Trying Something New

Jennifer talks about a new social media tool…

As authors, we are always looking at new ways to promote our books and I’m no exception. This time around, I’m trying to be selective in how much I spend and what I do. I plan to really analyze what results I get and determine which strategies worked and which didn’t. That’s not to say I’ll be able to repeat any successes or avoid any failures, but I’m trying.

One of the things I’m trying this time around is Thunderclap and Headtalker campaigns.

Does anyone remember the shampoo commercial from the 1980’s—you tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends and so on (if not, click here to see it)? Basically, that commercial proved that your sales can increase exponentially the more people you tell about your product.

Enter Thunderclap and Headtalker. You create an announcement on their website—for me, my announcement is the release of my new book. You give it a title, a link, a photo and a little information, as well as a date the announcement is to appear and a goal of how many people you want to help you spread the news. Then you share that campaign with people. Those people click on the social media platform they’re willing to use to share your announcement. If you reach your goal (mine is 100 people sharing my announcement), the site automatically sends it out via the social media outlets people have chosen.

For mine, I am announcing the release of Addicted to Love. I set my goal at 100 people, and I’m setting the announcement to appear on July 21, release day. So far, I have 52 people signed up to help share my announcement using Thunderclap, and 26 people signed up using Headtalker. I have joined a couple of Facebook groups dedicated to publicizing these campaigns. Basically, I agree to sign up for yours if you agree to sign up for mine. The result is that my reach is much greater than if I just tweeted or put an announcement on Facebook or whatever myself. In fact, right now, my reach through Thunderclap is 118,000 people. On Headtalker, it’s 971,000. Those numbers are based on the people who sign up to help me promote, and the number of followers they each have.

It’s free. It’s easy. If I don’t reach my goal, the announcement isn’t made through those venues. But I can still announce on my own, using my friends, etc. So there’s no downside. I’ve attached the links below for you to help me if you’d like. Having helped other people do this, I have learned that there is no problem giving Thunderclap and Headtalker access to my accounts—they don’t post anything else other than what I’m specifically signing up for and they don’t send me spam or anything.

So if you’d like to help me out, I’d love it. And it will also give you a chance to take a look at these two methods of making use of social media. You might find you want to give it a try the next time you’re promoting something.

Headtalker

Thunderclap