I recently recorded an interview with WynFM’s Book, Stage and Screen Show and chatted to the delightful Samantha and Gordon Napier about all things social media for authors, writers, actors and musicians.
Check out the interview, below.
Key points
- Start today – even if you don’t have a finished novel or an exhibition planned or that acting role you know you’ll be pefect for, get started on social media today.
- Narrow your focus – choose a social media channel or two that you’re comfortable with. Facebook? There’s more than a billion active daily users on Facebook, so you’re sure to find at least some of your tribe there. Instagram? Snapchat? Twitter? YouTube? Pinterest? Choose one or two social media channels you’re comfortable with to start with, but see point 3…
- Know your audience – where are they hanging out online? There’s no point talking to an empty room. Know which platforms your audience uses and hopefully that matches where you feel most comfortable on social media.
- Be creative – use your creativity to cut through the digital noise and reach your tribe.
- Start a business page – if you’re starting to build a following on Facebook, don’t use your personal profile in a business capacity or Facebook could shut down your account as it’s against their terms of service. Instead, set up a fan page for yourself.
- Build your email list away from social media – find ways to draw your tribe away from social media and onto your website, for example, where you can entice them to sign them up to your email list. If you’re only building a fan base on someone else’s turf, what would happen if you suddenly lost access to that social media account? What if Facebook shuts your page down? What if your Twitter account is hacked and deleted? How will you let your loyal fans know what’s happened?
2 replies to "Social media for authors, writers, artists and actors"
Sandra, your references to the early days of the Internet made me nostalgic for Usenet – when the World Wide Web was in its infancy, and being online was a much geekier and less commercial experience.
I agree wholeheartedly that business people (including creatives) need to build their own brand on their own turf, in addition to interacting on social media. Social media may get people in the door; but we all need to have our houses built so that the door leads to our brand’s home!
Back in the 80s, my oldest brother used to chat to people via our old Commodore 64 computer right across Australia using Telecom Viatel at 1200/75PBS (I had to ask him those details!) I remember chatting to people in Darwin and Queensland and other far away places while racking up an ENORMOUS telephone bill. It was like the very early days of Messenger.