We love our (Facebook) fans, all 12,345 of them (and counting). And we have more love to spread, so we would like to see our fan base grow. As a little bit of motivation, we will be giving away a NOOK Color ($249 value) to one of our fans when we reach the 20,000 benchmark.

It seems fitting that we have just reached 12,345 fans on Facebook as we enter the New Year. We like to look at this figure as a herald of growing numbers.

Over the past couple of years, Facebook and other forms of social media have been a great way to communicate with our existing publishing partners, connect with potential customers, and build a book-loving community.

How are you using social media to promote yourself and your books? If you aren’t connecting with others, you are missing out on sales potential, and the potential to grow your expertise through connection with others who have similar goals.

Your social media campaign will likely look different from ours. We have different target audiences. We tailor our approach to publishers and individuals who need publishing solutions such as editorial, design, eBook conversion, printing, print and eBook distribution and marketing.

We benefit from our fans by learning what their wants, needs, and dreams are. This helps us to better serve our customers. We also follow industry experts and news sources to keep fresh on the changing book industry.

Your audience and the people you follow should vary depending upon your topic. But the key point is that you need to engage. Getting yourself out there as a source of information builds your brand and puts you on the consumer’s radar.

If you haven’t already, a good way to start building your brand through social media is to find leaders in your field. See how they are using social media. Where are you finding them? What are they saying? What kind of information do they supply? Start commenting and responding on these threads. Helpful and creative contributions position you as a go-to source, and you will soon see others begin to follow you.

If you are already been using social media to promote your books, but are not  seeing the results you would like to see, try to take an objective look at your content. Are you spamming or doing blatant self-promotion without engaging? Are you connecting with what your fans want to see and read about? Check out other entries on this blog for more marketing tips.

Ok, back to the NOOK giveaway. What do you have to do to win? First, you need a Facebook account. If you are already a fan of Bookmasters on Facebook, you don’t need to do anything! You are already entered!

If you are not yet a Facebook fan, visit our Facebook fan page to like us, and you will be entered.

When we reach 20,000 fans, we will randomly select a winner from our fans to win the NOOK Color. It’s that easy!

This offer is exclusive to our Bookmasters Facebook fans. One winner will be chosen at random when the Bookmasters Facebook fan list reaches 20,000 fans.

CONTEST/GIVEAWAY RULES:

Contest giveaway is for one Nook color valued at $249. No substitutions or cash equivalents allowed. Cannot be combined with any other promotions or contest. Contest is void where prohibited. Bookmasters reserves the right to cancel, terminate, or modify this promotion if it cannot be operated, conducted, or completed as planned, for any reason. Bookmasters is not responsible for any problems with entry, including technical failures. Contest does not apply to Bookmasters employees.

Photo: kjarrett, Creative Commons

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