Getting Your Social Media Game Going

Part of everyone's marketing strategy should involve social media. I don't care if you're using Facebook, Twitter, what have you. The basic idea is that you need to join groups. And by joining these groups, you eventually get people to to follow and/or friend you; eventually, you'll end up creating a fan base of decent size. You need this fan base; it means that whenever you're trying to push updates, or advertise your merchandise, or basically just say, "Hey, I'm here!" you actually got somebody's attention.

Using social media is very cheap, takes just a little bit of time, and can be reasonably effective. Thus, you need to devise some sort of strategy.

Where to Start

Twitter allows you to say, "Hey, we're here!" It allows for really quick posts that show what you're going to be doing and should be backed a reason to go look at it. You can also interact with others, which can actually get you a lot of people following you; they'll retweet you if you retweet them. Once you accrue enough followers, Twitter becomes a really fast way to get the message out.

Instagram and Pinterest are great for comics, but anyone with a visually interesting book can take advantage of them. They can basically allow you to post your book cover and a lot of its illustrations, as a picture with no context and the option of posting a link to the actual website. This makes it a real quick "This is who we are! Come on, look at us!" Pinterest also allows you to join various groups, allowing you to spread your message a little further.

And Then You Get Serious

Facebook is the next step up. You're not just simply telling people to look at what you're doing, establishing your reputation and setting up connections. You need to do whatever you can, and that the more groups you're part of the better. But you need to figure out where your balancing point is; you don't want to do more than 30 minutes to an hour on social media during the entire day or it goes from being something you need to do to something that's going to be taking over your life.

Of course, you should also debate LinkedIn. Its groups and ability to let others follow others is great for your marketing, and you have an audience that's looking for ways to add to their lives, be it a great distraction, something to make their lives easier, or even just interesting products.

All told, these sites should be part of your basic strategies. You don't have to set up on all five of them, but do debate them for the best possible overall strategy.