facebook is a part of some people’s lives. Some folks who won’t seek out blogs will spend hours there, so it’s worth having a presence on Facebook, even if you’re not sure how much time you’ll ultimately spend there (do yourself a favor and create a separate author page so you don’t have to debate whether to “friend” people back and your fans don’t have to read your personal friends-and-family updates).

How effective has Facebook been for selling books?

Facebook has surprised me. I don’t honestly know how many books I’ve sold through there (I do have a fan page “tab” that lists my freebies, but I was lazy and didn’t set up bit.ly links or anything I could monitor), but I’d say it’s my most active community that’s entirely fan-focused. My blog gets a lot of readers, but many are authors/e-publishers and not necessarily readers of my books. My Goodreads discussion board is fan-focused, but doesn’t see a lot of activity in between book releases. My Twitter followers are a mix of writers, publishers, and fans, and the fans often get lost in the mix there. I have a list for “readers,” but it can be a little hard to keep track of who’s who with all the conversations floating around.

When people come to my Facebook fan page, they’re there because they liked my books and they want to talk about them and hear updates about them. It’s turned into the place where I post snippets of dialogue and teasers from works-in-progress, because that’s where I get a reaction for those things. People “like” or comment. On Twitter, those types of tweets disappear so quickly that people who aren’t on that hour will probably miss them. On Facebook, new readers can find my page and surf through all the old posts.

So, does any of that sell books? I think so, because it’s a way to stay in people’s minds. If your recent Facebook posts appear in their timeline, they’re going to remember you. In a way, posting teasers becomes part of a “product launch” formula, where you’re getting people excited for the next book, so they’ll want to go out and buy it as soon as it comes out.

Also, and I may try this for a week or two when I release Conspiracy (EE4) in a few weeks, you can advertise just to the people who have liked your fan page. This lets you target those who are fans of your work but who might not check in every week.

In summary, I’ve found Facebook to be an extremely effective way of consolidating a fan base. I do think it’s ideal for pulling in existing fans, though, and making sure they don’t forget about you. I’m less certain about how many new readers I get through Facebook (though, there is the viral potential; the posts your fans make on your page are visible in their timeline so their friends might see them).

Can Facebook/Twitter do anything else for you?

If you’ve read this far, you may have the idea that both social media sites have been useful tools for me, but that I don’t attribute either with tons of book sales. You’d be right. I think, in the end, getting a lot of work out there and maybe having a freebie or two in Amazon, B&N, iTunes, etc. is going to do the most for you when it comes to selling books, but I don’t regret the time I’ve spent on these sites. And, as I started this post talking about agents, there’s one more thing worth mentioning:

From what I’ve seen (and I’ve been approached by several of these folks now), publishers and agents get weak in the knees at the prospect of an author who’s already built a platform. While book sales are a bit of a guessing game for outsiders, your popularity — or lack of popularity — on Facebook/Twitter is clearly visible to others. If you’re an indie and want to be courted by a publisher, or you’re thinking of querying an agent, this stuff can only help you there.

Back in August, I finally put up an author fan page on Facebook. I say finally because it was on my to-do list for months before I actually did it. I’d never been a big fan of Facebook when it came to having a personal account, just because I never seemed to be able to find anything, and if I did find whatever elusive thing I was looking for, Facebook would have an update and hide it from me again.

But 600-odd million people are on Facebook, so it seemed like an up-and-coming author should be there, too, right?

Despite my waffling, I’ve found it to be a good experience, yes.

Has my Facebook fan page led to more book sales?

It’s hard to pinpoint where sales come from. As an independent author, you can see real-time sales numbers at Amazon and Barnes & Noble — something that can be helpful with linking promotional campaigns to results… or a lack of results — but they don’t tell you where those sales came from. Did a visitor originally click through from Facebook or Twitter, or did the visitor simply find your book by surfing through the bookstore? It’s impossible to know.

Sometimes readers will tell me how they first found my books (i.e. I tried your sample after seeing a post on Twitter or I found your free ebook at Amazon and got into the series that way), but I don’t think anyone has mentioned Facebook to me yet.

I imagine there are at least some folks who have tried the freebies I have listed there, but for now I’m thinking of the site as more of a place to keep in touch with folks who have already read the books and who enjoy interacting on Facebook. If you read last week’s post on author branding, you know I try to be out there everywhere I can.

