{"id":3234,"date":"2010-12-24T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T06:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/?p=3234"},"modified":"2014-12-23T17:22:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T11:52:54","slug":"the-importance-of-linkedin-profiles-for-book-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/the-importance-of-linkedin-profiles-for-book-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"TGIF Book Marketing Tips: The Importance of LinkedIn Profiles for Book Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller<\/a><\/p>\n

The professional social networking site LinkedIn.com is currently considered by many, including me, as one of the big three of social media sites (the other two being Twitter and Facebook).<\/p>\n

Yes, there are other sites appropriate for various social networking connections, and particularly YouTube can also be very important. But for making connections with your targeted audiences, these are the big three.<\/p>\n

First a little background on LinkedIn<\/strong><\/p>\n

LinkedIn is the oldest of these three sites, and I personally believe this accounts for LinkedIn\u2019s software often being less user friendly than the software of Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n

Each of these three social media sites provides a different method (note that I am actually talking about Facebook Pages \u2013 formerly called Fan Pages \u2013 and not Facebook profiles) for getting in front of your target markets.<\/p>\n

What is becoming more and more interesting is how these three sites are starting to adapt (some would say \u201ccannibalize\u201d) features of one or the other or both sites.<\/p>\n

At this writing, LinkedIn is still in beta for its company pages. In addition, product and service tabs for these company pages have just been rolled out.<\/p>\n

Most important to remember, LinkedIn profiles appear on outside search results, such as on Google.<\/p>\n

How can professional LinkedIn profiles help book authors promote their books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The number one thing that book authors can do to effectively use LinkedIn to attract attention for their books is to ensure that their LinkedIn professional profile is as detailed as possible.<\/p>\n

First, a good headshot is essential. If you have an author photo for your book, you may use the head part of that photo for your LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n

Second, when given the choice of how you want your name displayed, choose your entire name and not your first name with the first initial of your last name.<\/p>\n

Third, spend time writing the \u201cheadline\u201d that appears under your name. You have 120 characters (characters, not words) in which to make yourself and your book attractive to your target markets.<\/p>\n

It is important to use keywords in this \u201cheadline.\u201d For example, instead of saying your book deals with \u201cteenage eating habits,\u201d say something such as it deals with \u201cteen anorexia and teen bulimia.\u201d This is a significant distinction because it is much more likely for people to search on Google for \u201cteen bulimia\u201d or \u201cteen anorexia\u201d than for \u201cteenage eating habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the \u201cwebsites\u201d section you can have three links. If you have a website for your book, this should be one of the links. If you have a separate blog, this could be a good choice for the second link. And you can use your Facebook Page link or another appropriate link for your third link. (Your Twitter link is a separate option so no need to include that link in this section.)<\/p>\n

And, please, please, if you want to send people to get your book on Amazon, give the exact link to your book\u2019s page on Amazon and NOT the link to www.amazon.com<\/a> because people can get distracted by everything on Amazon\u2019s home page and never get to your book\u2019s page.<\/p>\n

Job information is important for fiction as well as nonfiction authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are a nonfiction author, the information about current and past jobs is probably quite important, especially if it helps create credibility about your book\u2019s topic. And even for a fiction author this job information can help inspire trust in your writing ability or in the topic of a novel, for example.<\/p>\n

Then you want to get recommendations to display on your page. These recommendations should fall into two categories: recommendations for your book and recommendations for your jobs, especially the jobs relevant to your writing or book topic.<\/p>\n

The Amazon feature on LinkedIn can be used to display your book covers<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you go to my LinkedIn Profile<\/a> and then click on \u201cView Full Profile\u201d and scroll down under the summary \u2013 you will find an example of the Amazon application available to everyone.<\/p>\n

Instead of using this application to show the books I am currently reading, I show the covers of my three books on Amazon. (You have to click on \u201cSee all books \u2026\u201d to actually see all three books.)<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the above recommendations are only some of the important considerations for optimizing a LinkedIn profile to attract the target markets for your books. And do note that these recommendations are all part of the free LinkedIn account option. (I do not use the paid option.)<\/p>\n

And realizing the power of LinkedIn, my business partner Yael K. Miller and I now offer a two-hour LinkedIn Professional Setup service to help people optimize their LinkedIn profile. You can read about this LinkedIn service Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller<\/a> on Twitter) is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and co-author of FOUR COMEDY SCREENPLAYS and the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. Her social media marketing company coaches clients on how to effectively use the power of social media to attract their targeted audiences.
\nSign up now<\/a> to get email notifications of new social media marketing blog posts.
\n\"\"<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller The professional social networking site LinkedIn.com is currently considered by many, including me, as one of the big three of social media sites (the other two being Twitter and Facebook). Yes, there are other sites appropriate for various social networking connections, and particularly YouTube can also be very important. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,720,174],"tags":[9,3,18,197,361,362],"class_list":["post-3234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-marketing","category-guest-posts","category-tgif-book-marketing-tips","tag-authors","tag-book-marketing","tag-book-promotion","tag-linkedin","tag-linkedin-profile","tag-promote-on-linkedin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}