What Percentage of Your Social Networking Should Be Promotional?
Several years ago, a marketing firm revealed what many already knew: 40% of Tweets are pointless babble. That’s “babble” as in tweeting about What you’re eating, What you’re wearing, What you’re watching, and What time you go beddy-bye. Of course, what constitutes “pointless babble” is mostly determined by the follower’s interest in the Tweeter. I mean, Neil Gaiman’s favorite vegetable is inconsequential to most of us… unless you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman. Then suddenly brussel sprouts take on a whole new attraction.
See? Fandom has a way of turning “pointless babble” into “valuable trivia.”
I guess the same is true of self-promotion — Interest determines how much promotion is too much promotion. After all, I didn’t Like Fleet Foxes or the Coen Brothers to get updates on breaking political news or culinary tips. I want to know about their upcoming projects and/or appearances. In other words, promotion is what I Follow them for.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true of writers.
Social networking is typically broken down into four parts, which look something like this:
- Conversation — dialogue w/in a like-minded community
- Aggregation — disseminating info, news, advice, quotes, etc.
- Promotion — pitching / advertising a product or service
- Personal — it’s about you and your friends
What part, or ratio of parts, one concentrates on depends upon their purpose for networking. Are they selling something, building a business, or just chatting with friends? For instance, @guykawasaki aggregates news, technology, and business insights. The Avett Bros. post when tickets go on sale. And then when the show is sold out. Whereas my wife just likes to post pictures of her grandkids and chat with friends. So the ratio of Conversation to Promotion depends upon one’s reason for social networking.
In Using Twitter to Support Your Business Social Media Strategy, this marketing firm suggests that “no one rule stands out.”
One expert says he tweets one self-promotion for every 10 tweets. Another uses the 80/20 principle with 20 percent of the tweets being self-promos and 80 percent devoted to helping others, sharing expertise (without selling) and posting useful resources.
Which kind of begs the question. How much self-promotion is too much for writers? Forty percent? Three out of every ten tweets? Or is the answer different per novelist?
It’s impossible to skirt the fact that writers network to sell their books. So let’s don’t. This is why most folks don’t mind authors mentioning their stuff. (I display my novel proudly in my sidebar for this reason.) In fact, the author who never mentions their books is kind of wasting their time, and mine, networking. At least they are demonstrating a lack of business savvy. Readers respect the fact that authors are networking to get their name, face, and books out there.
Problem is, if we network JUST to sell our books, we potentially undermine our efforts. Constant self-promotion is no different than spam.
So how much Promotion is too much? What we often miss is the balance between Conversation, Aggregation, Personal and Promotion. In other words, simply talking intelligently, being informative or inspirational, and conversing with authors and readers can be some of our best promotion. I realize that can sound seedy, as if we’re Friending folks just to sell books. Nevertheless, as an author, we are our brand. So whether we’re aggregating info, talking up one of our favorite authors, pitching our product, or tweeting about brussel sprouts, we are building a potential platform.
I realize this doesn’t answer the question specifically. And maybe it shouldn’t. Nevertheless, provided we are genuine and not exclusively self-referential, authors can Promote their work without being, well, Promotional.
Question: What percentage of a writer’s social networking should be devoted to promotion?