Maybe I’ll figure out how to be more effective on it in the future (I’m not one to go running around, liking a bazillion things or participating in oodles of discussions in the hopes that some bored person will find a way back to my page), but for now I can say that the page seems like it’s worth keeping and that it plays a small role in my book-promotion efforts.

How do I get fans for my Facebook page?

I have 300-some fans (this is just when someone “likes” your page), which isn’t all that many, but I don’t believe in asking random people for likes. Not because of any moral issues with the notion, but because, from what I’ve read, your page will do better with fewer fans, fans who actually interact with it, than a lot of drive-by like-clickers who never return again.

The fans I do have on there came from…

• a few initial posts on Twitter where I let my followers know that I’d set up shop on Facebook
• a brief advertising campaign I tried for sharing my free ebooks (I wasn’t looking for likes when I did that, but if you’re advertising a FB page, Facebook will put the like option right on the ad.)
• adding my Facebook page to the afterword in my recent ebook releases
• people gradually finding my page through other means (in particular, I posted a picture of a sand-sculpture dragon that went viral and had something like 160 shares and 400 likes, and I remember I had a bunch of fan page likes during that unusual week)

What do I post on my Facebook fan page?

Despite my past difficulties with Facebook, I’ve found it to be easy to keep my author page updated. It’s the work of a couple of minutes a week. I post book updates, of course, and links to blog posts I think fantasy fans might find interesting.

I’ve also posted pictures of cool things (like that dragon I mentioned). Pictures seem to do very well on Facebook, meaning people like, comment, and share them readily (when your updates have a lot of interactions, they’ll appear on other people’s walls, so it’s a bit of viral marketing).

Some people do more and get very involved in the community, but I ultimately prefer to focus on other things (like writing the next book!).

What’s the point? What can a Facebook fan page do for you?

You might be thinking that it’s not worth the effort, especially since I couldn’t say, “Oh, I’ve sold XXX number of books solely because of my Facebook page.”

I believe there are some pluses to having a presence there even if it’s not immediately apparent that it can help you sell books (of course, just because Facebook hasn’t sold a lot of books for me doesn’t mean there aren’t authors out there who have had different experiences):

• Some of your fans are there, waiting for you — With so many folks on Facebook, it’s inevitable that some of your readers (and future readers!) will hang out there. People who enjoy Facebook like to interact on there every day, not just with friends and families but with businesses and, yes, authors too. The first week I made my page, a nice reader popped in and said, “Oh good, I was waiting for you to get on Facebook!”
• Advertising on Facebook becomes more affordable and practical once you have a fan page — I’ve only tinkered with this a little bit, and Facebook advertising should probably have its own post, but the short and sweet of it is that it’s cheaper to send people to a fan page than it is to send them off-site (i.e. to your Amazon book page or your blog). There are ways to put sample chapters and links to free ebooks right on your Facebook site.
• Being on Facebook gives you a place to chat with your readers — While some people might come to your blog and comment, there are more who are likely to interact with you while they’re in the process of interacting with other folks, so it can be worthwhile to hang out where they hang out. (It’s the topic of another post, but this is why I have my blog syndicated on Goodreads.)
• Facebook fans can share your links around — You may only have a hundred fans for your author page, but if a couple of them share some of your links now and then, you’ll have people that you couldn’t otherwise reach becoming aware of you and your work. If you have freebies or samples up on your Facebook page, these new folks can easily check you out when they pop in.

How do you get your own Facebook author page?

You can go here to make a Facebook fan page now.

You can use something like PageModo to make a free landing page or gate page if you want visitors to come in on something more enlightening than your wall. (A gate page is one where people are required to “like” your Facebook presence before they can get to the meaty stuff — I don’t do this, but I do have a welcome page that tells new visitors who I am and what they can do on my Facebook site.) If you don’t like the PageModo wizard, and you don’t want to do the coding yourself, you can also hire someone to design a custom Facebook page for you for around $150. (I’m having this done and hope to have the new version up in January.)

Authors, readers, what are your thoughts on Facebook?

I finally got around to creating a Facebook fan page this weekend. As far as social-media-sites-I-would-use-even-if-I-weren’t-an-author go, Facebook isn’t anywhere on the list (I don’t find the interface particularly intuitive, and the layout always strikes me as clusterf–, er, mess).

That said, a lot of people do use Facebook, so it’s probably worth putting a little time into creating an author presence there. If you like Facebook, this could even become a major way of promoting your books (I’ve heard of indie authors who have done quite well with it).

What you’ll want to do is create a Facebook Fan Page.

