How to Market You or Your Product Using Social Media

How to Market You or Your Product Using Social Media

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane: I just wrote a book that is available through Amazon.  I’m just not sure about the best way to market it?  Any suggestions?
 
That is a good question.  The tips I’m about to give can also be used to market things other than a book. 
 
You could market it through several ways.  I would create a link to it on your site like I have links on my main website to Amazon.  If you don’t want to do that, you could offer it directly from you as a PDF through your site and charge them using PayPal. 
 
You might want to make a video (3-4 minutes at most) and put it on Youtube.  At the end of the video make mention of a free offer or newsletter and where to go for more information.  If they go to that site, it should be a capture page to get people signed up  to receive free newsletters (through a site like aweber.com) to get them interested in you and your book. 
 
You definitely need to be on Facebook and create fan pages like the ones I have for each of my books there.  See:
 
 
I would be on Twitter as well.  You can tie all of your Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc. accounts into one area on sites like Hootsuite . . . but I like to use Posterous a lot. It is like a blog but it has a great share information toolbar that you can get that and it also allows you to share your updates on multiple sites like Hootsuite does. 
 
If you want to learn about social networking and “how to do it” . . .for a reasonable price you can go to  Letsgetsocial and sign up to get their videos.  I watched them and they are really very informative.  They are designed to teach people how to be media managers but people who don’t want to do the job of media management can learn how to do their own media management from them. 
 
I gave a presentation yesterday to a local group here where others were presenting to career-seekers … they all agreed that Youtube is one of the biggest things you can do to get noticed. 
 
I watched a video a while back on Pitchengine.com about videos and they had some good information.  They are more costly though. You might watch their video for information.  If you are going to spend that kind of money, you need to have a major product to promote.  Books probably won’t have the return to support that. 
 
Talks are another great way to promote your book . . . so are radio interviews.   You can go to radioguestlist.com or other sites like that to find people looking to interview you.
 
Blogging is one of the best ways to get your name out there.   I like to use WordPress because it is free and uncomplicated. 
 
You can also release press releases on prweb or other such sites.  I am on wooeb who also has press releases that are not as expensive.  You can send out free releases on pitchengine.
 
You might check out some books . . . .I liked a book called Career Renegade . . . had some good ideas.  (on a different side topic . . .I liked the book The Happiness Advantage written by ex Harvard professor – very entertaining)
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5 Top Social Networking Tips: How to Promote Yourself to the World

Are you trying to become well-known, sell your book, become famous like those on American Idol or America’s Got Talent, or promote any other thing that you are working on right now?  The key to success is social networking.  With the sluggish economy, a lot of people are out of work and are looking for a job.  Many are starting their own home-based or internet-based businesses.  If you are trying to get recognized or noticed, there are some major things you need to be aware of.

  • Did you know that Lady Gaga has over 11 million Facebook fans? Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter, WordPress, Posterous, YouTube and many more networking sites are one of the first things you must be familiar with if you want to get people to recognize your product, service or you.  If you’re not regularly posting on most of these major sites, you need to be.
  • Did you know that Youtube and video-marketing is the place to be right now?  People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube.  You need to be sure you are not only making yourself visible on YouTube, but that you are focusing your videos and the names of your videos correctly. Be sure your videos are no more than around 3 minutes long.  Also be sure you name your video a name that people will be searching for in order to find you.  You want the name to reflect what your content is, but be sure you pick popular terms for the product you are promoting.  To check out terms that are popular on YouTube, go to: https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool. In your video, be sure you send them to your website for more information.  You can capture their email or other information with free offers there. 
  • Did you know that if you get an account on some social networking sites like Posterous, updating your Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and other sites with your postings is as easy as sending an email?  Having a website has never been easier.  I like free sites like WordPress, but I also use Posterous to post updates to all of my sites.
  • Are you overwhelmed with all of the social networking options out there and don’t know where to start?  It can be very time consuming and expensive to learn everything you need to know to become a successful social networker.  There are people out there that can train you or do it for you.  I have tried a few different systems.  I like Kate Buck’s letsgetsocial.com site because you get good information at a reasonable price.  I am interested in hearing if anyone has tried Mike Koenigs’ Traffic Geyser system.  It sounds good but a little pricy for the masses.
  • Have you created your brand or image?  You need to decide what it is that you are offering.  My brand or image is that I am a Professor and Writer that offers help to people who want to Improve Their Lifetime Potential.  That is my tagline as well as what I do.  You need to come up with how you want to present yourself and be sure to consistently represent that image on all of your networking sites.