A Kiss-of-Death Mistake made by writers active on a number of largely-similar (i.e., same topic) Facebook Groups for writers is causing many of them to loose fans, readers, followers – in short, their Facebook-based platform members.
Fortunately, the mistake is simple to understand, and simple to correct.
As a writer, publicist and literary agent (I wear several hats when it comes to books), I am a member of perhaps a hundred Facebook writers groups; collectively, they reach almost a million people. By any perspective (except James Patterson’s), this is a massive collection of writers, well-worth reaching.
However, like me, many thousands of those Facebook group members belong to multiple groups. For instance, I belong to nearly 50 groups that exist solely to market and promote their members’ books. I belong to probably 40 groups made up of mystery writers; 25 groups of science fiction/fantasy writers; 30 groups of Christian writers, and nearly 100 groups of writers based in or tied to Las Vegas. It only makes sense for writers in those genres to belong to as many Facebook groups as possible, the better to understand their market and attract fellow writers as fans and followers. After all, nobody reads as many books as a writer.
The Kiss-of-Death Mistake comes when a single multi-group member blasts his or her latest insights to all those groups. What happens then is that each group member receives an email for each post. So, if a writer posts in 25 groups I belong to, I’m going to see 25 emails, all identically hyping the same post. When that happens, many writers do what I do – delete them all and move on. I don’t know anyone who wants to be on the receiving end of a shotgun blast, and that’s what happens when a writer “shotguns” his latest pearl of wisdom to members of all the mystery writers groups, or all the SF/Fantasy groups, or … well, you get the point.
This blog was inspired by the seemingly-endless numbers of posts I receive, all bunched together (having been posted within a few minutes, start-to-finish). The same dozen or so writers have been doing this, almost daily, and they’ve worn me out, to the point that I automatically delete whatever they send.
Still, those groups represent a remarkable target, and any aggressive and effective self-promoter will want to reach them. So, if you want to do it right, do this:
- Develop a series of five differently-written contributions to one of those groups. Don’t send exactly the same thing to each group. That’s Kiss-of-Death Mistake #1.
- Next, post just a few of these (perhaps one of each of the five different posts) to targeted groups reaching the same market.
- Then, wait at least a half-day, and do it again. Keep doing it for as many days as it takes to reach all the groups.
- Alternatively, you could post one message per hour for 12-to-16 hours per day (i.e., every hour that you’re awake). This will spread them out so they don’t bunch up.
The point is, one way or another, spread out your posts. Contribute different messages (on any given day) to different groups, and do so with a 12-hour spread (at minimum) so you don’t wear out your welcome. Ignore this advice and your potentially brilliant posts will make you personna non grata on your varous Facebook Groups, which is not just an emotional rejection, but a financial one as well.
Don’t overload people. Don’t repeatedly send the same people emails that will wear them out and make them eager to delete whatever you’ve written, unread and unmourned.
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