Social Networking, it’s about NETWORKING: Tsu, self-promotion, and selling books

By Ruth Silver

Social networking is an important aspect if you’re an author. Read the important key word in there, networking. If no one knows who you are, you won’t sell any books. However, with that being said, please authors stop only posting about your own novels. It’s great if you can create an interesting promo piece of artwork or trailer, but please refrain from posting every piece of promotional material you have without every interjecting something else into the mix. It makes me want to stop checking out your awesome page.

Listen, I get it. Selling books is hard. No one is saying it’s easy and that doing nothing is key. However, a good rule of thumb is for ever four posts, only promote yourself once. At the very least it’ll keep your dashboard more interesting, and might win you over some new readers.

Why am I bringing this up now? Tsu.

Tsu is a new platform. I’ve created a page https://www.tsu.co/writeawaybliss and I’m still finding my way around the social networking website. Lots of bloggers and authors joined yesterday. With Facebook limiting engagement and making pages pay to be seen, it’s no wonder everyone is shuffling over to something new.

Tsu has a ton of potential. There are limits but it’s too keep you from spamming everyone. Which I can appreciate. There’s no issue with having 4k followers and only 4 people seeing a post. Yes, I had that earlier in the week on Facebook and that’s when I decided to actually use Tsu. I’ve had an account for a few months on Tsu, but no one else had heard of it and I was on there alone.

So what should you be posting on Tsu?

Definitely post about your books, but also post other things. Share about other people’s books that you’ve read, reviewed, want to read, look fascinating, etc. If you’ve discovered writing or publishing advice online, share it with the community. Have a clip from an upcoming TV show or movie you’re dying to see? Maybe someone else on Tsu loves it too. Better yet, you’re probably following them right now because you have similar interests. (I know I’m following mostly authors & book bloggers). Let’s see what else we have in common!

I’m interesting in networking, not just self-promoting. I want to follow you on Tsu, but please don’t make me read 30 posts about your book and nothing else. It’s giving me a headache!

The best promotion is in building real relationships. Ask each other to share content. Most authors know that if you send me a blog post (HTML), Facebook, Twitter, or Tsu request with something to post, I’ll share what you need (as long as it’s appropriate). It’s these relationships that are important and will help you grow as an author.

Source: http://writeawaybliss.com