How to Make Social Media Worth Your Time: When Is Enough Enough?
By Jane Friedman | August 25, 2014 |
via Flickr / by Thomas Hawk
A writer recently asked me to comment on whether there is anything to be gained from being active on more than two or three social media accounts. How extensive should you really get—and is it possible that “less is more”?
I interpret this question to mean: When is enough enough? And how do I make any effort worth my time?
Answering this question requires stepping back—waaaay back—and looking at how and why authors use social media in the first place. I’m going to focus on the three most common stages.
- Growing relationships in the community.
- Actively marketing a book (or product/service).
- Nurturing reader relationships.
Stage 1: Growing relationships
This kind of activity is largely unquantifiable, but it’s also where nearly every single person starts (at least if you’re not a celebrity).
As you learn to use any social media tool, there’s a “warming up” period as you understand the community, its language, and its etiquette. Most people begin by reaching out to the in-real-life people they already know on the network, then branch out and connect with people they haven’t met in person before.
What’s the purpose of this activity?
Well, why do any of us attend social functions? To have a good time, to learn and be informed, and to seek encouragement and support.
When does it reach its limits of utility? That’s kind of like asking how many relationships, or how many friends, is too many. If it’s starting to drag on your resources and time to do other things more important to you (such a writing), then it’s time to re-assess.
While I don’t recommend analyzing your social media use (from a numbers perspective) when you’re focused on it being, well, social, it’s helpful to check in with yourself on how the activity is making you feel. Energetic or drained? Positive or anxious? Empowered or jealous?
If you’re experiencing more negative emotions than positive, it may be time to step back from the specific networks causing these emotions, or stepping back entirely until you identify what’s creating bad mojo.
Stage 2: Actively marketing a book
You’ll only be successful at marketing on social media if you’ve already been through stage one. No one likes a stranger barging into the room and hawking his wares. It’s considered rude and the stranger is ostracized quickly.
But let’s be honest: many people have been told to get on social media in preparation for a book launch, and have no interest in using it beyond the marketing and promotion utility. That people feel this obligation or burden is one of the greatest failures of publishing community, but I’m going to set that aside (for this post), and instead speak to how to manage this stage authentically without rubbing everyone the wrong way.
Social media is excellent at building awareness and comprehension in the community of who you are and what you stand for. Over time, you become more visible and identifiable, because you show up consistently and have focused messages (let’s hope). It’s usually only after this recognition and trust develops that you can run a successful campaign that focuses on the sale—getting the community to buy.
[pullquote]Measure traffic to your website from social media. Does it make up a high or meaningful percentage of visits? If you don’t know, this is a significant gap in your knowledge that is preventing you from really answering the question: How do I make it worth my time?[/pullquote]
For those who don’t have these relationships or trust in place, here’s a work around: Get your friends and influencers who already have relationships and trust in place to help spread the word for you.
If you do have a solid foundation, then create a focused and strategic campaign, with specific start and end dates, for each social media network. Build in ways to measure if it’s working or not. For example, it’s easy to track how many people click on your links in Twitter, or retweet or favorite you. Facebook shows you the number of likes and shares. Over time, these simple metrics can tell you a lot about what people respond to, so that you can adjust and improve your updates. (At its heart, social media has a lot in common with strong copywriting. For lessons in copywriting, see Copyblogger.)
Regardless of your stage of activity—but especially during marketing campaigns—you should measure traffic to your website from social media. Does it make up a high or meaningful percentage of visits? If you don’t know, this is a significant gap in your knowledge that is preventing you from really answering the question: How do I make it worth my time?
Here, my assumption is that the author website is the most important online presence of all, where the most valuable or interested readers end up. If you’re seeing a lot of readers reach your site through a particular social media outlet—and those referral numbers are increasing month-on-month or year-on-year—it is indeed worth your time. The graph below shows an example from Google Analytics.
This would indicate that, if this author’s social media activity were consistent during both periods, the effectiveness of the activity is declining on Twitter and Facebook. What should be done? If overall site traffic is growing, maybe nothing. If overall site traffic is declining, the author could change up posting frequency or type of posts (e.g., focus on more visual types of posts), focus on different social media networks, or develop a fresh content strategy campaign. Much depends on why you think the effectiveness is declining. And sometimes declines are out of your control—like when Facebook changes its feed algorithms—which means it may be time to focus your energy elsewhere.
