Using Social Media - A Case Study

​Back in June of this year we blogged about the way some authors don’t engage properly on social media, so they don’t get the best results out of it.
 
We called it “fake engagement” and there is a lot of it about.
 
We are happy to say we now have a case study we can use to demonstrate the value of good quality social media engagement, so we can show how it is superior to fake engagement.

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It is the basic principle of social media marketing that selling should always be secondary to engagement.

If people think that all you want to do is sell them something, they will scroll past your posts. That means you spend a lot of time and effort trying to market on social media, only to get poor results.
 
So, to our case study.

A reader of our blog about fake engagement, we’ll call them Red Bus, got in contact with us to say they make regular posts to their account on X (formerly Twitter) related to the themes of their books. They are just statements of fact that Red Bus thinks readers may find interesting. The posts don’t have URLs linking them to Red Bus’s books, because that wouldn’t be engagement, that would be selling.

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This week Red Bus got a response to one of the posts from someone we will call Maple Leaf.

​Red Bus responded back and a virtual conversation started up, with Maple Leaf talking about their dad’s experiences and Red Bus making contributions based on personal experience.
 
This went on for about two hours, off and on (maybe a dozen posts each) when Red Bus had to end the conversation, as there were other things that needed doing and X is too much of a distraction. Red Bus said goodbye and thanked Maple Leaf for the chat, logged off X and thought no more about it.

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Red Bus logged back onto X the next day and found that Maple Leaf hadn’t quite terminated the conversation the previous day.

​Maple Leaf had asked a couple of questions about Red Bus’s books, relating to where they were available. Naturally, Red Bus replied, providing the necessary information. But Red Bus didn’t include a link to the books. That would be too pushy, Red Bus decided.
 
Again, Red Bus didn’t think too much more about it and got on with the business of the day.
 
Later that day Red Bus logged onto their KDP dashboard, to see that there had been a sale in the territory where Maple Leaf lived.
 
A coincidence? Maybe. But Red Bus didn’t think so. Logging back onto X, Red Bus saw a notification from Maple Leaf, and sure enough, Maple Leaf said they had purchased one of Red Bus’s books.
 
So, quality engagement on social media had led directly to a sale. At no point did Red Bus link to any of the places their book is sold. At no time did Red Bus suggest to Maple Leaf that Maple Leaf might like Red Bus’s books.

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Maple Leaf took the decision to ask, and then took the decision to buy, without any prompting.
 
Now, you may think that a single sale is no big deal, and you would be right – and wrong.
 
Firstly, if Maple Leaf likes Red Bus’s book, they may buy the other books that Red Bus has written, so one sale turns into several.
 
Secondly, if Maple Leaf likes the book(s), they may leave a review and we all know how valuable reviews are.
 
But, most importantly, Maple Leaf may tell their family and friends about the new author they discovered on X, and suggest that the family and friends take a look for themselves.

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Because Maple Leaf has had a positive experience as a result of this engagement and that is so rare it may be worth mentioning to others.
 
That is the sort of result you can get from proper engagement.
 
It is not the sort of result you will get with posts saying “Can anyone see my posts?”
 
It is not the sort of result you will get with posts like “Who is the best band in the world?” Or with “Should you put pineapple on pizza?”
 
And it is certainly not the result you will get just by posting links to your books.
 
Growing a market through social media is a painfully slow process sometimes. But if you do it right, it can pay off, as Red Bus found out this week.
 
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