Social Media Marketing for Authors: Lose your inhibitions, not your time

While Social Media can help an author connect with her new and existing reader base, they can also convert into these vortexes that suck away the precious time you could use to write and steal away your focus and discipline. I went on a conscious campaign for the last one month to use social media wisely and the benefits from this exercise astounded me. I decided to share my tips on how you can conquer this time-devouring dragon:

1. Make a Plan
   Have a clear written plan for your Social Media Campaign. If you love Facebook to just hang out with your writer pals and connect, put that into your plan too. It helps and it is a valid part of the campaign too. No one likes to connect with a robot who comes online just to harp about its book. It’s okay to be human. Just plan for it. Also, decide what are the Social Media platforms you want to be on and how much time are you going to schedule for each.
   
   
2. Schedule it
   On your calendar, mark the time slot you are allotting for the same and stick to it. In my experience, I preferred the late evening slot when my energy levels are low. Mornings are for writing (which I still do with pen and paper), afternoons are for typing and creating marketing content and evenings are for posting, sharing and connecting online. I do digress at times and need an occasional nudge to get back my focus.
   
   
3. Phones off
   Since I still continue to use a pen and paper to write, my laptop is never switched on most of the day. The only chance I have of wandering into facebook and twitter is on my phone. The best thing would be to remove these apps from your smart phone. The next best thing would be to mute all notifications and make sure nothing pops or beeps on your phone’s homescreen. The temptation that deviates your concentration can be silenced this way.
   
   
4. Follow up
   Saving time on Social media requires effort and dedication. You need to understand that it is just a tool to support your work, it is not your work itself. Keep a weekly follow up plan to tweak your efforts and rules. For instance, you may need to be online for a considerable amount of time in the month that you launch your book.
   
   
5. Apps help
   There are a huge variety of apps that help limit your time on Social Media. The ‘Stay Focused’ app on my Google browser and on my android phone help me control the number of hours I spend on facebook or twitter or whatsapp.
   
   
   You should try at least some of these ideas if Social media is eating up your day. As an author, creating unique interesting content is our primary job and marketing is only a secondary activity that supports it. As long as we do not overlook that, we will not be sucked into the social media whirlpool. Do you have any other ideas to help save time on social media? Do share them in the comments below.