I’m at Book Expo America and have spent the past two days being surrounded by amazing, insightful and fantastic folks through the PMA University, where I was lucky enough to teach two classes this year. The classes were Advanced Blogging and Web 2.0.
Both of them went really well and there are so many independent publishers and authors who really are excited about what the Internet can do for them.
This makes me happy because the Internet is such a powerful tool and you can do so much completely on your own to get your book, brand or product out there!
One of the big questions/discussions was around whether or not everyone must have a blog. My answer is no. You don’t absolutely need a blog if you’re an author and you should only do it if you’re committed to writing and posting at least 3 times a week.
I have worked with authors who needed my help to start a blog, and they’ve gone on to have great success as bloggers. Beth Kephart is a great example of this – her blog is fantastic and she continues to blog. I know her blog will not someday become part of the blog cemetery.
My client Lloyd Dangle does a superb blog and I have several business book authors who blog. But again, not everyone needs a blog. You really have to look at the time involved and then decide if it’s a right fit for you.
The most important thing to remember as we’re all reaching social media tool overload is to simply use the tools that work best for you. Do you need a MySpace page? Probably if you’re a musician but that’s about it. Do you need a Facebook account and LinkedIn account? Might be good but always keep track of your time and don’t go overboard on those. (I’m a giant fan of LinkedIn.com, more than Facebook.)
Do you have to register your blog with thousands of blog directories, post to your blog every single hour, comment on 100 other blogs and ask them to come to your blog too? No, not at all. You really just need to post three times a week, pick a few places to submit your blog too, make sure you have a Feed mechanism on your blog so people can sign up for your posts and comment on fellow blogs that you really respect and only when you have time.
Web 2.0 tools are just another weapon in your marketing arsenal, but it should never be your intention to drop everything outreach wise you’re doing and just use those. Keep everything in balance.
