Five Ways Authors Can Get More Done by Doing Less
Most authors I talk to say, “I just want to write! I don’t want to deal with all the other stuff!” I get it - your passion is writing. But in today’s world, as an author you have to wear multiple hats to be successful.
Since wearing the hat of book marketing can be overwhelming, I want to help relieve some of the stress by sharing some quick tips you can use to make things easier. These tips should help you get a better handle on your online presence AND enable you to get your writing done at the same time.
So let’s dig in!
Establish a Plan and a Process
One of my husband’s biggest pet peeves is working with people who operate with a “ready, fire, aim” approach. So much valuable time is wasted when we just wander into things without a plan to achieve specific goals, and end up floundering without results.
And even with clear goals and a good plan, we can still waste time in the long run without investing time up front to come up with a process that works for us to actually get things done each day.
Focus On ONE Social Media Outlet
You don’t have to be everywhere online to be seen. In fact, trying to be everywhere spreads you too thin and it doesn’t give you the results you’re looking for.
When you focus on just one social media outlet, your concentrated efforts will result in better and stronger engagements, which should ultimately also help your audience grow. This will reduce the amount of time you spend on social media, and help you make better use of that time.
So do you dedicate your time to the social media outlet which has the most followers? No. Choose the platform where you have the most response.
Here’s an example. A few years ago I took a look at our website analytics and discovered that we were getting very little (if any) traffic to our website from Twitter. Even though we had over 15,000 followers, we had very little engagement there.
At that time our audience on Instagram was smaller, but we were getting more reactions, more comments, and more traffic to our website from our posts there. So I decided to focus my efforts on Instagram. While the numbers continue to grow, what has been more meaningful is how much stronger the response is from our Instagram followers.
If you find yourself struggling trying to figure out which outlet to be on, click here.
Reuse and Recycle Your Content
Creating content to share each week can be one of the most time consuming parts of book marketing. But did you realize that the content you share doesn’t always have to be new? The good content you’ve already worked so hard to create can definitely be used more than once. Besides being new to some of your newer followers, good content can easily be refreshed to grab people’s attention that may even have seen it before.
I’m a prime example here. I try to write a new blog post every week, but I share at least three blog posts per week on our Instagram and Pinterest pages. So what do I do? I reuse our older posts! And I do the same for quotes and informational nuggets on social media.
Here’s why reusing old content is a good idea:
Many of your followers don’t see what you post at the time you post it.
Your social media following is constantly growing, so your content is still new to new followers.
People forget what you’ve posted!
It keeps your old blog posts alive and continues to drive traffic back to your website.
Even if your old blog post talks about a previously released book, you can still use it! That’s a great way to drive attention to your other books, keep them visible, and introduce them to new readers.
You can also refresh this previously used content by creating a new image and changing up the headline to share on social media. I use Adobe Spark and it makes the process so much easier!
Yes, this takes some effort. But taking a look at what you already have and repackaging it takes a lot less time than making a completely new content piece one or more times per week.
Turn Your Notifications Off
About five years ago I turned social media notifications off of my phone and it has been glorious ever since! Being constantly bombarded by with dings and beeps completely disrupts our work and our lives.
I know some social media experts say that you have to respond to every message, like, comment, etc., right away. I tend to disagree. Yes, it’s important to respond to people, but you don’t have to do it the instant it happens. Not only is that very disruptive, but ultimately it’s a lot more time-consuming.
Trust me - you aren’t going to miss out on anything. All of those notifications will still be waiting for you within the app, and you can respond to all of them in your own timeframe.
Just like with the social media notifications, when we are constantly disrupted by the email notifications, our productivity can be disrupted and we waste even more time.
When you’re writing or focusing on your work, quit your email app and make sure all notifications are off. Check your email in the morning, after you finish lunch, and then quickly at the end of your workday. Unless you are expecting something important or time sensitive, make the most of your time by keeping your focus on whatever task is at hand, knowing that you have time set aside to respond to all your notifications.
Tap Into Automation Tools
Automation tools are fantastic ways to use our time more efficiently as we work to maintain the consistent content flow needed for a solid marketing strategy.
One of my favorites services is Buffer, which is a social media scheduling and automation tool. This allows us to schedule social media posts ahead of time in bulk, pushing each post out automatically to each of our social media accounts at the desired time. Other similar options are Hootsuite or Later.
Since Buffer’s Pinterest options are fairly limited, I also use Tailwind to schedule all my Pinterest posts and keep new content flowing on our boards. It’s easy to use and it’s also a huge timesaver.
All of these approaches are about working smarter, not harder. I hope these tips help you use your time more effectively and make your book marketing more manageable, so you can spend more of your valuable time writing that next book.
If you want to go a step further and get all of the tools, resources, and help that you need to market your book, grow on social media, and sell more books - join The Author Circle membership!