Stage 3: Nurturing reader relationships
For published writers (regardless of how you publish), social media becomes a key way to stage engaged with your audience, and nurture it for the long haul of your career.
Some people advise writers get on social media before publication in order to grow their audience, and this can make sense for nonfiction authors who need to build visibility and authority in their field. For fiction authors, it can make little sense. How can you build readership around work that hasn’t yet been made public? You can build relationships, and be part of a community, but you’re not necessarily cultivating a readership. A potential readership, maybe. But there’s a big difference here that’s not frequently enough acknowledged, and also leads to a lot of frustration and claims that social media doesn’t work.
But let’s focus back on the primary challenge of stage three: this is when the real pinch comes into play, where authors have to balance time writing with time interacting with their audience. There’s a lot of value to be gained from nurturing that connection, and it can even inform what you write next. Yet every author has to form a strategy that they are personally comfortable with and can sustain with reasonable comfort (with additional stress budgeted in for the marketing and promotion campaigns of stage two).
It’s hard to prescribe a formula because (in my estimation) this comes down to your personality, your type of work, and where you’re at in your career. Your priorities will change, and your social media use will fluctuate. That’s natural and expected.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks: When Is Enough Enough?
If you want an answer that is truly quantifiable, then I would say: It’s enough when you are maintaining or growing readership, as demonstrated by visits to your website or sales of your work.
How many social media networks does this take? It only needs to take one if you’re very efficient and smart about how you use that network. Or it might be five, if you prefer diversity and experimentation. There is no single answer, but to increase the value of your activity, consider your sales funnel. (Apologies for the business term.) Your sales funnel reflects how you turn social media engagement into people who ultimately become readers. You can read more about sales funnels here. Just as anyone who’s serious about quantifying their social media activity needs to have a website, you also need to consider the path readers take to find you, and how you can lead them down that path more quickly and effectively.
How do you quantify the worth of your social media activity? How do you decide when enough is enough?
Jane Friedman has more than 20 years in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media and the future of authorship. She’s the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors. You can find out more about her consulting services and online classes at her website, JaneFriedman.com.
Thanks for the sage advice, Jane. The time suck of social media is what really challenges me. To do social media well, a writer must commit a substantial amount of time and that’s time that cannot be spent writing. How do I quantify my social media activity? I look at my stats, but my numbers have hit a plateau. I also look at what posts resonate with readers and why. How do I know when enough is enough? When social media is cutting into my writing time, I’m spending too much time there. Recently, I’ve limited my social media activities to blogging weekly, reading a few selected fiction blogs, and nurturing and expanding my online relationships with other writers. I also post a lot of book reviews through my blog and maximize the impact by posting them on Goodreads and Amazon to connect with readers. Goodreads is a great way to connect with readers, but, again, it takes time. Is all of this activity enough? No, but I have a full-time day job and I need to preserve my writing time. Thanks again, Jane.
Call me naive, but I’m remarkably unconcerned about this. Actually, now that I’ve written that, I realize I’ve grown cold to the issue. Numb, maybe?
It’s not that I believe that if you write the best book possible, it will naturally do well. But I do believe that writing that book is the critical starting point. And I know I’m still not there yet. I also believe there’s very little you can do, social media-wise, to overcome a book that, for whatever reason, does not catch hold and rise. I’ve seen too much to believe otherwise.
I don’t “do” Google+, but I like their theory of social media “circles.” And I believe that the inner circle, however you define it, is the important one to nurture. Sure, you can grow it, over time (it can’t be rushed–and it shouldn’t be a goal in and of itself; it can only grow organically). Those people you bring in to the fold, because of what they did and what you did–the reciprocal nature of that inner circle–THEY are the ones that “might” make a difference over time. Be good to them. Be grateful when they are good to you. And work your ass off on that book. That’s my current policy in a nutshell.
Thanks for continuing to shine your bright light on these issues, Jane!
