Day 8 - Building an Audience (The Numbers)
My second week is underway. You know how in old movies, doctors have a nurse to wipe the sweat away? I need one of those. Any takers? It’s not paid, but you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re saving lives.
Don’t let anyone tell you building an audience is easy. There are no tens steps, no shortcuts, and no magic wands.
OK, there are ten steps:
Set up your accounts
Find a cool pic that represents who you are as a person - your soul in photographic form
Post like crazy - just kidding. No more than 3x per day
Provide interesting content - WTH does that mean?
Connect with your audience. Talk. Be a real person.
Watch your follow count like an obsessed ex-girlfriend who was dumped on her birthday
Participate in follow threads
Use gifs to express your inner most thoughts
Wait
Make sure you tell everyone (just kidding) you reached 1000 followers like it’s the greatest accomplishment in the world.
And there are shortcuts:
Buy followers on Fiverr, eBay, Craigslist, or other unscrupulous sites…you faker.
Just so you know, about a year ago, I purchased a hundred Twitter followers (for another account) for $3.00 on eBay - just to see what would happen. Within minutes, I had a hundred followers. By the next day, they were all gone. Worst $3.00 I ever spent. It’s also frowned upon by Twitter and can get you banned.
There are magic wands. They sell them at Harry Potter Land at Universal Studios - but they don’t work. At least, not for me. Still working on my spellcasting. When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
I’ve been hustling all week to get new (organic) followers and likes and here are my results:
Twitter: 75
Facebook: 1
Instagram: 84
Readers Collective: 33
Twitter is a bit easier to gain followers, if you know how. A little trick I discovered is getting involved with people who do Follow Fridays and follow threads. Or start your own. This might be why you see some authors with thousands of followers - even though they haven’t released anything yet. We all know having followers makes us look popular, even if we really aren’t. There are lots of amazingly helpful Tweeters who do follow threads, so get involved. This is a give and take situation. If you want followers, you have to follow back. Be kind, reciprocate. The Twitter writer community is filled with wonderfully supportive people. To all the kind and lovely people who followed me this week, I know this is sudden...but will you marry me?
Facebook is a tough nut to crack. Last week I boosted a post about my first giveaway. I spent $10. While I got over forty likes on the post itself, I only managed to grab one new follower. To that one follower…I know this is sudden…but will you marry me?
Let’s see how I do this week. I don’t just want empty followers. I want people who really like my work. Of course, they have no idea what my writing is like yet. If you’re in the Readers Collective, you’ll be getting the first chapter soon.
On Instagram, I’d already built a small following with a book selling business I had. Many haven’t bothered to unfollow now that the content has changed. When I post, I get a few likes, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s harder to post on Instagram. I’m not exactly sure about what content (exactly) I should be posting. Many pictures of my laptop? It’s where I live right now. My cat? She’s pretty cute.
In the Readers Collective are the thirty-three entrants to my first giveaway. None organic. Over time, I expect the numbers to fluctuate. Thirty-three isn’t how many people are reading or getting excited about my project. It’s people who are there for now. I sent out my first email this morning and have one unsubscribe, zero link clicks, and a 21% open rate - that means only 21% of the thirty-three actually opened the email. Seven people, for those of you keeping score. I’ll be interested to see what the open rate is at the end of the week. 21% isn’t bad. That’s almost 1/4 of the people. Math!
Am I discouraged by these numbers? Not really. The fact that I have any followers after one week is amazing. In fact, I’m wowed anyone is sticking around at all. If I sell one book, you know what that means? It means someone I didn’t pay (who paid me) is reading my work. I know I’ve written a cute story. If people like it, I’m thrilled. I’ve said this many times before: I’m not here for the money. Writing is my passion and I want to share my stories with others.
What now? Just keep swimming. I’m curious to see how long it actually takes to get a decent, participatory audience. Many of the day to day functions of my website and social media are now set up and ready to go. I often schedule posts ahead of time and let it ride. The blog is the only thing that isn’t pre-scheduled. I write the blog post, do a quick edit, and try to have it up the same night. Most days I’m finishing it up before school at 6am. Right now, I’m doing a daily blog - how my day went - for the first thirty days. Once I release the book, I’ll probably set up some automated posts, once a week or something. I know…it sounds robotic. But it’s not. It’s how it works and it’s what everyone does. You have to. You want to get your business to a place where it’s basically running itself so you can concentrate on what really matters: WRITING.
GIVEAWAY #2 IS NOW UNDERWAY: Enter here.
What I did today:
Wrote and scheduled social media posts about Day 7 blog post and the start and 2nd giveaway
Decided to write all my blog posts in Word first and then copy/paste into Squarespace
Spent the day with my family. Bit of a day off.
Wrote this blog post
Emailed my copy editing teacher asking about editors. If you can recommend anyone good, let me know. Looking for a medium edit for 15k words. Would appreciate someone who can comment on the story itself. Thanks!
I’m looking to join a launch team. Do you (or someone you know) need help? Email me. I’d love to help out.