Q&A: How Can I Use LinkedIn to Promote My Books?

An author friend recently emailed me the following question:

"Bob, I just created a profile at LinkedIn. I know what it is, but I'm not sure how to effectively use it. Any tips?"

My Answer:

I recently joined LinkedIn myself and, while I have a respectable 166 people in my network, I haven't done as much with it as I have with MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and others.

But all of these social networking sites have one thing in common: it's another way for people to connect with other like-minded people. Facebook, Myspace, etc., each have their own unique qualities you can use. But the main thing is building a "friends" network of people who are already involved with the subject of your book or have some reason to be interested in what you're doing.

With any of these sites, there's a lot of work early on setting up your profile, building your network, and sending friend requests. After that, send people personal notes here and there to stay in touch and build relationships. Once you've built up a network, more people will seek you out as they see that you're friends with one of their friends. Then it multiplies.

On LinkedIn in particular, one good thing to do is post "Recommendations" for more established experts in your field. These recommendations will be featured on that person's public profile, where others will find your name and words of praise.

Another smart thing you can do is create "link bait" to lure potential customers. Let's say you're a photographer and you've published a book of photos taken at U.S. National Parks. You could post a photo and commentary about your experience shooting scenic views of Glacier Point at Yosemite.

Make sure and use "Glacier Point" and "Yosemite" within the titles of any blog or photo you post about it. That way, people searching for these specific topics are more likely to find you.

That's the idea: It's a two-way interaction. You can be proactive and seek out like-minded people on LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, etc. But you can also set yourself up to be "discovered by" like-minded people there as well.

MarketingProfs has a great "Social Media Starter Kit" article with a lot more info that I encourage you to read. (Free registration required to access it.) And for music promotion on MySpace, consider my own book, MySpace Music Marketing.

-Bob

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