Companies trying to promote a product or service can find social media a time-waster. The problem is that we’re all competing with celebrity influencers, viral podcasts, world news, and the vast number of distractions in life.

It might be daunting to promote something via social media. This is where we chat with our friends and share photos from recent weddings. We also use it to search for vacation destinations by browsing beach photos.

The key to success in any industry is to examine what your product is offering.

This is something that I found out recently when I was promoting my new book. I’ve struggled to find the right tone, to be honest. I thought it would be easy to just post about how the book was. AvailableAssuming that this would suffice. It’s not. In recent weeks, I’ve decided to switch my approach almost entirely (especially on LinkedIn) and provide some value and purpose behind my posts.

Since recently, I have been using long-form posting. My book is about productivity (including a section on how to stay productive on social media), so I’ve started posting tips and techniques, quotes about productivity, and longer posts telling my story about how I’ve learned to be productive. (The short version is that I’ve published around 15,000 articles in my career, so my book is mostly about the best practices I’ve used to keep a steady flow of work going.)

It’s not easy to attract attention on social media. The challenge for me is the fact that there’s a lot to choose from in the book industry, as well as a lot more established authors. This is my first book. I needed to build an email list, and create a website. I was familiar with the basics. Social media is a tool I use to communicate with people about my book and provide links to my website. It also allows them to sign up for my newsletter.

An author friend told me people don’t click links from social media sites to purchase something. That might be changing soon given that “social commerce” (shopping on social media) is an emerging trend, but it’s a big jump to go from an Instagram post to buying a book. That’s why I’ve tended to focus on providing the value as a way to help a potential reader know if my book is worth the time. If a potential reader views one of my posts they should be able to view a small portion of the whole book and I will usually provide a link that leads to further information.

I won’t say it’s a perfect strategy. This is actually where you can help. Promoting a book can be difficult, as I mentioned. It is possible that you have had difficulty attracting attention to a new product. Follow me on social media. …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

Author: Aaron