Last week, we discussed creating an ideal reader based on what you envision your reader to be vs asking who’s currently reading you. If you’re like me, you’ve been marketing and catching the wrong people because of any number of reasons. I failed to capture them because of my inconsistency. The only people currently reading me are retirees who have the luxury of time read me whenever I willy-nilly finish and publish a book.
Yay me.
Most of us here lack one specific resource: time.
But we also lack another valuable resource: money.
So today, I’m going to discuss how to market with financial efficiency to only the social media platforms that make sense to your author platform based on the sketch of your ideal reader.
Veronica’s Social Media Habits
Last week, I offered an ideal reader questionnaire. I hope you guys did the homework and just decided not to post it. I will say that the whole point of the paid portion of this community is to protect your intellectual rights. We’re working on you in the paid portion of the community, so I want you to feel a little more comfortable to share as we progress.
However, if you shared or not, I hope you created your profile of your ideal reader.I did. So, I created a sketch of my ideal reader, Veronica, who fits my author brand, F.J. Blooding, writing characters with punch in sci-fi and fantasy.
WHAT I’M FOCUSING ON TODAY IS WHERE SHE SPENDS HER TIME.
So, based on my profile, she spends her time on Facebook—with an ad blocker on—and on YouTube. She spends some time on Pinterest, but it’s mostly to find free patterns or things to make for her son or her dog.
She’s typically on her phone, but prefers to read on her tablet, which is located in her room or on the table or the sofa—is it charged? She doesn’t remember. Did the rabbit eat the cord? She has no idea.
She struggles with knowing where her tablet is because her kid is learning to read and she lives in the city. That means she has to helicopter parent him and he doesn’t like that. So, she uses her tablet to keep him entertained long enough for her to make him dinner or to buy a moment of sanity. She does love her son. Truly.
Her hours are whenever she can spare a moment. Bathroom breaks making the men in her life think she’s being disgusting is one of those times. But she also tries to make time right before bed, and checking her notifications is the first thing she does when she wakes up.
Creating A Plan For Veronica
Now that I know all that, I can tell you I’m ignoring Instagram because I can’t figure it out and it’s giving me hives. That’s great.
I also know that investing a lot of time on Pinterest is probably not the best investment of my time. I can post some stuff there, but I have more of a chance of her choosing a crochet pattern I share than anything remotely close to one of my books.
She’s on Facebook, but with an ad blocker, so my page notifications aren’t getting to her even when I boost the post. She’s not active in my group and Facebook keeps changing how they get notified anyway. I’ll continue to try and propagate that and I’ll continue with FB ads because, let’s face it, Veronica has an ad blocker, but does everyone else? Probably not. The signal might get through.
YouTube is viable. If I can get enough content on YouTube, she might subscribe to me, and then I’ll be one of the notifications she checks first thing in the morning. So, I think I’m going to focus some energy on creating a content schedule for that.
But, additionally, she’s on her phone and tablet. So, I’m going to pursue an app that will get me onto her phone and tablet. That will also get me in her notifications bar. I also need to come up with a content plan for that so that I’m being consistent and not spamming her. Especially if there are a lot of authors who follow this plan. I don’t want her feeling like her one safe place is no longer safe.
A Deeper Dive and Homework!
We’re going to take this one step further in the Deep Dive tomorrow! We’re going to talk about content and some pitfalls to stay out of, how to make sure we’re keeping our energy tanks filled while trying to build this relationship with her.
And there will be homework! We’re building ourselves up, so make yourself the worthwhile investment. You are. Invest in yourself and do the work. If you have time to watch Netflix, you have time to do this one assignment. I believe in you. It’s time you did too.
