So, I receive emails daily with questions about social media marketing, book releases, and writing.

My clients and prospective customers share a common thread; they ask similar questions. Today, I’ve decided to compile their FAQ’s, answer them straightforward and give you the same advice.

Social Media Marketing

For what it’s worth, social media marketing also known as SMM is worth every moment of your marketing efforts. Social media marketing is a needed strategy in your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, writer, blogger or author.

I consult with many business owners, writers and authors weekly. And, while there’s thousands of incredible content on the search engines, you can easily get pulled under the currents of information and feel overwhelmed.

One of my clients mentioned how she has a large file and courses on everything, but now it’s collecting dust. This situation is common, where you:

opt-in to MANY emails from the persuasion of other marketers and experts.
purchase books and courses, which end of sitting on your shelf per se.
sign-up for too many webinars that only seek to tell you about a problem and upsell you in the end.
purchase consulting services for $2500 or more for 90-days with little to no results
an inbox flooding with thousands of email marketing headlines from those opt-ins

Below are the common questions I receive about social media marketing, blogs and book releases.

For IG what is the ideal number of hashtags to use per post and range of usage of them?

According to Omnicore, Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users. Statistica dot com reports that its sister business, Facebook, includes 2.19 billion monthly active people. Of course, optimizing all social media channels are helpful for marketing purposes.

The way to implement social media optimization or SMO on your channels is to use keywords in your mini bio.

FAQs About Your Social Media Marketing, Blogging & Book Releases

I highly recommend posting six or more times per day. Before you do this, please look at your data metrics for your follower activities to see when its best to post.

On your Instagram homepage, you’ll see in the top right corner bars that look like a graph. Click on this to see your data. Use all three categories: Activity, Content & Audience to determine how often to post on your page.

Consider mixing up your posts. I don’t suggest posting only things about your business. Create culture around your pages. Doing this will help your social media engagement.

To grow your page, use no more than 30 hashtags. Create groups for your hashtags around your market. Use a spreadsheet or the notes section of your phone.

Also, stick with hashtags that range between 1500 up to 25,000. Taking this approach helps to get your posts higher in the feeds and yields more likes, shares, comments and new followers.

Here are some hashtags to get you started.

#writersblog #writersoﬁg #authors #christianblogger #christianwriter #dontstopwriting #dfwblogger #dfwbloggers #bloggerslife #bloggerpost #bloggerbabes #bloggerbabe #blogginglife #jacquelinethill #christianbloggers #fictionbook #nonfiction #nonfictionbooks #fictionbooks #writingfiction #authoress #lovewritingsomuch #blackbloggers #writeabook #writeaboutit #blackwriter #blackwritersmatter #blackbloggers #christianwriter

#writersblog #writersoﬁg #authors #dontstopwriting #dfwblogger #dfwbloggers #bloggerslife #bloggerpost #bloggerbabes #bloggerbabe #blogginglife #jacquelinethill #fictionbook #nonfiction #nonfictionbooks #fictionbooks #writingfiction #authoress #lovewritingsomuch #blackbloggers #writeabook #writeaboutit #blackwriter #blackwritersmatter #blackbloggers #musicandwriting

#christianblogger #christianwriter #dfwblogger #dfwbloggers #jacquelinethill #christianbloggers #blackbloggers #blackwriter #blackwritersmatter #blackbloggers #christianwriter #christianauthor #christianauthors #christianauthorsofinstagram #christianblogger #christianbloggers #christianbusiness #christianbusinessowner #christianbusinesswomen #blackwriters #blackbusinessowners #blackbusinessmatters #blackbusinessesmatter #christianfiction #blackfiction #notimefornonsense #blackauthor

Your Instagram posts should include the 70/30 rule. There’s some conflicting advice around this because other experts suggest using the 80/20.

This means to post about your business 80% and 20% personal. However, my advice from experimenting for the sake of engagement is to post 70% culturally and 30% business.

Engagement & Social Media Marketing

This is how social media works (for those who say “likes” are not important). YOU NEED likes, shares, and comments. Without them, content and posts will not reach viral status.

Without them, content and posts will not stay high in your newsfeeds, some HIGH-END publishers or HIGH-END tv producers WILL NOT accept your queries or press releases.

So, yes, for marketing and branding purposes it’s always a numbers game.

Even if you’re using SEO/SMO/SMM, you still need clicks from the numbers of people to your landing page or site.

The objective of any platform is to increase numbers, visibility, reach and exposure. Such investments upfront means a higher ROI.

