This past weekend, I attended MileHiCon 43. I had a really good time–I hadn’t attended in several years due to attending World Fantasy instead. It’s a very small science fiction convention by comparison to World Fantasy, but full of fun, dedicated fans.
I was on two panels, both of which I think went relatively well. The first was on New Marketing for Writers–specifically regarding social networking. I’ll talk more about that in a minute. The second panel was on “Urban, Suburban, and Rural Fantasy.” I had no idea what the hell we were talking about (as typically used, the term ‘urban fantasy’ has little to do with urban settings) and mostly just cracked wise about vampires and werewolves “doin’ it.” Also, I mocked Kansas a bunch, because that’s pretty much what I do when I’m at a loss for anything else to say. I’m told it went over fairly well, though. Mario Acevedo is one funny guy.
During the marketing panel, I realized that for a while now, I’ve been striving to develop my own notions of “ethical” internet marketing for writers, although I’m not certain I’ve ever tried to say as such. This hit men when one of the other panelists talked about using a Twitter bot to identify and automatically follow potential fans, which then de-followed anyone who didn’t follow back in three days. I was repulsed by this idea, although I don’t think I articulated clearly why I think that it’s wrong.
I think my entire approach to social media marketing can be summed up in two bullet points. They are:
- be a real human being, not a marketbot spewing out demands to buy your stuff
- don’t be a jerk (unless you’re a funny jerk).
Social networking in particular, and the whole internet to a lesser extent, is about connecting with other human beings. It is not your low cost broadcast medium for advertising your book. I do advocate that authors and creatives share their passion for their work via the medium, but not to the exclusion of everything else. Engage with other human beings. Social networking is not a broadcast medium. Twitter actually has a surprising number of examples of marketing people who get this, and engage with their clients/customers/readers as human beings, rather than as walking bags of money to be hit with the twitstick.
The reason I can’t support the idea of using a bot to do your following and unfollowing is it’s taking a cold, methodical approach to the very human work of initiating social interactions. It’s like trying to make friends with a junk mailer sent around town. It’s treating those you follow as potential money bags, not as people with thoughts and feelings and interesting opinions. They are targets. Potential “subscribers,” not conversational partners.
I don’t think there is strong evidence that this tactic of being a carnival barker on social media even works. Anecdotally, I think people spot these broadcasters early on and drop them unless they _really_ like their products in the first place.
The fundamental marketing strategies are: be loud, or be clever. And online, I find that clever wins out–especially with readers. Novelty accounts like ShitMyDadSays and DrunkHulk demonstrate this with their huge followings. The local carpet company posting nothing but sales notices doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot of followers and probably won’t.
My approach may not squeeze every last potential dime out of the marketplace, but I think there are some things more important than making money– being a decent person, for one. And I don’t care if it means I never get rich, because I’d rather be seen as decent than a wealthy jerk willing to do anything to make a buck. Hopefully there are authors who are more inclined to hire a web designer who advocates this moderate approach to online shilling. If you’re looking for someone who thinks there is no marketing technique too low, no method too inhumane in the pursuit of gaining readers, then I’m probably not your guy. I can live with that.
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