I’m personally unconcerned like you, Vaughn, though it may remain the No. 1 . question I get at conferences: How do I find time to do it all? What can I *stop* doing?
I’d prefer to advise detachment from the results of social media efforts.
I believe the issue is bigger than just social media use in the publishing community. I think there’s broad concern and anxiety about productivity levels and making things worthwhile, as we simultaneously find ourselves distracted from what we consider our most important goals.
Excellent point about it being a broader issue, my Zen-master Mentor. The closer we get to one another, the further apart we feel…?
I really am grateful for the people in my life that wouldn’t have been there without this mighty gift. WU is the center of my online world, so I’m grateful for this writerly sun.
Thanks again, Jane! I know following you over the years has been part of my awareness, and thereby my ability to shed anxiety over it. Your expertise is always conveyed in such a way as to be a comfort as well as providing insight!
Jane, we have a question: How can fiction writers build an audience with social media before they have a book out?
Thanks.
Serialization is a popular method. Sites like Wattpad allow you to start building a readership by posting your work in installments.
Ultimately, it’s hard to build an audience without producing work that you either give away or sell.
I think serialization should be your very best, polished work – if you expect it to lead people to your work for sale, and especially if you don’t have a history already.
I see a lot of serials that are so rough I can’t read them. Maybe that works for authors who have an established base of fans who just want the next piece of the author’s work asap, but I still don’t think it’s a good idea.
In any case, the Pride’s Children tab on my blog offers one example – I’ve been posting over a year, and hope to finish Book 1 this Fall.
Really insightful overview, Jane. You’re right, there is no magic formula and we do have to blaze our own paths. After being on social media for the past two years (Twitter, FaceBook, Google+) I find that connecting with other authors and editors in the industry (and some readers) to be the basic thrust rather than direct “book sales.” If I had to choose one media I’d choose my weekly fiction blog (free short stories) since that produces more actual book sales than Tweets or FB. And that’s because there’s more engagement time for readers to get to know my literary voice and see my books, short stories, reviews, etc. on the pages on my site. But I do use Twitter and FB to draw people to my fiction blog. On the days that I post my blog on Twitter or FB, my hits double, sometimes triple.
I try to keep my social media time to under an hour a day.
Thought provoking article Jane. Social media has so changed the world of a writer/author…confused us with things we need to know but really would rather not. Laugh! With so much emphasis on “platform” for the non-fiction writer, social media seems to be the most effective catalyst. While connecting with other writers has much benefit, I’m not sure other writers will always translate into readers that love your work. I find that it is sort of like a cocktail party. I’ve found one tribe through my weekly blog and a bloggers group. There are lots of different topics but I’ve found that by introducing my writing style, some of these folks have purchased my book…and leave comments that they can’t wait for my next one. So I agree with Paula…I think that publishing a blog consistently and amassing subscribers/followers can be time well spent.
Well put. Our question is, how do we get people to come to our blog? Currently, we’re using Facebook and Twitter as well as writers’ forums to create interest as well as gaining relationships. But will this translate into people coming to our blog once it’s up?
I discuss ways to get traffic here:
https://janefriedman.com/2012/11/27/build-long-lasting-traffic-to-website/
I think that social media is a great way to create a network and interact with other writers. It’s important not to see it solely as a place where you hawk your wares but where you are engaged and interested in other people. Using it only for self-promotion is like being a writer who doesn’t read other people’s work.
Jane–
Your posts are always worth reading, and today’s is no exception–thank you.
I would like to have the problems you describe, but I find myself trapped by my own ignorance. I have a good website, and I’m perfectly willing to do what’s needed to make it work for me. Willing, but not able: at the most fundamental level (beyond writing posts), I don’t know what to do to bring traffic to the site. That’s why I stopped writing posts. If you or anyone “out there” can point me to a truly basic, “push this button, then this button” guide to improving (in my case creating) website traffic, I would be most grateful.
Hi Barry – I’ve got a 101 post on that here:
https://janefriedman.com/2012/11/27/build-long-lasting-traffic-to-website/
Jane–I read your post on improving traffic to my website, and l learned from it–thank you again.
