Last spring, I had the honor of being on a panel at IBPA’s Publishing University. As part of my intro to attendees, I wrote a post for the IBPA blog called To Market To Market that focused on how to use social media in your marketing strategy. This is a lightly edited version of that April 2013 article.

To Market To Market: Social Media Marketing for Authors & Publishers

Marketing in a digital age is exhilarating and daunting at the same time. It is enticing to be able to reach your market with a couple of keystrokes … and even more exciting that so much of the media is free advertising.

My goal with this article is to help you with the logical starting places for identifying and selecting tools to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy.

Having all those options can also be a speed bump. Do I need to be on all of these platforms? How do I decide which ones I need?

It may help to look at social media marketing like grocery shopping.

1. It is a necessary evil.

2. You want to get out of the store in the fastest time, with the most groceries, and least expense.

So how do we do that?

It might seem obvious that you don’t want to (nor can’t possibly) be on every social media platform. Spend even just a few minutes reading about social media marketing and you’ll hear a little fairy whispering into your ear:

Yes, you need to try that!
You don’t want to miss out on anything do you?

My first recommendation is to remember that it is just a voice. Fairies and fairy tales aren’t real. Shrug your shoulders, the fairy falls off, he voice goes away, and you can get focused.

Seriously, though, cutting through the din is not easy. Until you can cut through the noise you’ll just keep feeling overwhelmed.

1. Get out your marketing plan … the written one!

1.a. If you don’t have a written plan, you MUST do that first.
1.b. Isolate up to three goals that can be met with advertising.

2. For each goal, pick the medium you would use for your ad. Frame your ideas strictly in the context of print, television, and radio commercials.

3. Get out a fresh sheet of paper (yes, I am old school). Use that blank sheet to describe who you are trying to reach. The goal is to describe your target audience across several demographic variables: gender profession, age, and level of interaction with children and teens. Don’t forget your existing fan base!

4. Turn the data into a table. Down the left side list your target audience. Across the top, list each goal and the ad mediums that go with it. Then fill in the table by marking what medium matches the audience and the goal. Here is a sample based on my nonprofit, The Reading Tub.

5. Where are most of your X’s? Focus there. Those are the data points that help you start narrowing down the social media tools for your market toolbox. Here are some suggestions to help get you started.

• Mostly print ads? Look at platforms like blogs, Facebook, or Twitter, which lend themselves to catchy slogans and special offers.
• Mostly radio ads? Think Twitter, Google Plus, and Podcasts available through the iTunes (or similar) marketplace.
• Mostly television ads? Your audience is highly visual and your platform choices should reflect that. Pinterest, video platforms (YouTube, Vimeo), Tumblr, and Instagram are four possibilities.

Remember:  these ideas are not mutually exclusive. Posting images on Facebook is a great way to increase engagement with your audience. You can send video in Tweets, too.

The ideas are just logical starting places for identifying and selecting tools, especially if you are still deciding how (notice I didn’t say if) to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy.

Just as you read the labels and comparison shop for groceries, you’ll want to do the same thing when selecting the best social media platforms for YOUR goals.

Stick to the basics ~ Buy only what you will use ~ Avoid those impulse purchases

There you have it! We look forward to seeing your social media marketing plan in action!