For an author, social media can be…

For an author, social media can be something that is effective and useful. I imagine, anyway. My successes have been somewhat limited 🙂 But even with my lack of success in regards to social media, there are a couple of things I still recognize as pitfalls, whether through personal experience or by hearing warnings from other people.

One example can be linked to a woman I used to follow on Twitter who not only posted solely about her book (at least I can’t recall seeing any other tweet from her), but seemed to post the exact same tweet over and over. As a follower, seeing the same thing repeated that much, maybe hourly, became kind of annoying. As an author, I realize annoying people probably isn’t the best way to go about gaining and keeping an audience.

Even if Twitter were conducted in a face-to-face “industry conference or a chamber of commerce meeting” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108) kind of way, the aforementioned author’s strategy wouldn’t necessarily be the best option. Why? Simple. A good number of people might not want to “stand there and read press releases” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108) at such an event. They might want more interaction, which is a human quality to apply to my online accounts (Schaefer, 2012, p. 108).

Possible bottom line: If my audience isn’t ever interested in what I post, they might not stick around for when I do post about my books. I might want to get people to buy those books, but I know from experience that the beating-people-in-the-head approach can backfire since I ended up unfollowing that person. And if I’ll unfollow someone for it, I should assume my potential followers would as well.

Similar criticism could be given for authors who automatically PM a person after a follow to ask said person to buy a book. I’ve done the PM thing, and I’ve been on the other end of it as well. Arguably, the approach is like meeting someone for the very first time, and asking for five dollars within the first three minutes. Doing so could offer an instant, bad impression of the person making those requests.
Basically, the mentality for the person reading the buy-my-book request could be something like, “I realized you exist about two minutes ago, and you already want something?”

Rather than doing something so instant, an author should ideally build a rapport with people *before* asking for favors or promoting books. As Schaefer claims, “[i]n an always-on, real-time, global world of business communications, the priority is on human interaction that leads to connections. Connections lead to awareness. Awareness leads to trust. Trust is the ultimate catalyst to business benefits, as it always has been” (2012, pp. 19-20).

That concept is why tweeting about more than just your book over and over is a good idea. Otherwise, there’s not necessarily a definite rapport or relationship between the followed and the follower, so why should the followers care about the followed’s book? Even after waiting though, pushing a book via PM could still be an intrusive idea, since you’re singling out one person at a time for it. Personally, at this point in my career, I’d advise against it.

But beyond the idea of bombarding readers and followers with too much business, an author can do something potentially worse to his or her online image. What is that something, you might ask? An author can react to a negative comment about his or her book, like a negative review.

I don’t know that any author legitimately likes seeing that he or she has a bad review. I’ve seen an author or two mention they want people to review their books, even if those reviews are negative, but I might doubt the sincerity behind those requests. After the writing, editing, proofreading, promoting… Who wants to read someone say mean things about something you put so much effort into? I don’t, and I admit that.

But negative reviews can be a part of the career, too, and an author should know how to deal with them. As one writer said, “[y]our book, written with the labor of love and handled like your baby, is still a book, a product” (Kealey, 2015). In the end, “it’s part of the business” (Kealey, 2015), and authors should accept that fact, however much we might not like it.

The strategy to dealing with these bad reviews and comments? Don’t deal with them. At least not publicly. You can rant and rave to your friends all you want (Kealey, 2015), but don’t go on Twitter to verbally attack someone for negatively reviewing your book or to defend your work. A person is allowed to give his or her opinion, just like that person was allowed to pick up your book in the first place. To one writer, “[e]very reviewer has an opinion, and all opinions are valid to the person who has them” (Kealey, 2015).

Lashing out over a bad review won’t necessarily make it go away, and acting in such a way could come across as unprofessional and childish. In addition to that not-so-pleasant representation, one post claims that “[e]very response gives that review more momentum” (Kealey, 2015). What that equation could add up to then is that you look bad, and you could be promoting your criticism until it potentially reaches even more people. Which sounds like a lose-lose, to me.

Need proof that reacting in such a way can affect your online image? How about an apparent directory for some moments when authors were less-than-professional? Pocketful of Books has one! In fact, the post claims the concept of “Authors Behaving Badly” (“Authors Behaving Badly,” n.d.) is a “weekly feature” (“Authors Behaving Badly,” n.d.). I, for one, wouldn’t want to make that kind of list!

Personally, I’ve tried to not broadcast any negative feelings I’ve had about negative reviews to everyone following my accounts, taking the advice from others to heart. Overly public remarks like that could be a giant pothole, and I don’t want to jump in 🙂

References

“Authors Behaving Badly.” Pocketful of Books. Retrieved from: http://www.pocketfulofbooks.com/p/authors-behaving-badly.html

Kealey, A. (2015, March 15). “10 Ways for Authors to Handle Bad Reviews.” Indie Author News. Retrieved from: http://www.indieauthornews.com/2015/03/10-ways-for-authors-to-handle-bad-book-reviews.html

Schaefer, M.W. (2012). The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time. [Kindle Version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com