How Will Your Audience Find You?

By Gary Kliewer, on December 18th, 2009

Authors—especially those writing in support of a cause or as part of a business—recognize that publishing a blog keeps the interest high and grows the audience. Fortunately, if you’ve written an entire book, you already have a ton of material to draw upon for those blog posts, just by adding new examples, catching a news peg, or exploring new angles. Yet, no way around it, maintaining a blog is a significant amount of work and a long-haul commitment. To make it worth it for you, how will new readers locate you in cyberspace?

For book authors, readers will find their way to your blog through three primary avenues:

Author or Book Search. They heard you speak or saw a reference to a book of interest—yours. So they got your address directly from you, or they “googled” you or your book title. These readers will want to find you quickly and get drawn into your stream with blog, video, and news. These are your dearest friends! These readers will share what they find on your site with others, add comments on your blog, provide honest feedback, and buy your next book. Woo them, offer them free previews, get their email addresses. Friend them on Facebook. Engage them personally online to the extent possible.

Social Media Hook. You captured their attention with a blog reply on a related site or a comment in a Facebook group. Perhaps one of your witty Twitter rejoinders won them over. Even better if someone they respect posted a link to your online presence. These are your soon-to-be best friends. Draw them in with timely content within the theme that caught their eyes. Keep up that consistent online persona and message. If possible, find out where they heard about you, so you can turn more of your time and resources that direction.

Direct Search on Subject. Someone who searched the Internet on a term that leads to you may bring you a whole new audience. If your website or blog supplies answers and fulfills the promise of your expertise, you’ve won a new fan who will dig deep into your work. It is worth being diligent and technically savvy about search engine optimization (SEO) in order to make sure these readers can find you. The tricky aspect is that initially you don’t know for sure what the best search terms will be. Make sure your SEO analytics tell you how and why people are finding you.

However your audience finds you, the work of keeping them engaged is never-ending. Today, many of your potential raving fans have browsing attention spans that don’t run past 140 characters or a ninety-second video. Draw them into your blog with deeper content laid down like breadcrumbs in the forest leading to articles. Catch them with surprises on your site, such as a humorous video or a related game. Develop a resource page to browse that may draw them back. Above all, respond to comments and keep promises.

In short, getting a book published is easier than ever, but being an author is not a single accomplishment: When your audience finds you, it is the beginning of a dynamic, ongoing conversation.