Host your own #AskMeAnything event and create a buzz about your book: Learn how AMAfeed can help you to hook the audience

Published in

AMAfeed

9 min readMar 14, 2018

If you’re like most authors, the painstaking process of writing and publishing your book feels as though you’ve reached the peak of Mount Everest. Most authors are so exhausted by the time they’ve finished their books — and often so strapped for cash — that they don’t know where to start a publicity and marketing campaign, especially with little or no budget. Don’t let this discourage you! One of the most cost-effective and successful ways to promote your book and engage the audience is through the use of organic social media marketing. For those who don’t know yet, that’s a marketing jargon for non-paid social media activity. If you have ever wondered: “Okay, my book is written, now what?” If you aren’t proactively trying to drive traffic to your book sales page, then you need to get going. AMAfeed is a great place to start!

AMAfeed is a platform that allows hosts to hold events during which they are being asked questions by fascinating individuals. It’s like an interview, but by many people and with hosts having the ability to take their time in answering each question thus engaging even more audience. Once host registers and posts his AMA (short for “Ask Me Anything”) event, the users can ask questions which you’ll be answering in a set time. Hosting an AMA Event is not just a fun and interactive way to engage with your followers, but also gain new ones! Just what you need to make a buzz about your new book! The data you get in exchange is invaluable and that is the best of both worlds — you bring knowledge and experience, we give you tools to get the best exposure you can! Plus, hosting an AMA is not the end, we have an experienced team of marketers at your service, and they are here to work with you to generate hundreds of thousands of impressions and drive fans into a frenzy.

Sooner or later, authors need to talk to their readers. An author’s success in our digital age depends on two kinds of writing: first, writing your high-quality book, and second, writing content to motivate readers to press the “Buy” button. This type of marketing utilizes the free tools and features provided by each social network to build and interact with an online social community. In general, organic social media marketing is important because it helps maintain awareness about you as an author, provides information to the target audience, and establishes a connection with your fans. As an author, you become the center of your own tribe of readers, and by speaking to them, you lead them on the path toward reading your books. Standing out from the crowd is harder than ever before, and with attention spans getting smaller each year, you need to bring more than just high-quality content to win over your readers.

Have you created your first-ever AMA Event yet? If you find yourself shaking your head no, don’t worry, we got your back. We will guide you step by step through the whole process so that you can get the maximum of your AMA event and collect all the benefits — increase visibility, gain influence in your genre or topic and draw targeted readers to your online ‘bookstore’ or author site. Also, hosting an event on AMAfeed platform allows your readers to ask you questions and talk with each other about your book. This is a great way to turn lukewarm readers into passionate book evangelists!

You’re a writer, aren’t you? Spread the word!

Tell your author brand story. If you look at the evolution of communications from a very basic perspective, it’s quite obvious why social media has become so important. We as human beings are fueled by what we feel and how experiences affect us. This is about appealing to the human side of your readers and keeping that part of their minds engaged. If you capture their attention with your personal story and your journey through the whole process of writing your book(s), be sure that it can motivate someone to take action, or simply keep their attention for a prolonged period of time. However, when seeking to tell your story, remember to come up with a scenario that incorporates your product, service, or brand into a story that you create. When you boil it down, this type of marketing seeks to create a bond between the consumer and the brand by providing them with memorable experiences.

Having an author brand can help streamline and accelerate one’s book marketing and publicity campaign and give momentum to your career as an author. The power of engagement is in strengthening relationships and trust in your brand and AMAfeed is the best platform to facilitate this. It’s immediate, it’s accessible — it’s where your audience is already at. Show some personality and give your readers a reason to care. The AMAfeed community responds with the type of honest, earnest and provoking questions that would rarely show up in your typical media interview — so, be different, it’s a great opportunity!

Pictures as proof of your event’s validity are just as important as the headline and content. This might seem like a little factor you can skip, but you cannot ignore the impact it can bring to your event’s readership. Visualization helps, so be as creative as you can be in including proof pictures in your event. Post a photo of yourself holding a piece of paper that includes a one-sentence blurb saying you are X and will be hosting your AMAfeed Event on X date.

Take advantage of social media to promote your AMA Event to extend promotional reach.

Michelle Dunn said: “Marketing is more important than your actual writing. If you write and no one knows about you it’s equal having a billboard about you but keeping your book in the closet.”

One of the best ways to spread the buzz about an upcoming event is by using social media (surprise, right?). However, many authors do not know how (and why) to use it. One book promotion tip that will help you stand out across all your networks, social media and otherwise, is: Focus on what readers will get from your book. The fact that the book exists is not news enough. Your friends might buy your writing because they want to support your lifelong dream of writing a book or help you get further in your goal to be an Amazon best-selling author — but how many friends do you have? Their friends want to be entertained, or are interested in the information they can learn from your book — it’s the content that will bring readers to your book. That’s what you need to make sure to share in your book marketing and publicity efforts.

However, don’t forget to start early enough, and on the other hand, you don’t want to promote too far out and have your audience forget that you are going live. You want to leave people who are interested in your event time to schedule it in. Notifying them at the last minute is a recipe for getting, “Oh, hey, I’d really like to do that, but . . .” as a response. Do not let this happen! So what is the sweet spot? We suggest a basic promotion for your live event 2 days before you intend to go live. There’re so many options to do this. You can create image and text updates on your social media platforms building excitement. You can even send out emails promoting your live event to your email list or repost announcements from our AMA feed accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Use hashtags (#) on Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and most popularly on Twitter. They are a great way for people to follow along with your event through a simple search on their social media networks. You should have your hashtag ready to go from the moment you begin promoting your event. Then the day of the live event we would suggest promoting it again one hour before your event. Build the hype. Encourage your audience to join you and interact. Give them a nugget of what your live event is all about but don’t give it away. Links to your work can generate higher quantity and quality of questions. Don’t forget to provide all links to your social media accounts above, so people could find you. You will be surprised what kind of opportunities it can bring!

Rock your AMA Event like a master!

It’s showtime, so be friendly and enjoy it! Tempt your readers with more. Insert sample chapters from the next book in a series at the end of your current book to pull your readers in. Find out what the public really thinks about you and your book or receive honest suggestions and feedback from them. AMAfeed is a powerful and appealing tool for reaching thousands of people at once, so take advantage of it and participate in a vibrant community!

If you’re not committed, neither will your readers be.

As a general rule, if you only give a single sentence with a single clause like ‘I’m from Ireland.’ then your answer is too short. Your answers shouldn’t be too short because you want to encourage people to talk and show interest in your book. This doesn’t mean just throwing up a link to your author page and hoping someone will read it or click on it. This means really getting on there and interacting with everyone. Respond to posts from your audience and interact when they show interest. So, take your time and think out your response. Show them who you are and your audience will feel more connected to you — and they will want to read your book or visit your website. Don’t worry about sounding like you’re full of yourself, and tell the interesting story about what you did, and why it mattered to you.

Check out some fantastic AMA Events that our hosts had on the #AuthorsAMA channel and discover stories about their journey. Pick up some useful tips on marketing tools, and read awesome inspirational quotes that will move you to organize an AMA Event on AMAfeed platform. We are waiting for you!