Gigi Griffis

Very recently I attended a writer’s conference. My first, actually. And I was surprised at just how little the writing community knows about online marketing.

I heard over and over again “get a website” or “get a blog.” But only once did I hear someone caution the audience that blogging is only useful if you have something to say–something relevant to your audience. And never did anyone address the question of how you get someone to your blog, to your website, to your Facebook page.

Whenever you are embarking on a journey into the world of websites, blogs and social media, you first must ask yourself some important–sometimes difficult–questions. If you don’t ask these questions before you get started, your content, design and plans are probably going to suffer.

So, what are these questions–these important starting points?

• What are your goals? Before you get started, you should know what you are trying to accomplish. If your goal is to build a fan base, you’ll design your website and strategy differently than if your goal is to sell a product or have people contact you about a service.
• Who is your audience? If you are a writer, are you after fans? Do you want to impress an agent? Are you looking for a publisher? Determining who you are reaching out to will also inform your strategy, design and content.
• What does your audience want to see? Once you have determined who you are after–ask yourself what is of value to them. No one is coming to your website (except, perhaps, your mom) just to add value to your endeavors. They’re coming because they get something out of it. They get to read blog entries, download excerpts, contact you, submit a story to an anthology, etc. Find out what your audience wants and then figure out what you can deliver that reaches them.
• Where is your audience? Are they on Facebook? If you are a writer, are they on GoodReads, perhaps, or Amazon.com? Before you can reach your audience and direct them toward your website, you need to figure out where they are and go to them. If you are a business writer, your audience might be on LinkedIn. If you do literature for teens, you might want to have a presence on MySpace. But don’t waste your time doing everything–the majority of your audience is somewhere. You just have to figure out where that is.
• How will you get your audience to your website? Will you post teasers on Facebook with links back to your blog? Will you optimize your blog for search engines and hope to get relevant traffic from Google? If you are writing about travel, perhaps spend some time on Yelp or other travel community sites–answer questions, offer some value and direct people back to your website/blog. If you are writing a dating book, offer to do a guest blog on a dating site like Nerve.com or a guest article on E-Harmony, depending on which audience you’re after. Whatever you do: make sure you are where your audience is and reaching them with something they want or need.