Social Media for Authors: I dare you press that button

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Since 2007 I have been an active user of Facebook and I have witnessed many upgrades and deletions of apps and such that drive interaction on the most common social network in history.  I’ve also watched businesses and author jump on the band wagon without a clue of what the game was about.  Monkey see, monkey do. And so it is with many authors.

This series of social media blogs for authors was birthed out of a desire to help authors stop being crowd followers and begin to open their eyes to the wealth of resources and income potential social networks bring. Today we will discuss the buttons or tabs that seem to get ignored because some people think that clicking them will break the computer or something.

So let me make it clear once and for all. Buttons are your friends. They want you to push them. They are crying out to you, “please,
pretty please stop ignoring me.”  Now that we are clear  let’s move on. The first question that any human has when exploring a subject is why and this is where we will begin in today’s session.

When you press any button, you are activating or deactivating something. Press the power button on your computer and you turn it on. Press again to turn it off. Visit your email and enter a login code and password then press the login button to login or get started reading and responding to messages in your inbox.  Its kinda like when you come home from work, put the key in the key hole and turn it to enter your home. If you turn the key the wrong way, you may not get in the door but you have learned that if you turn the key in the opposite direction, chances are, you gain access.  You see, it’s that easy.

So, the number one reason for pressing the button is to gain access and the second is to link access. If you are asking what you are gaining access too, then you are with me. The answer is you are gaining access to the originator of the button and in the case of social networks, you are also gaining access to the originator’s network and if you add a link, you are giving access to an additional network. How cool is that? If you are not following me, don’t worry, I’m going to make this all relevant in just a few.

Hopefully by now, every reader of this blog has a “like” page for their book. If not, stop reading this blog and do it now. Stop procrastinating and just do it. I want you to jump on the band wagon and explore your surroundings. This is a coaching blog so you are learning and not simply following.

Ok, now that you have your page up, you’ve followed all the prompts to populate the page with relevant content and invited your friends to join, visit www.facebook.com/socialmediamadeeasycoaching and let’s stay connected just in case you need more support.

Back to gaining and linking access. Off-line people speak negatively about cliques because they have not gained access. They believe that the exclusivity of these groups or networks of like-minded individuals is a bad thing. They are jealous, because in their minds, they have placed the members of the clique in an elite position above themselves.  Social media takes the veil off cliques
because to gain access all you have to do is press a button. Are you with me now?

I’m still discussing the importance of buttons on social network sites in gaining and linking access. So imagine there is a book store that you want to sell your book. You go to the store’s page and click the “like” button.  You now have access as a fan of
the bookstore. You look for the page owner’s photo and button and click to access their personal profile. (BTW, you must access people on Facebook as yourself, not your business) You study their info page and find a common interest and on the basis of that common interest, you click the friend request button. Guess what? You now have access to their news feed (unless they have blocked non-friends) and you can get to know them better by reading it from time to time. You establish a rapport with the book store owner by liking, commenting and sharing relevant content and they invite you to do a book signing at their store yielding you hundreds of new customers.  How about that for access?

Now let’s explore access from the standpoint of a company looking for a speaker who is an expert in a certain topic. You are the expert and your book delves into the topic the company is seeking. They place the topic (keywords) in the search bar but will they find you? The company reads one of your blogs and finds that you are knowledgeable, professional and your readers respond to you by looking at the comments, likes and shares at the bottom of your blog. Will you be the expert they contact? Have your readers actually enjoyed your content enough to link it to their Facebook page by pressing share. Is your comment box empty?

I’ve asked a lot of questions in hopes that they will trigger some thoughts and feelings regarding the importance of pressing buttons and interacting with good or bad content. The two examples I used, demonstrate the benefits of others using the buttons for your content but the golden rule is “do unto other that which you would have the do unto you.”  Be a teacher. Show your contacts how it should be done by breaking free from the fear of pressing buttons and see how the back links, shares and comments begin to flow. Let’s get liberated. Let’s go viral baby. Start today by clicking the buttons below. If this blog was no good, say so by posting a comment. If it was helpful, you know what to do. Press “like” and add a comment to encourage your friends, groups or fans to also read it. Finally, commit from this day forth to never spend the time reading an article and not let your valuable opinion count.

Until next time, press the button, I dare you.

Coach Versandra Kennebrew

www.socialmediamadeeasydetroit.com Join Us!