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Wednesday 14 December 2016

neetsmarketing Two Years On!



2016 has been another exciting year for neetsmarketing. 

I’ve worked for some fantastic clients, including crime fiction author, Simon Michael and was Publicity Officer for the Historical Novel Society (HNS) Conference in Oxford, a weekend which included speakers Melvyn Bragg, Tracy Chevalier, Fay Weldon; and many more (blog post here). Having managed the HNS social media for two years, I set up and trained a team and handed over the social media manager role to Elaine Powell after the conference. 

Me and friend, Jules Wake at RNA London chapter Christmas lunch (selfie!)
My website, www.neetsmarketing.com was rebuilt in March, to include packages, endorsements and courses tabs and I’ve been to a lot of events, including The London Book Fair, Romance in the Court at Goldsboro Books, the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) Conference, the HNS conference (mentioned above), the RNA summer and winter parties, RNA London chapter lunches including the recent Christmas lunch, the Society of Women Writers and Journalists' Christmas tea; plus book launches for Simon Michael’s An Honest Man, and ex-writing teacher, Sara Bailey’s Dark Water. 

RNA London chapter Christmas lunch L-R: Henriette Gyland, Christina Courtenay, Sue Moorcroft, Jules Wake
Jane Bidder (a former client, who writes as Jane Corry) asked me to do a talk for the Freelance Media Group in March on social media for writers, in London, and I was thrilled to be asked to write a piece for the Women Writers, Women’s Books website, How to Get the Most out of Social Media as a Writer. This year, I’ve also had articles printed in the RNA’s Romance Matters magazine about the HNS and RNA conferences.

Attendees on my fourth course, October 2016
I ran my fourth Social Media Course for Writers in October, and my fifth is scheduled for 6 May 2017 at new venue, the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury in London (by Russell Square tube). More details are at the end of this post or via my website here.

Me and the fab Adrienne Vaughan at the RNA Conference (selfie!)
Thank you to all who have supported me and recommended me to friends and acquaintances this year, I really do appreciate it! And best wishes to all for a relaxing Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2017.

Below are top posts from 2016 and since this blog began, plus information on my upcoming course. Thank you to all of my fabulous guests, and hosts.

Top Three Posts from 2016:


Sara Bailey's launch for Dark Water at Waterstones Teddington, November 2016
Top Three Posts of past two years:

2: My Beginner’s Guide to Twitter for Writers (rewritten for 2016, to be done again in 2017!)

My favourite photo from #HNSOxford16, the fab committee packing goody bags
Other posts from 2016:


Me and the wonderful Alison Morton (who helped me with #HNSOxford16 publicity) at The London Book Fair (selfie!)
My Guest Posts on other blogs in 2016:

Elaina James’ blog: Taking Twitter to the Next Level


My next Social Media Course for Writers, 6 May 2017:

Will take place on 6 May 2017 at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, London, next to Russell Square tube. The course runs from 10am-5pm with WiFi and a big screen, and attendees bring laptops/macbooks etc. A buffet lunch in the restaurant plus refreshments throughout the day are included. The cost is £89, with an early bird discount of £5 until 31 January 2017. Bookings have been coming in and places are limited. Email me at anitajchapman at gmail dot com to book. More information, and quotes from previous attendees can be found on my website here.

Monday 31 October 2016

React Reply Reciprocate on Social Media!



Sometimes knowing how to react, reply, and reciprocate when blogging, or on Twitter and Facebook can seem confusing. So here’s a post, which hopefully will be helpful, and I’ve included Instagram too, which seems to be growing in popularity amongst writers.

Being on social media is about building relationships, which can take time. If someone does something for you and you don’t acknowledge it or do anything in return, it’s unlikely they’ll do it again. And to get anywhere on social media you need to be polite, and show the nicest side of yourself. Plus the more interaction there is with a tweet, Facebook post or Instagram post, the more likely it is that the post will be shown to more people.

Blogs

Guest post on a blog: 

React by saying thanks:
If you’re a guest on someone’s blog, post a comment to say thanks to the host; and reply to any comments left.

See my post: 19 Tips on How to be the Ideal Blog Guest for more on this.

Your blog:

Reply:
If someone comments on your blog post, reply.

Reciprocate:
Leave comments on blogs in return where possible.


