There's been a lot of chatter about it. I've seen people lamenting it in facebook statuses and in my twitter feed. What am I talking about? Blogs becoming a dying art. They aren't totally dead of course. You're reading this now. And some of us will always love blogs. Like me. But it's becoming increasingly harder to reach new people through blogs. You're really talking to your already fans. That is awesome. They buy your books. More importantly, they promote them. You want to talk to these people, and you should.
But you need an avenue to reach new people, and let's face it. Facebook will not be that avenue. You pretty much have to pay for anyone to see any content, and even then Facebook is selective about whom they show your statuses to.
So take your marketing efforts to YouTube. I know for a lot of authors (myself included) that's a scary idea. Many of us are introverts and love being able to hide behind our flashy purple blog with the sparkles. (I could be speaking only about myself here, lol). But you don't have to pay YouTube to make your content available. In fact, they will pay you. One more time. YouTube will pay you for your content. If the problem is we can't reach new potential readers with our blog because 2010 is gone and FB is charging us to reach anyone with our statuses, then YouTube who is paying for content seems like a good alternative. I should also point out it's video which seems to be the trend of the day, so it is a good a way to meet potential readers, especially if you're writing YA. That's where the teens are.
I'll be back later this week to talk about setting up a YouTube channel and how to promote it.
Are you on Youtube? Are you going to move to YouTube if you'e not? What are your thoughts on this?
5 comments:
I'll be checking back to read more about this but man, do I really have to do one more thing?!
Other than book trailers, I hadn't thought of using YouTube as a marketing tool. I will investigate.
I sure agree with you about FB. Twitter isn't far behind. Both are wall to wall "BUYMYBOOK" and it isn't as appealing as it once was.
Blogs? IDK. I think fans will reach out to an author. Whether we keep our blogs up to date *shameface* or not is where we falter.
Hmm. This looks like an intriguing topic.
@mshatch-- if the thought of doing one more thing is daunting, consider forgetting either FB or Twitter. I don't think FB is going to be around much longer anyhow. They're not showing any content.
@Huntress- I completely agree with what you're saying about FB & Twitter. And I agree fans will come to blogs but I think YouTube might be a good option for fans to be. I'l do a post later in the week for building a YouTube following and content.
@Liza thanks for stopping by.
I had considered starting a YouTube channel. But video isn't my thing, and my brother (who does video really, really well) is too busy to help. Although, maybe if I bribed him with chocolate chip cookies...
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