This is different from your personal profile where you post pictures of the kids and chat with relatives. This is your official author presence on Facebook. People don’t have to friend you to see what you’re up to, and (if you’re doing it right) they don’t have to wade through clutter about your life to find the tidbits that are interesting to them (these tidbits don’t need to be solely about your books, but you probably want to only post things that will appeal to your target audience).

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page

It’s pretty easy. Just head over to the Create a Page Wizard, and Facebook will walk you through the process. You’ll probably want to fill out a profile, upload an author picture, and perhaps some of the cover art for your books.

A lot of authors stop there, but I recommend creating a Welcome page as well.

Creating a “Welcome” Page

This replaces your “wall” as the first thing surfers see when they land on your page. It’s an opportunity to let a new visitor know about your books, about what you write, or maybe how to browse around the fan page (though it’s called a page, you can add multiple tabs, so, in essence, multiple pages). You can also integrate a form to encourage folks to sign up for your newsletter (you do have a newsletter, right?).

This may sound complicated, but I actually knocked a welcome page out in about five minutes using PageModo. While you can pay for more complicated Facebook Fan Page setups, there’s a free one-page option. Sure, it puts a “PageModo” logo on your welcome screen, but it’s not too obtrusive, and it’s a way to get started without learning how to install Facebook apps or write code.

I admit, mine’s not particularly inspiring (I mean it when I say I only spent five minutes on it), but I’m planning to see how much I get into promoting my books via Facebook first. If I end up sticking with it and get something out of it, I’ll hire someone to make a cool custom page.

If you have a Facebook fan page for folks to check out (I always like to snoop!), leave the address in the comments below.

Also, don’t forget to “like” mine if you stop in. Thanks!

If you’re an author or a book reviewer, you’re probably interested in getting more people to visit your blog. Heck, even if you’re rambling without an agenda, you’d probably love more blog visitors. It’s fun seeing your traffic stats climb.

We’ve talked about building links to get more search engine traffic to your blog, but social media sites can be another good way to attract visitors. I’m a fan of Twitter since it’s hard to waste a lot of time there (hey, how verbose can you be in 160 characters?), but it’s easy to check multiple times a day, and you can even get to know people over time. And — the reason why you’re here — you can use Twitter to bring more people to your blog.

Here are a few tips for promoting your blog (effectively) on Twitter:

• Use titles or blurbs that answer the “What’s in it for me?” question for your followers — If your blog post title already does this, you can simply use it in your tweet, but you might have a little more room to entice folks. If you just say something like, “Hey, I updated my blog and here’s the link,” you’re less likely to get clicks than if you detail what you’ve written that’s worth reading.
• Don’t just tweet links to your blog — I don’t even follow people who do this (and I’m not picky about who I follow back). Most tweeps want to engage with people, not get someone’s RSS feed in an alternate format. It’s called social media for a reason.
• Don’t bury your own promotional tweets — While it is called social media, you won’t get many clicks if you post the link and then respond to thirty @ messages in the next five minutes. Most people aren’t sitting at their computers, following your Twitter stream 24/7 (an ego buster, I know). I often post a link to my blog before I’m heading offline to do other things. This gives people who check my tweets more time to notice it.
• Link to your old articles too — I should do more of this myself. There’s nothing that says you can only tweet about your most recent blog post. Do you have some gems from the early days of your blog (back when you had no followers)? You can tweet links to them if they’re still relevant.
• Have enough followers that you’ll get retweeted — This is the true power of Twitter. Thanks to the “retweet” button, it needn’t be just about promoting your blog to your followers. Your followers can promote it to their followers  and so on and so forth. An interesting article could bring you quite a few new visitors. You don’t necessarily need thousands of followers, just some that like to spread the word and share cool links. (Make sure to retweet them once in a while too so everyone benefits.)
• Tweet during “prime time” – I’m not the best about this, since I’m a night owl in a late time zone, but Twitter tends to be most active during the work day (which says volumes about our culture), especially the morning. Your link will be more likely to be noticed if more people are online. If you’re in a different time zome from many of your followers (maybe you’re in Australia, but you have a lot of U.S. readers), check out some of the free services that let you schedule tweets.

Do you have any tips you’d like to add? Let us know below!

I’ve poked a bit of fun at Twitter in the past, but it’s actually my favorite social media site. The short messages don’t take long to write, and it doesn’t take long to check in on your “tweeps” each day. I haven’t found it to be nearly as much of a time sink as forums and Facebook (though I’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Facebook world, and will try to do more there eventually).