Twitter

React by saying thanks:
If someone retweets your tweet, try to thank them (easiest to thank a few at the same time), unless the retweet is part of a popular hashtag, in which case, write a general thank you at the end of the day, including the hashtag so anyone following the hashtag can see it.

If someone constructs a tweet specifically for your blog post, book release etc, reply to the tweet to say thanks, and retweet it.

Reply:
If someone replies to one of your tweets-especially if it’s something enthusiastic about your blog post or book, (and assuming the comment isn't negative or spam), like their tweet and reply. 

Sometimes just liking the tweet isn’t enough.

Reciprocate:
Retweet in return where possible.

Create your own tweets or Quote Tweets for blog posts and book releases by others in your network, especially for those who are always supportive.

Don’t forget to:
Search for your name, your book titles, guest post links to find tweets where your username isn’t included. Then thank, reply etc as above. My guest post for Women Writers, Women's Books is still shared now and again months after I wrote it, and I pick up these tweets because I have a column for the link in Tweetdeck.

Facebook

React by saying thanks:
If someone shares your post, go into the post, like and leave a comment to say thanks.

Reply:
If someone comments on your post, like the comment (assuming it isn't negative or spam), and reply. If you have lots of comments on a post, it’s still worth replying to each one individually if you have time.

Reciprocate:
React to, and share posts in return where possible.


Instagram

React and Reply
If someone comments on your post, reply (where relevant, there's no real need to reply to a smiley face).

Reciprocate:
Like posts in return.


Reciprocate in other ways and on other social media:

In other ways:
If someone hosts you on their blog, you could offer to host them in return. You can take part in promotion for another author's book launch. There are lots of possibilities. 

On other social media: 
If someone is always retweeting your tweets, but they don’t have a book out or a blog, you can reciprocate by liking their Instagram or Facebook posts. If someone shares your post on Facebook, but they have no recent post to share, you can retweet one of their tweets or like one of their Instagram posts.

Sometimes it’s difficult to reciprocate for everyone, but if you never reciprocate, it’s noticeable.



My next Social Media Course for Writers will be on 6 May 2017 at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury in London. More details can be found on my website, and there's an early bird discount until the end of January 2017. Bookings are coming in already, and places are limited. 

To book, email me at anitajchapman at gmail dot com.


This post was inspired by client and course attendee questions.

Other neetsmarketing posts which may be useful:

My guest post via Women Writers: How to Get the Most out of Social Media as a Writer 


Wednesday 7 September 2016

Why Help at a Writers' Conference? #HNSOxford16

The Ashmolean Museum
Last weekend, I went to the Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford. I’ve been on the committee for almost two years as publicity officer, and have managed the HNS Twitter account and Facebook Page since August 2014. There were a lot of big name authors with Melvyn Bragg, Fay Weldon, Kate Williams, Christopher Gortner, and Tracy Chevalier; amongst many others. Then there were industry leaders, who included Carole Blake, David Headley, Nick Sayers, Simon Taylor, Jane Johnson. Congratulations to Carol McGrath and Jenny Barden for putting together a fantastic programme. The website is here with more info, although I expect that at some point it will be replaced with one for the next conference.

Usually I write up events like this one, with points from some of the main talks (see my post from last time), but at this conference, I was tweeting during talks I attended; plus helping out with front desk, pitches, and other stuff. My notes aren’t as detailed as they could be, so I'm including links to write-ups and posts inspired by the weekend here instead, adding new ones as I see them. I tweeted from some of the main talks @histnovsoc using #HNSOxford16 (click to see everything under this hashtag), and Elaine Powell tweeted from some of the workshops. The main talks will be on the HNS YouTube channel at some stage.

A few posts written so far:


Some of the wonderful commitee members, and volunteers when we packed goody bags
What made this conference for me was working behind the scenes in the run up, and during the conference with some special, and talented people. The camaraderie reminded me of when I used to help out behind the scenes at school for musicals and plays, everyone pulling together to make it happen, working as a team, with lots of laughs and support for each other. Everyone on the committee wanted it to go well, and did their very best to make that happen. Take a look at the wonderful committee here on the website (which again, will disappear at some stage).

