3 Rules to Follow on Social Media
While we are working on posts like V. S. Holmes’ post on Twitter, for now here are three important rules to follow on any social media site:
- 20/80 Rule: Do not promote yourself or your products (books) more than 20% of the time. The other 80% should be the quality post (see rule 3). The reason for this is you will quickly lose followers. Even if they don’t actively unlike your page on Facebook they might unfollow your posts which is even worse for you. You might think you are posting to your 250 fans but really all but your mom have unfollowed you. On Twitter they will unfollow you all together. Not the best marketing plan. People don’t like spam. They followed you for a reason, keep them happy and they will enjoy even your promotional posts.
- Engagement: talk to your fans not the trolls: Make sure you engage as many fans as possible. If people take the time to comment on your post, comment back. Trolls are a sad reality. Hopefully you will never have them directly attack you but if they do. DO NOT engage them back. Remember when your little/big brother would torture you and your mom would tell you to ignore him? He was only trying to get a rise out of you? Same deal applies. That being said, if you EVER feel unsafe or someone makes threats to harm you, contact the police if possible and tell your community.
- Post Quality Content Regularly: That 80% needs to be quality content. On Amphibian Press’s accounts we share info authors might like. Writing and marketing advice are the bulk of our posts. On my author page, I share books I’m reading, books I enjoyed, and other entertainment related content. TV shows and movies are fair game–my goal is to entertain. It’s even better if most of your posts are related to your genre or field and your life as an author.
At the end of the day your social media presence can make your business soar. Make sure to follow these three rules and your platform will grow. More on how to use specific social media platforms to come in future posts.