Advanced Digital Skills Course On World Pulse - Assignment 4

Introduction

The social media campaign I want to create is solely for the purpose of marketing my first book.  I am sharing this story about it here on World Pulse so as to complete my assignment and create my very first social media campaign. I have to be honest, previously I did not have any strategy to market my book until I came across this course on World Pulse.

There is no greater joy for me as an author than to create a social media campaign that will help me to use social media channels to promote my book. Earlier I thought that being a writer on World Pulse, and writing a social media campaign for my book opposed the idea of Social Advocacy (which is what the world pulse course of Lesson 4 is about)

However, I now realize that creating a social media campaign for a book is probably a necessity in the life of an author or any brand content creator (which I wasn't previously aware of) I'm so happy I enrolled for the Digital Empowerment Skills Course on World Pulse!

As for social advocacy, I feel so wonderful to be a budding female author from India with a story to tell! If I had not come across this course, I would never know what a social media campaign is, and how it can be used as a tool for social advocacy.

I have written a story about the social media campaign I will use to market my first book (which will probably be edited a little when I actually put it in to practice, but still I have provided here a story on my first draft for a social media campaign for promoting my first book)

Social Media Campaign (Details)

Objective : Promote 'His Lingering Perfume' by Sarah D on Instagram, Facebook, and You tube.

POSTING SCHEDULE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT CALENDAR

(posting frequency recs and ideas of what to post on each channel in the future)

You Tube - Monthly Posts - 1-2 Videos/Shorts A month

This seems to be a great idea coz honestly it takes that much time and effort to create an honestly good video. 

I'm actually able to physically create videos even quicker, but then my creative brain needs time to think. Maybe I realize its coz I'm human, and its really true. Making a perfect video using only your smartphone or laptop with perfect audio and aesthetically pleasing enough takes time. Think of it. U are human.

Also it takes a lot of time to spread the word about a You tube video once it is posted. This is because the You tube video interaction does not come from You tube itself. Again here, I tried posting on my personal You tube account. But it took me a while to learn that the kind of Indian-normal-people-audience-that-might-actually-read-the-book only watched the videos coz of links I posted on Whatsapp (98%) and Facebook (2%)

The normal crowd of readers that one would find on You tube seem to be interested in other kinds of books. The people who follow videos that I watch on You tube, come from western countries, and would not be particularly interested in Indian genres.

Still, I have a You tube Channel, with an appropriate profile photo, banner image. I also made my personal playlists private, and people who watched my book videos cannot see or interact with what I personally watch on You tube. They can only see the Books By Me Playlist and some other videos of me and my cat, and doing public speaking etc.

The videos and shorts that I posted were created on my smart phone or laptop webcam. They were made at home or at Charishma's. The more recent videos that have been shared on Facebook too, have been edited in Canva and music added to them. I must say that the world pulse lesson 3 about video editing had lots to do with it, and the number of views increased dramatically within days of posting. The recent videos I made in Canva do not look like they were made by me! Awesome! Thanks World Pulse.

Instagram - Weekly Posts - 1-2 Posts a week.

I recently just realized that people are slower to check their Instagram for book recs (as opposed to Facebook) Some people check their Instagram daily, that is sheer truth, but when it comes to looking for book recommendations, the Facebook community is far more vibrant and active.

Initially I thought it was a far better idea to post on Instagram because I use Instagram a lot more. But obviously, its not about what I like, it has to be about what is actually better for the book.

On instagram I will try and firstly make a separate account for the book. I will discontinue using my personal account to post videos/excerpts/pictures/unique hashtags/tag people. Earlier I thought this was a good idea because I had more followers on my personal account.

I will take the trouble to create a separate Instagram account for my book. I will move all the posts that were previously shared in my personal account to the new exclusive book account. I will also inform people who liked the posts in advance, and invite them to follow the new account.

I will be smart about the hashtags I use. I will also try and possibly post copies in my personal account as well because I have more followers on there. I'm a little confused about this.

Initially I was making Instagram Live Videos coz literally no one knows you on there. But hey the rules of social media are what they are. So I will do this but I will try to be more actively posting content on the new facebook page Im creating exclusively for the book, and making use of the boost post option too. Sounds like a plan.

Actually Instagram Live Videos are a great way to meet random people and get into a conversation. Frankly there is nothing easier than using a cute filter and getting random people to talk to you about ANYTHING just because YOU LOOK CUTE.

I don't know why I'm being this honest but I went live on a dating site, and used some filter. I got most of books initial 5 star reviews from there. Unfortunately that is not a wonderful idea coz of the weirdos on that site, and also because they have deactivated their live feature.

FACEBOOK - Daily Posts- A post a day

Either I will make a page related to the book, or I will make an entirely new Facebook account for the book. (I have not posted the image yet, because I am still working on it)  I think since the response rate is still low, making a separate exclusive page for the Book on my personal Facebook account and boosting every post is a good idea.  

The response rate to posts is still really low, and I have not tried boosting posts (stupid me. That's one of Facebook ads best features) I spent a ton of money on the new reviews that are coming out. I have also invested time, and energy into making promotional videos, a small podcast for the book that I did share on Facebook (ON MY PERSONAL FEED FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS)

(Have to admit once that the response is low. Have to also admit that its hard to get family and friends to write reviews coz they don't want their names appearing on Amazon. As you can guess they have not gotten around to giving their honest views on the book on my personal page, coz there's a whole lot of other folks who know them that will probably read their opinions, BECAUSE THATS HOW FACEBOOK WORKS.

I think now that I have introduced the book to a fair number of people, I will ONLY invite the ones that liked the book to a separate, new, exclusive page CREATED JUST FOR THE BOOK. There I will post impersonally as 'Sarah D' the author, and not as the person related to all these folks.

Guess who will be invited to interact with the Book's exclusive page. ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAD GOOD THINGS TO SAY ABOUT IT. SOUNDS LIKE A MATURE IDEA TO ME. More ideas and updates coming up. Do watch this space.

Havent started actively posting on Linked In. The response was too poor. I feel like these will have to do for now.  Guys that is my social media campaign for now! Do mention your thoughts in the comments!