Writing can be lonely, and it’s unusual to meet writers in everyday life (especially those who write in the same genre or same era), unless you join a group or go to a class, and make a writing friend locally. Being surrounded by people who love doing what you are doing (or trying to do!), by those at the same stage as you, by those who do it so very well, who are international bestsellers; and by industry leaders who know what they’re talking about when it comes to what sells, and what doesn’t; what the current market trends are, and what’s expected; that’s quite a privilege.

I met so many writers, most who I know online already, some who I’ve followed for years, and interacted with or noticed because I read their blogs and/or books. Some committee members have become firm friends and I'll always know them, and continue to support them with their projects-Alison Morton, who helped me with the publicity, and who was my neighbour at St Anne's (a skilled tea-maker), gets a special mention here!

This summer's beach read
My highlight of the weekend was spending time with Tracy Chevalier between her talk (which was brilliant, and witty), and the HistFictionist Challenge. Tracy couldn’t get a signal on her phone as the conference took place in a basement, so we went upstairs and once she’d managed to do what she needed to do, we chatted about this and that, the book world, how the weekend had gone, who’d been there, and where delegates had come from. It was surreal, and during our whole conversation, I was thinking, ‘am I really sitting here chatting to my favourite author, the woman who wrote the book I read on the beach this summer?’ 

I handed the HNS social media over to Elaine Powell on Monday (5 Sept), and when I mentioned this on my Facebook profile, I was overwhelmed by all the lovely comments. Thank you to everyone for your support, and especially to HNS Chairman, Richard Lee for the opportunity. 

Now is the time (to quote Melvyn Bragg!) to focus on building my neetsmarketing clients, and to write-I really do want to be published one day, and must now get it done. I had a positive pitch session at the conference, and I’m feeling inspired due to the feedback, and our conversation about what would sell.

Me and rock of a friend, Liz Cooper at the gala dinner

So, if you want to get to know writers, and those in the industry better, to raise your profile, to have a bit of a laugh (referring especially to the goody bags here...): I’d say it’s worth getting involved in an event like the HNS conference. But next time, I may just turn up and absorb the talks, we’ll see!
I took some time off from neetsmarketing over the summer to go to Italy (see my latest neetswriter blog post), and to spend time with family. But now I’m back ‘in the office’, and there are two places left on my next Social Media Course for Writers, 8 October in London. Find out more via my website here, and email me at anitajchapman at gmail dot com to book. Added 14 Sept 2016: this course is now fully booked, but I may run one in spring 2017, subject to demand. Email me at the above address to be added to the distribution list.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

Latest on the Book World from #RNAConf16


Pretty scenery from traffic jam on M6 just outside Lancaster
Last weekend I drove up to Lancaster for the Romantic Novelists' Association's ("RNA") Conference. The university campus is huge, and it’s easy to get lost-thankfully there were lots of lovely students around on the Saturday with ‘How Can I Help?’ signs to direct us to where we needed to go.

Because of the driving distance from where I live in Surrey-Lancaster (500 mile round trip) and M6 traffic on the way, unfortunately I missed Liz Fenwick and Brigid Coady’s talk on Author marketing-brand, plan and goals (which I heard was great); and the talks on Sunday too. Here are the main points from the talks I attended:

L-R: Carole Blake, Felicity Trew, Alison May, Iona Grey, Freda Lightfoot
Building Your Writing Career with Alison May (chair), Carole Blake (agent), Iona Grey (author), Freda Lightfoot (author) and Felicity Trew (agent).

I arrived late to this talk, due to the M6 traffic mentioned above, but was pleased to make some of it, as I’ve heard Carole Blake speak a few times, and she always gives very useful advice. Carole will be speaking at the upcoming Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford, 2-4 September (which I’m doing the publicity for), and I look forward to seeing the panel, The Next Big Thing in Historical Fiction on 3 Sept with David Headley, Jane Johnson, Nick Sayers and Simon Taylor. Carole will also be doing a talk on Foreign Rights and Translation, 4 Sept with Vanora Bennett, and Louise Rogers Lalaurie.

