30-day Book Marketing Challenge

I am never one to back down from a challenge, and the latest one that popped into my Twitter feed was one from Rachel Thompson, author of the “30-Day Book Marketing Challenge.  I decided to start my challenge on the first of the month, May 1, 2017 to be exact, and I just ended it June 1, 2017.

Before I started reading, I took my stats and documented the number of followers each of my social media sites had. Then I settled in for 30 days of changes that I hoped would increase my followers. Here is what I learned:

Twitter – Even though I had already established a Twitter account, there were a few things that were suggested that made all the difference in the world!  My followers at the beginning of the month were 288 and by the end they were 372. At the time of drafting this post, I am up to 421. Primary changes included: Pinning a post, using location spot for more information, and including hashtags in my profile. I have also been more apt to interact with other posts, which is key on Twitter.

Facebook – Wow the first day alone I made changes that I didn’t even know existed!  I added tabs through a site I was directed to called Woobox that allowed me to connect all of my other social medias to my Facebook page, which I absolutely loved! I also developed more of a storefront presence by adding my books and linking them to  my Amazon account.  Even though I thought I was way ahead of the game on this, I realized I had only been scratching the surface! My beginning numbers were: 191 on my Author account, and 59 follows on my page.  I ended with 193 on account and 59 follows, so not much of an increase, but to be fair I spent the most time interacting on Twitter.

Google + – This was another account I had already established, so didn’t do too much in the way of changes for this either.  I began and ended with 13 followers, however I firmly believe that anything posted through this site, will support your visibility in the Google search engine.  I have my Buffer linked to all my social media accounts so I can schedule posts easily, so shoot things automatically to my Google + site. I plan on giving this site a little more love in the upcoming months.

Blog – My personal blog http://www.saraybooksllc.com did see an increase in followers, going from 27 to 39, which is pretty good considering I didn’t make very many changes to what I have been doing for the past 6 months. One main change however, was that I included my Saturday blog posts on #mondayblogs, which gave my site more activity than I am used to seeing.

Pinterest & Instagram – Yes I have those also, and each of them showed an increase of 2-3 followers, going from 14 to 16 for Pinterest and 43 to 46 for Instagram.  The images I share are mainly quote slides, and tend not to be recycled on those sites.  I do plan on posting more pictures as I do my book events this summer which I feel will increase activity on these sites.

If you are building your author platform, make sure you check out Rachel Thompson’s “30-Day Book Marketing Challenge.”  You will want to be faithful and read it daily, and make sure you do the exercises! This book is one of the best investments in myself I have made so far!