Spend Less Time Marketing by Setting Up Social Media Outpost Channels

Spend Less Time Marketing by Setting Up Social Media Outpost Channels. They become redirecting billboards, especially if they give you the ability to put up a cover photo, pin a message, or use your bio for active links. Don’t waste time setting up an outpost where your readers might be. Currently, there are only a couple channels that have good advertising options at multiple price points: Facebook and Instagram. Make sure fans can find you by your real name and not just by your account name. But your default mode when you are not running a campaign should be to direct people to your primary social media channel of engagement. Links to other outpost channels. Don’t put social media icons of your outpost channels on your website, blog, email signature, or anywhere for that matter. Is it necessary to set up more social media channels as outposts? Setting up social media outpost channels can help new readers discover you and your books.

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Expert publishing blog opinions are solely those of the blogger and not necessarily endorsed by DBW.

social media, authors, marketing, books, sales, twitter, facebook

If you’re an author who is struggling by trying to be all things to all people on every social media channel, then I’ve got some good news: you really only need to be engaging on one social media site to set up an effective marketing presence.

There are four steps to the process of selling more books with less social media, and we’ve already covered parts one and two in this series:

Find and build your audience.
Designate your primary social media channel for selling and engaging.

In this third step, we’re going to learn how to set up what I call “outpost channels,” or places where you have a presence but you don’t engage. An outpost channel is an aid for discovery and allows you to be found in a channel’s search engine, but redirects potential fans to the one place where you are interacting with readers.

Outposts are not set-it-and-forget-it channels, however. They become redirecting billboards, especially if they give you the ability to put up a cover photo, pin a message, or use your bio for active links.

When it comes to deciding which channels to set up as outposts, there are five measures to look at.

1. Your target audience fits the channel’s demographics. Don’t waste time setting up an outpost where your readers might be. Make sure they are there in enough numbers to make it worthwhile. Check out the Pew Internet 2016 Update to find that information.
2. Ideally, the channel should support a cover photo option that functions as a billboard when readers land on your page.
3. Ideally, the channel should support live links in posts and profiles. Being able to redirect people easily by clicking a link is key. Readers shouldn’t have to hunt for the link.
4. Choose channels that support advertising options at multiple price points. One reason for setting up an account on some channels is to be able to advertise. Currently, there are only a couple channels that have good advertising options at multiple price points: Facebook and Instagram. Twitter’s options are aimed more at big brands (as are Pinterest’s at this point), so larger budgets are required for success.
5. Choose channels that have good discoverability options with strong search engines. Make sure fans can find you by your real name and not just by your account name.

How to Set Up Your Outposts

Your outpost channels are just as important to your platform as your primary channel is, but they take much less…

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