Social media:
  • Carole Blake said that social media is about getting your name recognisable so that it stands out in a shop.
  • Iona Grey said that Twitter is her natural home and feels more like a conversation. Facebook doesn’t feel as natural to her, and she’s discovered Instagram through her children.
What an author shouldn’t do to have a sustainable career:
  • Carole Blake told an anecdote about one of her authors who was rude to a publisher’s receptionist and an editor, and he was subsequently dropped as her client.
  • Freda Lightfoot said not to talk politics on Facebook, don’t be rude to your publisher and keep personal opinions to yourself on social media.
Reviews:
  • Carole Blake said that the more reviews an author gets, the better 
  • Jean Fullerton, from the audience added not to answer a bad review.
Contracts:
  • Carole Blake said that it's harder to get an agent than a publisher, and she advised to get contracts vetted by the Society of Authors, who will tell you which points to negotiate; and not to go with the first agent offer.


L-R: Kate Bradley and Alex Brown
Kate Bradley (Senior Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins) and Alex Brown (bestselling author at HarperCollins): Writing a commercial novel:

Kate Bradley and Alex Brown gave a really interesting talk, packed with information in easy-to-understand language; and I have lots of notes, so here goes…

Kate Bradley said:
  • A commercial novel is one that lots of people want to buy through lots of different channels, such as supermarkets, High Street (WH Smiths, Waterstones to a lesser extent); Amazon, iBooks, Google Books, Kobo. The target audience is fine-tuned depending on customers, for example the audience would be different in Sainsbury’s from Morrisons.
  • Kate has never bought a book as a publisher without thinking about who the end customer is.
  • Commerical is what people are feeling right now: at the moment, there’s a trend for teashops, cupcakes, vintage, cosy.
  • It’s easy to build a familiar framework for somewhere like Paris, than say Lancaster.
  • The term chick lit is being replaced by rom com, but the term rom com doesn’t work for chick lit which isn’t funny.
  • Grip lit is women’s fiction with a dark edge
  • There’s been a shift towards older heroines, and Alex said that in her 40s she found it difficult to write about a heroine in her 20s (I’ve had the same problem, and can understand why, as life for a twenty-something is so different from how it was for me back in the 1990s).
  • There’s a new emerging genre aimed at older readers with books by Dawn French, Celia Imrie and Erica James who are writing about forty and fifty-somethings, books aimed at people with different experiences of life.
L-R: Ian Skillicorn, Katy Haye, Tracy Bloom
Tracy Bloom (author), Katy Haye (author), Ian Skillicorn (publisher at Corazon Books): the business of self-publishing.

Even though this talk was aimed at those interested in self-publishing, there were a lot of tips and good advice for all authors. I follow many self-published authors online, and have noticed before that they are often way ahead with their marketing, and there are many useful blog posts out there with advice by successful self-published authors.

Tracy Bloom, author of No-one Ever Has Sex on a Tuesday, said:

  • You need to go and find the skills in editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting and marketing.
  • Romance works well in self-publishing
  • Design a thumbnail that stands out in a group of covers on Amazon, and the title should stand out
  • Think like a consumer when marketing
  • Find book bloggers who are writing about your kind of book
  • Target those most likely to be interested in your book
  • Build relationships with your readers, this is key
  • Don’t be shy with local marketing, ask friends to read and write an honest review; try local press and radio, find out what makes you interesting locally
  • Send your book to journalists who write about issues in your field
  • Use MailChimp for newsletters and data capture
  • Use Twitter and Facebook Page
  • Use Facebook ads on Facebook Page, test it to see what works; Mark Dawson’s whole model is based on Facebook advertising. Watch his free videos and listen to his podcasts.
  • On Amazon use key words which drive the charts you are in, go for smaller charts first, then go for bigger ones; there’s a whole science to learn about.
  • Keep following what’s going on in the world of publishing, get daily emails from The Bookseller.

Ian Skillicorn, publisher at Corazon Books, which publishes backlists from authors including Catherine Gaskin, said:
  • Keep hold of contracts and refer back to them before self-publishing a backlist
  • It’s never been easier for an author to self-publish a backlist, although it’s not as easy to get a book into a paying reader’s hands.
  • Do you have the time, skills, budget needed? It’s unlikely that a book would become a bestseller without some money used to promote it.
  • Learn from others with podcasts and forums
  • There are tax and legal considerations
  • Use social media effectively, including Facebook adverts
  • In newsletters, ask whether anyone would like to review an upcoming book
  • Reviews are important; ask anyone given a review copy to state that it was given to them by the publisher for an honest review
  • Promote other books in back matter, the part at the end of your book
  • Keep up-to-date with the publishing industry, one of the biggest risks is being left behind

That’s it, lots of bullet points to absorb! 

