It’s almost a month since “Online Community Management for Dummies” launched to the public. If you think it’s challenging to promote a web project or speaking gig without being spammy, try selling a book. I don’t want to be pushy. Nor do I want to make every conversation about me or my book. It’s hard not to though. I realize Dummies books aren’t normally expected to be top 10 best sellers, but it sure would be nice if mine was. Heck, I’ll take a top 100 or 1000, even a top 100,000 best seller. Still, the book won’t sell at all on it’s own and it’s up to me to help get the word out. I have to step out of my comfort zone for this as I’m not a sales person.
Getting by with a little help from my friends
I don’t generally ask favors from my friends in the social media space. I never enjoy it when folks come out of the woodwork asking me to ReTweet, Stumble, Digg, Reddit, or otherwise share their stuff, especially if they’re not people who choose to have a regular conversation with me in every day life. However, I do know there are people who I can ask for help and they’ll say “yes” because we have built relationships over the years and we do for each other in the way friends do for each other. Also, as I reviewed many books for online friends over the years, I didn’t feel too out of line asking some of those same friends to return the favor. It was a difficult thing for me to do, because I didn’t want to scare anyone away. I often worry about abusing relationships. Most people said “yes,” a few people never responded, but no one said “no.” As a result, there are a couple of good reviews on blogs and even Amazon.
Participating in the right communities
Just like we seek like-minded communities in order to promote blog posts, videos and other content, I’m also interacting with the people who I believe to be the target audience for “Online Community Management for Dummies.” Fortunately, those channels are many of my regular channels so it’s not like I’m infiltrating a group that doesn’t want me around. In addition to belonging to several different community manager groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, I also do my best to take part in #CMGRchat on Twitter.
My core audience isn’t only community managers and as this is a beginner’s reference book, I know some of my community management friends know all this stuff. I’ve also been reaching out to bloggers and participating in their community. I’m not spamming them, but I’m having conversations with them. Pizza King Ramon DeLeon paid me the ultimate compliment when he said, “I like your way of promoting your book. You build the relationships and your friends talk about the book.” I never like it when someone joins a community only to promote something and I’m not going to start being that obnoxious either.
Talk is cheap
Mostly I just keep doing what I’m doing. I created “Online Community Management for Dummies” groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn where I share news and reviews about the book for those who are interested. I also try and drop discussion worthy topics from time to time. I find that talking to people and answering questions is the best way to promote my book and present myself as someone who knows what she’s talking about. I don’t know yet how that’s impacting sales, but I hope it’s something positive.
Introducing book project #2
Soon after completing “Online Community Management for Dummies” I was offered a second book project. I’m just beginning work as on the second edition of “Social Media Marketing All in One for Dummies” with my co-author Jan Zimmerman. The other original co-author had to bow out of the project and the second edition will have me working on the blogging, Twitter, Facebook, photo sharing and Google+ sections. I’m very exciting for this next project.
What’s after that?
I’m also working for a book proposal for a topic that’s very special to me. Those of you who are regulars here at Kommein know I write often on safe social networking and online etiquette for kids and teens. I hope one day to turn all that into a book, but that’s for another time. Right now, I’m working hard at promoting “Online Community Management for Dummies” and co-authoring the second edition of “Social Media Marketing All in One for Dummies.” I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a great year.
Do you have any favorite marketing tips to share? Perhaps you haven’t written a book but you do something else requiring some promotion. How do you get others involved? How are you growing your community? Please share in the comments.
