Nothing shows my age more than my complete lack of social media skills. Seriously, non-existent.
Social media is a must for any endeavor, any new product, any art. I’d anticipated using it. I was going to make promotional videos and post them on every social media site under my author pseudonym.
I’m on Facebook, of course, as are so many of my aging generation. I enjoy keeping up with family and friends. I “like” their posts and photos, and sometimes comment. I don’t post daily. Sometimes, but rarely, I post a photo or an announcement. I’ve been invited into groups that I swear I’ll participate in, but then I never visit. Online groups are either intimidating to me or seem filled with people who have never heard of spelling or grammar. There are so many members, so many posts – how do I make my mark among all that?
I took a quick dip into the Twitter pool. The hash tags frightened me so I jumped right out.
I’ve managed to avoid Instagram altogether. Until now.
I’m aware of how this makes me sound. I’m hopeless. And I don’t care. I’ve always said I’m on a need-to-know basis with technology. I haven’t needed, or wanted, to know this stuff. I’ve been forced to face it in spite of all my efforts to avoid it.
In order for anything to go viral, one must build a following and get in with influencers. I barely have a following on my own Facebook account, and now I’ve introduced a person who, for all intents and purposes, is a newborn. New born to Facebook and Instagram. How is she to find followers when no one, literally no one, knows who she is? How is she going to get in with an influencer?
An influencer is a person or a group that has the ability to influence the behavior or opinion of others. The influencer is the individual whose effect on the purchase decision is in some way significant or authoritative.
The aim is to join groups on Facebook or Instagram, especially those with influence among like-minded people. Then you read through all the posts and add comments and share their posts. Something like that.
I’m not good at ingratiating myself into online groups like these. I never know what to post. Finding the right groups is the challenge. Ironically, I’m a joiner in real life. I’m friendly, affable, polite and respectful. Most of the time. I can’t seem to translate that into social mediaese.
I’d never been on Instagram before. Now my alter ego is. And she’s doing poorly. Nothing she – I – posts is trending. Nothing is going viral. I – she – have posted photos with captions that I hoped would puzzle and intrigue viewers, sparking their curiosity. But who’s looking at them? The author has no friends. Sad face emoji.
To use any of these sites effectively, you must spend quality time on them, engaging others, applauding their achievements, while sharing your own. You can’t just be one long posting about yourself, which people hate. I need to find out how to make this fun for me. Right now it feels like a chore that I don’t want to do.
Do I need social media to sell this book? Probably. I’ll do the best I can with social media, but I will also go the old school route. A few friends and I are going to venues that attracts older couples, people of a certain age. These are my readers. Couples in long term relationships are the primary demographic for my book. We are going to paper windshields with large postcards about the book. I will hand out bookmarks. I will encourage everyone I know, everyone I come into contact with, to spread the word. Get the buzz going.
When the book is published, which should be by Thanksgiving, I will hope for good word-of-mouth. And I will pray sales snowball.
It could happen.
Meanwhile, I’ve realized that writing the book under a pseudonym, might not have been the brightest idea. I did not think that through. I didn’t want, what, to confuse the no readers of my unpublished middle grade books with the publication of an adult sex book?
That’s right, faithful blog followers, it’s a sex book.
What was I thinking? Using another name just made the social media thing more difficult. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I will see it through. Mainly, though, I want to make sales. I want readers.
Now I’ll need everyone I know to help get the word out. I do believe you’ll like the book. I think it’s a good product and worth the $14.95 price. It’s informative, instructional and light-hearted.
The book is Sexsage, written by Virginia Watkins. Now you know. This is the project I’ve been blogging about all year and it’s about to come to fruition.
Spread the word. Visit http://www.discoversexsage.fun and watch some videos that will give you more of an idea of what Sexsage is all about.
And stay tuned.