I really enjoyed the social side of the conference too, catching up with many authors I know online. Click here for my Facebook album, but I'm posting a couple of my favourites here too:

Me and the lovely Adrienne Vaughan
Have to include this one, as we all loved Jean Fullerton's beautiful dress:

L-R: Karen Aldous, Jean Fullerton, Adrienne Vaughan
In other news:


There are three places left (as at 13 July) on my Social Media Course for Writers on 8 October in London. Find out more via my website and email anitajchapman at gmail dot com to book a place.

I shall be focussing on my writing over the summer, so I won’t be around as much on Twitter and Facebook. I have to get my work in progress finished, and start the next one, which I have already planned out. 

Hope you have a great summer, and see you in September, when I’ll be back to report on the Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford! There are still a few places left for this conference, find out more via the website.

My posts on The RNA Conference 2015:


Tuesday 21 June 2016

Liz Fielding on Newsletters!


I've known Liz Fielding online since I first joined Twitter in 2011, and was thrilled when she accepted my invitation to write a post on newsletters. Thank you, Liz, and over to you!...

Liz Fielding on Newsletters:

I began writing before the digital revolution. Before the explosion of romance titles and women’s fiction hit the market after the Bridget Jones phenomenon.

Back then, there was only one major publisher of romantic fiction; the shelves of every book store and supermarket were loaded with them and they sold in millions. Three or four dozen new titles appeared every month and then were gone, thereafter only to be found in charity shops.


Do you remember those bookstores? Waldenbooks, Borders (with their wonderful Romance Experts) and the revolving shelf in every Mom and Pop grocery store and newsagent?

Marketing by authors was almost non-existent – it was all about the publisher “brand” — and it was expensive, especially if you were based, as I was, in the UK. No web pages, no email, no social media.

If they did it at all - and I did - it was snail mail. Sending out bookmarks, postcards and maybe advance reading copies to stores and book reading groups.

Times have changed.

Now there are only Barnes and Noble and supermarkets to move the big numbers of books and all of them are cutting back on shelf space. At the same time publishing has exploded and it’s not just the new titles appearing by the thousand every month. The long backlists of all those authors (mine included) are now back in the market competing for the reader’s dollar.

Discoverability is the buzzword, marketing is a necessity for any author hoping to get noticed and the newsletter is at its heart.

I did start a newsletter some years ago – a very dull thing using Yahoo. No header, no pictures.
A couple of hundred people signed up (incredibly they’re all still with me) and I’d occasionally send out a newsletter. These days, when there are fewer and fewer stores carrying genre romance, when the possibility of an impulse buy along with the groceries is becoming ever rarer (you have to see the books to get the impulse!), the author’s newsletter list has taken on the core role in getting news of your latest book into the hands of a reader.

I asked my lovely web designer, Ally Oop, to create a newsletter for me at MailChimp to match my website, Facebook and blog pages. You can have up to 2000 subscribers for free. There are additional benefits for paid membership. I transferred my existing list, posted clearly visible sign-up links everywhere, then set about building up my numbers.



There is only one way to do that. You have to offer people an incentive.

Everyone who signs up for my newsletter gets a free digital download of one of my books. I use one of the backlist books to which I regained the rights and published digitally and I use a Smashwords coupon which is reclaimable anywhere in the world. It costs me nothing.

I have built up a following on Facebook by giving away copies of my books — negotiate with your publishers for extra copies for promotion — and occasional other treats.

Once in a while, to coincide with Mother’s Day or a holiday, I create a special prize which is only for my newsletter subscribers and post a picture on Facebook.

This is enticingly bigger; chocolate, a cute toy, socks, a notebook, a scarf – something you make yourself is especially nice. I also cross-post on Twitter and on my blog. I might spend a few dollars to boost it on Facebook.

People are busy and once you’ve got your subscriber, you have to keep her. More importantly, give her a reason to open your newsletter.


Again offer them an incentive. A regular draw for a signed book and other goodies. Something related to your book is good.