Great post. I always enjoy your posts on social media (and about social media ;) ).
I guess were I am is wanting some numbers? What is a “normal” growth? When does the the hits/likes/follows hit critical mass? Is there a critical mass? What is the correlation between sales and the use of social media? Does the use of social media change with the book–is social media more effective for romance fiction than say historical non-fiction or children’s books? How does the author personality work or not work in social media–I can’t find Donna Tartt’s Twitter feed. I know you don’t know the answer, I just find we lump everything under social media as if this is some universal category uninfluenced by a plethora of factors, and, for all I know, it may well be.
And as you alluded to in the post, perhaps there is no answer than simply what each of us can make effective. It certainly is a long game. Getting more than yourself and your mother to click on your site seems to be the first step. There seem to be an organic progression, at least from what I have seen. It seems to be very much connected to effort–my site really changed when I went from posting once a month to five days a week. ;) The balance of maintaining the blog and the quality of the blog with the work of making and selling books is complex, but with time you can get in a groove.
What I found interesting is finding your voice in blogging–my blog turned out very different than I imagined it would be. It was even a lot of fun to do. And the act of blogging fed back into my work. The Twitter, Facebook thing is still a mystery to me.
Hi William – As you’ve suggested, much depends on what category or genre we’re talking about, as well as the rate of production (how much work is being published in a year). Authors in commercial fiction categories can generally pick up momentum more quickly—there are larger audiences and more ravenous readers, plus well-established online communities.
Some authors, like Franzen, Tartt, and other major literary writers, we’ll never find on social media. They’re part of a privileged class; their buzz comes from the appointed arbiters of taste in the literary community who dictate The Important Authors to Read.
I’d say you’ve discovered a couple of important principles already: organic progression and voice development. :) I talk about my own audience development growth here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjc7R8_-IpQ
I always hoped that if I got an agent, he or she would take over the social networking for me. I don’t enjoy it, and I’m obviously doing it wrong. I’ve had a facebook account for 5 years, and I have not met any editors or agents, nor anyone I would want to meet in person.
Thanks for the information – and the link to Sales funnels.
I’m getting ready to publish – and my marketing plan had a hole. I kind of knew it, and had various thoughts on how to plug it – and then I went and read this link, and a whole bunch of stuff on copyblogger.com – and had a wonderful idea.
I’ll let you know if it works out – or it may be obvious – but it isn’t often an idea comes exactly at the right time. Unless it’s a case of ‘When the pupil is ready, the Master will arrive.’
In any case – I am really glad I read this today.
Alicia
People want the magic formula, but it’s like we always say- just do what you’re comfortable with, and accept the results. To do something well and long-term, you should really enjoy it. Thanks for shedding light and relieving anguish.
So much good advice as usual. Problem for me is also ‘not enough time’. But maybe with a different slant; one that possibly takes me out of the mix/discussion. Namely I have too many other interests and enjoyments to have time for social media as well as my writing. For me I write when I have time left from ‘living’ (sorry to be soo trite). I have no need to feed myself or my wife with income from it (the bottom line I suppose). Guess I’m lucky by the sounds of it. Still I do wish I could find a means of marketing that works without wading through all the ‘indirect’ efforts. Social media just doesn’t seem to be efficient.
Thanks for the helpful article and all the link. Marketing is not my favorite thing to do, and I know I should learn a lot more about how to do it effectively. This was a good start, and I really appreciated the links to other sources.
This is a fantastic post. Thank you so much, Jane!
Dear Ms. Friedman,
I appreciate the targeted information you provided in your post called “How to Make Social Media Worth Your Time: When Is Enough Enough?” I am in a graduate level communications program and learning how to get started across several social media venues (starting with a blog at http://www.diahankrahulek.com). You brought the larger picture into focus with three straightforward goals of developing an online presence and provided me with some extra tools to assist with that process. I believe the task is now in bite-size pieces.
Cordially,
Diahan Krahulek
I think in this day and age having a social media presence is imperative so that readers can interact with you if they like. Whether it is a good investment in time as a way to grow a readership is another matter. I imagine spending that time writing the next book would make existing readers happier and add to your virtual shelf space, helping new readers find you too.