In this ebook, we discuss how to effectively use social media channels to promote your book and your brand. Twitter, for example, is by far the largest social bookmarking site on the Internet today, with over 500 million registered users in 2012, over 340 million tweets and over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It enables users to read and reply to short text-based messages, and helps users generate a following. It is a useful viral marketing tool, especially when linked to other social media channels, such as Pinterest, for example, which we also cover. We tell you how to become a prolific Twitter user, including the dos and don’ts of tweeting relevant, book-related content.
We also discuss social cataloguing site Shelfari, which enables you to create virtual bookshelves for your books to keep track and catalogue what you have read. It also includes book clubs and forums to discuss your favourite books with others and see what they are currently reading. Other online cataloguing and personal library-style websites we consider in this ebook include weRead, My Library, Anobii and Library Thing.
Finally, we discuss how to successfully use Goodreads, a book recommendation and review site founded ‘to help people find and share books they love’. It allows literary aficionados to search an extensive database of books, annotations and reviews, register books and generate personal libraries and reading lists, and rate and review books. You can also see what your friends are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices. We explain how this, and other social media channels, can help you and your book to reach its intended market.