To build followers and increase engagement on any platform, post things around and using:

Inspiration
Motivation
Encouragement
Selfies
Lifestyle Pictures
Quote Graphics
Blogs
Long-form posts with text only
Short form posts with text only
Videos
Stories
LIVES
Podcasts
Educational
Questions
Facts
Ebooks
Webinars
Book excerpts
Ads

At this present time, videos, stories, and LIVES are at the top of posting. Most of the social media platforms keep them at the top of newsfeeds above everything else.

Is there a website I can use to pre-record videos in exchange for going live?

I highly suggest Zoom and Screencast O-Matic. Both of these have high definition quality. Screencast easily records your desktop and is great for courses.

Zoom is a great tool for LIVE webinars, video conferences, consultations, interviews, etc. You can also use Zoom’s recording feature. They have free and paid opportunities for usage in your business.

While you’re using one or both for video, go ahead and invest in an economically priced lapel microphone. I use the Power DeWise Lapel Mic from Amazon. It gives excellent professional quality sound and reduces noise.

Do you know anything about book release parties and their success rates?

Book release parties are successful and work best with proper planning, a strong marketing strategy, and powerhouse team.

I recommend devising a pre-launch marketing strategy at least three months in advance and begin with ten solid people.

Part of this marketing strategy includes the ten people reading the book and prepping to write reviews.

These can be people you know, or you can ask your followers if they’re willing to partake with a small gift in exchange for their efforts.

Here’s the blunt truth about book release parties. It will be in your interest to have a fanbase (if you take this route).

Your fanbase could be on your social media platforms, the surrounding community, family, and friends. Either way, these people will help promote your book and come to the event.

Can I choose to write my own testimonials based on real projects or is it better to get real ones?

For Client Work

Always ask your clients for a review of your work or testimonial. When you provide line edits and ghostwrite, don’t hesitate to inquire about supporting your hard work with a review.

Reviews help your credibility and show social proof to new followers. Set this up on your website either using a separate menu-page or under the content you write on specific pages.

You can also put some testimonials on your homepage preferably more towards the bottom of the page.

For Books

If your plan is to use Amazon Kindle, CreateSpace, IngramSpark or others, I do not recommend writing your own testimonials or reviews.

As a matter of fact, other experts and I are against this tactic. It can cause many penalties that will affect your brand and books.

These platforms know the difference. Amazon’s rules are really changing now and they aren’t in favor of this at all. So, definitely stick with real testimonials and reviews.

Do you know of any free software or website that turn PDF’s to Word documents?

The easiest way to get around this conversion is to copy and paste the text from pdf into Word. When you can, make the small investment into the software for this. You can also try a program called Form Swift.

Blog Topics & Research

Many authors and writers are apprehensive about starting a blog (again) because of uncertainties about what to write. You don’t have to be a blog reader to blog.

Even if you prefer memoirs and informational type text, always remember that it’s about your audience. The objective here is to align your writing style and voice to their wants and needs.

Somewhere, somehow your offers and what your customers want will resonate with you. It’s a matter of finding this balance.

Understanding what’s popular these days can be found online with the use of keywords and also learning where your audience likes to hang out.

In this case, social media marketing gets fun and easy.

Using Facebook’s audience insights tool (you need a business page for access), buzz sumo, SEM Rush, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search, and Google Trends are my best friends.

Your audience uses keywords and keyword phrases to search for information.

Because your website brings so much to the table, your blog can and should also encompass a few topics.

Here are topic examples for your blog:

Inspirational
Travel
Personal Essays
Book Reviews
Interviews
Pop Culture
Short Stories
Writing Tips
Self-Improvement
Self-Development
Business
Marketing
Social Media

These are just a few. I’d only select five to six for categories on a blog. Whatever you choose stick with those and write blogs around these categories.

Do keyword research around these topics as well to see what your market is saying about them.

Can you offer any suggestions for what makes an interesting and growing blog?

I surely will. Be prepared to write a lot! And, be consistent. You will have to love writing for this task and strategy.

Think about doing a 30 to 90-day blog challenge writing over 1000 words. Your challenge can be Monday through Friday or seven days a week for the amount of day you choose for the challenge.

Remember this. Google loves long-form content. Please remember to optimize each blog post using keywords and keyword phrases.

The keywords should also be included in your headlines. So, be sure to use the YOAST SEO plugin in WordPress. Definitely, include images using free images from pixabay or unsplash dot com.

If you cannot blog this often, definitely blog twice or three times per week. Write and publish new blogs on Mondays, Tuesdays and or Thursdays.

Conclusion

Overall, all of the above information is needed as a strategy for social media marketing. Social media is your go-to for traffic and exposure to redirect traffic to your website, blogs, books, etc.

The key is to use proper SEO and SMO. This kind of strategy takes lots of work and diligent efforts. However, it will certainly pay off well and yield the best rewards in the end.

Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you. I read and respond to my community.

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Images are courtesy of Pixabay.