Twitter can be a decent place to promote your books, though perhaps not in the way people initially assume (that being the stalk-a-bunch-of-people-who’d-follow-anything-back-and-then-spam-your-book-links-every-15-minutes way).

As I’ve written before, I feel Twitter is more like a Starbucks than a Barnes & Noble. People are there to socialize and network, not necessarily to buy books. If you’re a writer, the real power of Twitter lies in meeting fans, authors, and book bloggers. These are folks who may retweet your tweets (repost your messages for their followers to see), trade blog links with you, and let you guest post on their sites.

Sure, some of these people might buy your books, too, but to think of only that is a little short-sighted. As authors, it’s not just about selling this one book to this one person; it’s about turning your name into a brand. There’s a reason Stephen King’s name is bigger than the title on his books. He’s become a brand, an extremely well-known one!

Here are answers to a few basic questions authors new to Twitter often have:

What should I tweet about?

There aren’t any real rules here. Just try to be interesting. Bonus points if you can be interesting to your target audience (AKA the folks you hope will buy your books). I’m not sure I always accomplish that, but, since I write fantasy, I post a lot of fantasy-related tweets. One of my most popular ones (most retweeted) was a link to steampunk wedding cakes.

It’s good to talk to other people, too, not just create a steady stream of links. After all, you’re here to network and meet future fans, right?

You can use the search box and browse people’s lists to find folks you might be interested in interacting with. Depending on your genre, you may be able to find weekly or monthly “chats” as well. People participate in them by using hash-tag keywords, so anyone searching for those keywords can follow along. I.e. #sfchat #yalitchat

How do I get more followers?

First off, let everybody know you’re on Twitter. Mention it on your blog, on Facebook, in forums, or wherever you already hang out online.

After that, go out and follow people with common interests. And make sure you look like someone people would want to follow back! Put your own interests in your bio–it’ll help people figure you out right away. Not everybody has the patience to read through a stream of tweets, deciding if you’re a common soul worth following.

Also, it helps to talk to the people you hope to entice into following you. Some folks aren’t actively looking to grow their list of followers, and they won’t automatically follow you just because you followed them. They want you to say hi first. Crazy souls, I know!

Okay, got all that? Here’s a little more on being follow-worthy:

People like folks who…

• Follow back — You don’t need to follow spammers or people you’re not interested in, but, unless you’re already a celebrity, it’s a good idea to have a follow-back policy when you’re getting started. You may decide to keep that policy later on down the road, too, as it makes you appear approachable. Not a bad thing if you’re an author!
• Mix up tweets — There’s no formula on what or how to tweet, but most of us are more interested in following human beings than those who could be Twitter-bots, simply retweeting and posting links. Consider a mix of dialogue (comments you make @ other tweeps), interesting links, endearing or wry commentary on what’s happening in your life, and retweets of other people’s posts.
• Limit blatant promotion — I know, the only reason you’re on Twitter is because you want to promote your books, but people aren’t keen on being sold to. You can certainly mention your books with links to your site or the bookstore, but, when you do promote, consider making it less of a hard sell. I’ll often link to guest posts I’ve done, reviews people have written for my books, or just make comments on author life. If people are interested, my website is in my profile.

By the way, you can follow me, and I’ll follow you back if your interests are book-related and you don’t look like you’re going to sell me a used car or a get-rich-quick ebook.

How do I get people to list me?

On Twitter, you can make lists and place people in them (this makes it easier to follow conversations once you’re following a lot of people), and they can do the same for you. Being in lists meas appearing in more places where people can find you.

If you’re already doing the stuff we talked about in the how-to-get-followers section, you’ll probably find yourself placed on lists naturally, as you follow (and get followed by) more people.

Impatient? One easy way to get listed in more places is simply to find some lists where you think you’d fit (writers or indie authors, for example), and then follow the owner of the list. If they’re fairly active and have a fairly equal number of followers/following, there’s a good chance they’ll add you on the spot (just make sure something in your bio makes it clear you belong in that list).

Okay, enough Q&A for today.

Final words:

If you’re brand spanking new to Twitter, and some (much?) of this sounded like an alien language, you could check out one of the books out there for a more complete, starting at Ground Zero, introduction. They won’t be specific to authors and book promotion, but many of them cover marketing on Twitter.

• Twitter For Dummies
• Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
• Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day

What do the Twitter pros in the house think? Any more suggestions or caveats for up-and-coming tweeps?