Ask most authors why they write and they will likely tell you it is respond, “To make a difference.” Regardless of whether they are fiction or nonfiction authors, something drives us to get our message out. Unfortunately, a great many authors will never have more than a handful of people reading their works other than family and friends. This is directly related to their lack of knowledge and understanding of their need to promote their own books. Things have changed Prior to all the choices available due to the Internet and Social Marketing the greatest limitation in marketing was time and money with money being at the top of the list for most authors. Because of Social Marketing what is possible is far easier and much less costly than ever before. One would be foolish not to take advantage of even a few resources available literally at their fingertips. A few minutes a day of focused online marketing effort can increase your visibility and book sales in leaps and bounds. 1 + 1 = more than 2 In the past one plus one equaled two. In the world of online marketing this is not at all the case. Online one plus one equals lots of other ones who are spreading the word for you with the press of a button. That is, if they like what they see and if they believe what you have to say is worthy of their button pushing. Although very much talked about, Social Marketing is also very misunderstood. Take Twitter for example. Lots of authors don’t bother with it at all because they have no clue as to the real (and far reaching) benefit. Truth be told, there are many trains of thought regarding exactly how to use twitter. Recently, I attended one of the top Internet marketing conferences where a main topic of conversation was social marketing. Not only did I have the opportunity to share the platform with experts like Willie Crawford, Jeff Herring, David Perdew, Denise Wakeman, Lynn Terry and Kevin Riley, I also sat in on a few sessions as a student. Google reveals the experts If the names I mentioned aren’t familiar to you, a quick google search will show you just how knowledgeable these experts are in the areas of Internet and Social marketing. Each brings a wealth of information to the table. While one expert said, “I use Twitter to connect with people and be very casual without any overt promoting,” another expert said, “I overtly promote on Twitter and it works for me.” Who’s right? Actually, both. The one who overtly promotes has such an incredible following that people know him, like him and trust him to the point that they look forward to his promotions. So who cares? As an author you might be wondering what this has to do with promoting books. Actually, everything. And here’s why. With Social Marketing you have global reach to potential readers. However, to make your efforts worthwhile, you must be strategic in what and how you use the Internet. Blogs are the hub of what your social marketing efforts should include. From there, everything else feeds into your blog. You can build a wonderful following with your blog by writing and posting short articles, post excerpts from your books, put book trailers for your fans to enjoy and much more. In that the blog is the hub, the idea is to drive every other part of your Social Marketing position back to a specific location like your blog. Here’s how it works Say you post your book trailer on YouTube. You then use the embedded code from your YouTube video in a blog posting. Once you have the blog posting done you do a tweet about the video with the permalink in the Tweet so that you are driving readers back to your blog. You can also take the blog permalink and post on your Facebook wall to drive people back to your blog. If you belong to groups in Facebook, you can post a short note about the video with the permalink driving people back to your blog. To optimize your YouTube position, be sure to put the permalink from your blog posting at the beginning of the video description. Use the http:// at the beginning of the link so it is live. This way, with one click readers are right back at your blog. This is a process that can be done in literally 15 to 20 minutes a day. To really gain visibility for you and your books, add this to your daily activities. Within a very short period of time you will definitely see an increase in your blog traffic. Your blog must be optimized in order to gain the greatest benefit when someone visits the location. Set it up in a way that people know what the blog is about, that you are the owner, and some way for them to subscribe to your blog. Without these essential elements you could miss readers for future books you write. Miss readers, you miss buyers. Want to learn exactly how to gain lots of visibility while selling more books online? Check out the "by invitation only" group coaching session at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/VIP-M.htm