Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Have you ever read a tweet on Twitter about an upcoming book signing in a specific city the next day and clicked through to the book author website to learn more?
But once on the website you can’t find any mention of the time and place for the book signing?
You haven’t really stepped into the next dimension. What you have stepped into is a disconnect between an author’s online and offline activities.
Let’s start at square one:
An effective book author website should function as the home base for an author’s offline and online activities. This means that all such activities should be “threaded through” the website and present a consistent message.
Now if you can’t change your book author website at a moment’s notice, you have a problem. And this is true even if you are active on social media sites and can announce, for example, a last-minute book signing.
You need to be able to announce updated information as easily on your website as you can through your social media updates. And equally important, the information on your website and on your social media profiles should be seamlessly integrated.
Recently I saw a book author’s website on which the author had listed all her speaking engagements. Only problem was that the list began with past engagements, which therefore required patience on the part of a website visitor to scroll down to find the upcoming engagements.
The author did not want to eliminate her past engagements, feeling that these engagements added credibility.
The solution was to add the upcoming dates at the top of the list – for the engagement dates to be in reverse chronological order as on a blog – so that a website visitor could immediately see the newest dates.
The above example may seem an unimportant distinction, but it is the little things that can turn off a website visitor from staying on your site to learn more about you and your books.
And for writers it is especially relevant that their offline and online activities are current and consistent:
If your activities are presented inconsistently, might not a prospective reader conclude that the plot points of your novels, for example, might also be inconsistent?
The truth is that everything you do on and off the web reflects on your book author brand. Therefore you need to take the time to ensure that all your activities are integrated and up-to-date.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. The company is committed to taking the mystery out of social media so that individuals and companies can utilize the power of social media marketing. Check out the company program Quick Start Social Media Track.
