Social Media 101for Authors

Presented at:

Writers’ Union of Canada Annual Conference & AGM

June 2010

By: Nichole McGillwww.nicholemcgill.com

@nicholemcgill

- aka -

How to Set Up Your SM Presence in just 15 mins!

[Maintaining it is a different story…]

Why SM? Why not?

1. Exposure2. Control (digital brand)3. Marketing4. $$$5. Networking/creativity

First, what is your publisher doing for you

?

What will your publisher do for you in terms of:

Social media presence?

e-book strategy? audio strategy?

multi-media strategy?

Step #1 – What are people saying about you?

1. Search yourself/your books• Set up a Google alert (gmail)• Google tools for authorshttp://nicholemcgill.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-tools-for-authors_02.html

2. http://www.search.twitter.com– Identify like-minded, superfans,

reviewers, publishers

Step #2 – Survey: Blogs

http://emilybenet.blogspot.com/

Step #2 – Survey: Microblogs

http://twitter.com/neilhimself

Step #3: Make some decisions

1. Pick your digital base» Your website» Your blog

2. Secure your domain name» www.yourname.com» www.yourname.ca» www.yourbook.com, etc.

Step #5: MicrobloggingWhy?

• Part of the conversation• Easy to make “friends”/network

• Pick a twitter handle (@yourname)• Follow those of your niche audience• Credit others (RT@niche = retweeting)• Use hashtags (i.e. #Griffin2010 #YAlit)• Use URL shorteners (bit.ly, etc.)

Step #6: Social networks

Features:• Social network• Facebook Fan Page• Network• Facebook events

Features:• Business network• Groups (Writers

Union member)• Questions to a group• C.V.

Step #7: Manage it all • Free tools

–Tweetdeck –Hootsuite

• Expand to other networks– Goodreads.com– Amazon.com/ca

Step #8: Have it feed into digital base

» Your website, or

» Your blog

You own your digital brand.

The only way to gain some “control” of the online conversation is to be

part of the conversation.

Questions?

Nichole McGill• www.nicholemcgill.com• @nicholemcgill• http://www.goodreads.com/nichole_mcgill

This slideshow is published according to a Creative Commons license of “Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives”. You are welcome to share if you follow these requirements. (2010)