I’ve written a series of books around a group of sisters who have an ice-cream events business. I found some great socks and little erasers with an ice cream design which are lightweight for posting internationally. Sarah Morgan has made her Puffin Island series into a brand.

Share scenes that had to be cut from the book because your editor thought they were too hot or maybe write something that develops backstory (an incident from the past that gets only a passing mention in the book). Maybe offer a link to a spin-off short story that other people (who foolishly don’t subscribe to your newsletter) will have to pay to download.

You could invite a limited number of people to be part of your Author Club. Offer advance copies in return for an honest review. Carole Matthews, who writes books with chocolate in the title has her Chocolate Lover’s Club.


Make your subscribers part of your team so that they are invested in your success. Even better, make them feel special — they see your new cover before anyone else, get sneak peaks of the book you’re writing and little extras available nowhere else.

When you’re promoting your latest book, make it fun, not hard sell — write your newsletter as if you're writing it to your best friend. That said, make sure you have solid buy links. This is the era of instant gratification and if your reader has to hunt you down on Amazon or iBooks or Nook she may be distracted by another book on the way. And even if she doesn’t buy, Amazon will be alerted to her interest and send her one of those “you may like” promotional emails to remind her.

While the number of newsletter subscribers is important, it is the link clicks to the book that will send it flying up the charts.


If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter (and get a free download of The Bride, the Baby and the Best Man), you can do it here.


Thank you, Liz for writing such an interesting, and informative post (and for all the lovely photos too)! Find out more about Liz in her bio, below: 

Bio

Multi-award winning author, Liz Fielding, has more than 15 million books in print. Her latest, The Sheikh's Temporary Princess will be published in Harlequin "Romance" in February 2017.

Newsletter


Wednesday 15 June 2016

9 Ways to Engage a Blog Audience


I’ve been blogging since October 2011 via my neetswriter blog, and since January 2015 via my neetsmarketing blog (this one). Both blogs between them have received 200K page views during that time, and they receive together around 7-8K page views per month, depending on how often I post and how much I promote the blogs on social media. Sometimes they get more. You may not mind whether anyone reads your blog, you may be writing it for friends and family, or for fun. But if you want your posts to be shared on social media and to receive comments (although often these days, comments are left on Facebook instead of the post), here follow a few points on blogging, and some ideas on how to engage a blog audience. This post is aimed at writers/authors.

How often should you blog?

I don’t blog daily or weekly; I aim to post on each blog once a month (which I suppose is the equivalent of fortnightly on one blog), and often I include a guest post on my neetsmarketing blog too. I try to make the content interesting on the neetswriter blog, and useful on the neetsmarketing blog; sticking to my brand in each case.

I’d rather write one good quality post per month that gets some attention than four posts that nobody reads (sometimes it takes me a while to write a post, especially for this blog). There are many thoughts online about how often you should blog. I’ve known authors who have blogged daily or weekly, and after a year or two they’ve stopped blogging altogether because it was too much. If you blog daily or weekly, are you getting the page views to make it worth the time you spend writing the post? Do you need to blog weekly, could you blog fortnightly or monthly and write posts which get the same number of page views, or more (of the daily/weekly posts combined)?

There are a lot of posts out there saying how important it is to blog daily or weekly, but if you're doing that and your posts aren’t being read, and you’re spending a lot of time writing them; as well as leaving comments on other blogs so someone reciprocates on your posts, and reciprocating for comments left, is it worth it? If your daily/weekly posts are being read, and you have time to leave/reciprocate with comments, then it's worthwhile.

Quality over quantity

My thoughts are quality over quantity-you can milk the same post, especially a popular one on social media for a week at least. I wouldn’t expect my loyal blog followers to visit more often than they do (I'm grateful to anyone who comments or shares via social media), and I can’t commit to reciprocating with reading or commenting more often than once a month. Because, don’t forget, blogging isn’t just about writing a post, it’s about promoting the post on social media, and commenting on other blogs. And if you’re not careful, it can eat time you need for writing (been there early on with the neetswriter blog).

Why should someone read your posts?

There are so many posts out there, why should someone (hereafter referred to as “blog reader”) read your posts? Aim to make posts thought-provoking. Your blog reader needs to feel: empathy, inspired; and/or that they’re learning something new.

