Stop Being A Social Media Sheep

A few months back I wrote a blog post on the topic of web stats and why you should be paying attention to them – you can find that post here.

It’s well worth reading, especially if you’re like many authors and writers that get duped into the whole social media scheme of things.

‘If you’re not on social media you’re not going to sell books.’

‘If you’re not on social media you’ll never build an audience or platform.’

‘If you’re not on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/ etc,  you’re dead to the world.’

It’s all bullshit.

And unfortunately, it’s advice that’s parroted by too many people that don’t know they’re talking about.

Take for example, a blog post I read today on the power of Instagram and why all authors should be all over it.

In the post, the writer gives compelling reasons why Instagram is the place to be.

• You can add polls to your posts.
• You can give reader a sense of your writing
• You can co-promote with other writers
• You can show your love of books and with quotes, excerpts, etc.

All great points,  and coming to that post I’d probably be convinced that Instagram is the place to be.

But, and this is the big but, where’s the proof?

I could go on what I read,  slog away creating content for the platform and then wonder why it’s not working for me.

And there are too many people out there making content for social media platforms because everyone else is doing it. – But is it time well spent?

Here’s a screen shot to explain what I mean.

What do you see?

In the bottom two pie charts, you can see that Google is far better than Bing, and Facebook dwarf’s Instagram and Pinterest for traffic.

If I didn’t have those figures, I’d wouldn’t know that a Google ad was better than a Bing ad, or that time spent on Facebook was better than Instagram or Pinterest.

And for many authors they wonder why they’re not getting the results they expect and blame it on themselves. – Sometimes even doubling down on their efforts and losing valuable writing time to make it work.

You can’t, and it never will.

The only way to see what’s right for you is to test and track.

Test and track.

If you’ve got a blog, add the Google analytics code to it so you can track where your traffric is coming from.

If you’re posting hyperlinks on social media or the back of your books, use Bit.ly to record any activity that’s happening on them.  – Here’s a post on that.

Test and track what works and doesn’t work.

If you’re not doing it, you’re going to fall for any flowery blog post on why you should be using the latest social media platform for building an audience.

If you couldn’t be bothered to test and track, then just ditch all the social media nonsense and stick to your writing.

At least you’ll have more work to sell while everyone else it chasing their tails on social media.

Want to sell more books? Here’s how to do it by collaborating with other authors. 

The post Stop Being A Social Media Sheep appeared first on WriteCome.com.