The sixth of our weekly interviews in which we discover how real businesses are making Social Media work for them. Please meet Alison Neale from The Proof Fairy.
Who are you and what do you do?
I am a proofreader, copywriter and published author. Having published my own book “The Boy from Hell”, I offer a mentoring, editing and publishing service to people who want to write their own books. I also talk and raise awareness about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in children.
How do you use Social Media?
For my business, I use Social Media in general and Twitter and Facebook in particular as a relationship building tool.
Twitter
I have used Twitter to promote my new book more than I have ever used it to promote my business. I have been able to connect with my influencers – other people working in the area of ADHD as well as relevant media contacts. Using Twitter I have been able to make these influencers aware of the book and they have helped me promote it.
Facebook
I have used Facebook in a number of ways:
- pay per click advertising on Facebook: this probably broke even in terms of book sales, but raised awareness of the book.
- I have found other authors through Facebook groups – these are groups for authors to give each other support and ideas in marketing and again raise awareness.
- I did a virtual launch party using Facebook events (more on this in a moment)
LinkedIn
Although I have been using LinkedIn for a while for my copywriting business, I have just started to use LinkedIn to make connections with charities and will be looking at joining relevant charitable or support groups.
Can you share a Personal Success Story?
I had no idea how the Facebook launch event was going to work. I had prepared a few quizzes and competitions but just decided to give it a go. I told my Facebook friends about it and promoted it through my newsletter. I was blown away by the result. It ran from 1pm – 8pm on a Saturday and I had about 100 people drop in through the day. Quite a few of these were people I didn’t know but had heard about the event through others. I had a competition running every hour. For example, I invited people to write a poem using the letters ADHD, find the answers to a puzzle by looking at parts of my website and so on. The prizes were e-books of all sorts (fiction, business and of course my book) – I had previously used Facebook to make contact with other authors who offered their e-book as a prize in return for a bit of promotion.
There were really good conversations throughout the day – both general chat and people asking questions and offering advice from their experience of ADHD. My son, ‘the boy from hell’ was on hand to answer questions for ½ hour as well which went down really well.
Overall the launch day exceeded all my expectations – both raising the profile of the book and resulting in book sales.
Can you give our readers a top tip?
My main tip is to not be afraid of trying something on Social Media. You shouldn’t try to do everything as not every platform is right for everyone, but do experiment to see if the platform works for you – you might be surprised!
Contact Information
You can contact Alison on LinkedIn, ProofFairy – Twitter, Facebook, Proof Fairy Website, The Boy From Hell, Twitter, Facebook, The Boy From Hell Website