And you want the blog reader to return. When they see on Twitter, Facebook etc that you’ve written a post, the ideal scenario is that they click through straight away, or make a mental note that you’ve got a new post out, and that they’ll read it later.


Social Media promo, Title and Photos

Before you can engage a blog audience, they need to find your post in the first place. This will mostly be via social media, especially initially, but once your blog has a few posts, you’ll probably find that some views come via Google searches (this is great!)

You need to entice the blog reader with a title which makes them want to find out more. Be punchy, use a question, or a number as I’ve done with this post, or perhaps a title which could have more than one meaning. A photo which relates to the post in some way can draw your reader in, and if you include a photo at the top of the post, Facebook (and possibly Twitter, depending on whether your blog has Twitter cards set up), should pick up the photo when you and others post the link. You can include other photos throughout the post too.

Here follow 9 Ways to Engage a Blog Audience

Content:

1. Move your blog reader or give them something to think about


My most successful neetswriter posts have been ones where the blog reader can empathise. The most recent neetswriter post, My Mother and The Durrells, inspired by the anniversary of my mother passing away and the TV programme, The Durrells was my most popular neetswriter post for a while. This was probably because many blog readers could empathise with losing someone, and The Durrells was a big hit on TV, so using #TheDurrells hashtag on Twitter helped. The post came to me fully formed when I woke up at five in the morning, the day after a trip to the National Gallery, which I used to visit with my mum. Often I use what I’ve been doing, how it relates to my writing/books and turn it into a blog post.

My most popular neetswriter post to date is: The Pros and Cons of Writing in the First Person Present Tense, closely followed by If only I’d known this when I wrote my first draft. The first post from October 2011 still gets views now, with no promo, via Google searches. I wrote a Part II in 2013 which again did well, and I linked the posts to each other. If you read these posts, you’ll see how my writing may have evolved since those earlier days of blogging...

2. Provide useful information

My neetsmarketing blog is packed with advice for writers on how to use social media, inspired by client and course attendee questions. The most popular posts are about Twitter and Facebook, and there are lots of helpful posts written by guests too.

Top three posts:




3. Use your brand to engage potential readers of your books

If you write historical fiction, you can write about the history relating to your book. I have a series of eighteenth century and art posts waiting to be written for if/when my book 2 is published with photos all ready. If your book is set in Spain, write about Spain. If your books are about dogs, write about dogs. If there's a popular TV programme or film which links to your brand, use it, and then you can link to the hashtag on Twitter too (eg. The Durrells above). Some authors choose to write about writing, and some prefer not to. I've heard that posts about writing can be popular, and I guess if they bring page views, you could do a few here and there to gain followers.

4. Have an angle

Often, I write a post and return to it later on. Then I ask myself what I’m trying to say, and amend the post so that it has an angle. 

5. Get your facts right

If you quote someone or something, check your facts, so that your blog reader trusts you, and returns for more. When I write posts about the history relating to my novel, I wouldn’t want to get any of my facts wrong. Because then who is going to trust the information in my books?

Extras:



6. Use photos

I test out photos on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, using the most popular ones for my blog posts.


7. Format nicely/break into sections

Use headings in bold and make them bigger, use numbers, break the information down into sections so that your blog reader can skim the post if they want to, finding what’s relevant to them.

8. Make sure links work (obvs!)

9. Avoid typos (obvs too!)

My posts on hosting and being a guest:


That’s it! This post was inspired by the blogging part of my course in May 2016.

In other news:

On 18 June, I wrote an article for the online magazine, Women Writers, Women’s Books: 


My Social Media Course for Writers, 8 October 2016 in London:


My next Social Media Course for Writers is at the same venue as in May 2016, and there’s an early bird discount of 10% until the end of June. Bookings have been coming in and places are limited.


See Facebook photos and comments from my course in May 2016 here .

Find out more details and see quotes from previous courses via my website here

Book by sending an email to anitajchapman at gmail dot com.


And I shall be at the RNA Conference in July 2016! Look forward to seeing some of you there. Here are my posts from last year's conference in London:


If you missed Sue Moorcroft's recent guest post on Street Teams, you can read it here

On 21 June 2016: author, Liz Fielding will be a guest with her fab post on newsletters (now published, 21 June 2016).