Build Your Digital Platform – Digital Marketing in a Noisy World [6]

Welcome to our series Digital Marketing in a Noisy World. This content was originally presented in our breakout session at Breathe Christian Writers Conference 2015. (Check out our Prezi here.) We hope this information is helpful and encouraging for you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

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Build Your Digital Platform

By Lindsay Gustafson

All this talk of tribe building is great – but HOW do you position your content for consumption by those who want it. How do you gather your tribe?

First – remember your WHY.

Then – Develop your Voice, Leverage Your Content

Next – Gather and Build Your Tribe

Now it’s time to build your digital platform.

Think of this as a big funnel – you start off general and bring people into your tribe through this pathway. There are many pathways that your tribe can feed into your platform, this infographic shows just a few as an example:

As you follow the funnel down toward your author owned platform, think through these things:

Profile Presence

Do you have an active author profile on services such as Good Reads and Amazon?

Is your bio CLEAR and does it point people to your platform?

Social Media

Are you on social media? (NOTE: NO! You don’t have to be on ALL social media! Pick one or a few that jive with you and develop a solid social media presence.)

Do you have a presence on social media as an author (this is different than your personal social media pages)?

Do you post content regularly from your books, blog, writing, etc?

Do you point fans to your platform in your bio and posts?

Do you use social media to gather your tribe and curate relevant content that you and your tribe enjoy?

Author Owned Platform

Do you OWN a domain name/website? Preferable is a domain name with YOUR name. This is your brand.

Have you built a website with your content that points to you WHY? (A quick note – social media sites are NOT your platform. You don’t own them. Don’t build your content on a social media site, build it and invest in your website.)

Are you diligent about gathering your tribe and communicating with them?

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In this series we’ve covered WHY you create content.

We’ve covered HOW you communicate that content.

Over the next few posts we are going to share with you the best practices of some of these WHAT’S we are talking about – these end products (social media, website, etc.). As an author you often go to seminars about how to write well, how to write book proposals, and how to get published. Put the art and education of building a digital platform on equal playing ground. Remember, this is your WHY, your content, your brand. You should market it well.

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Leveraging years of experience in marketing, the publishing world, non-profit development, and a passion for gathering tribes. Lindsay is co-owner, chief marketer and queen of detail. When she’s not in the virtual world she can be found laughing with her 2 kids and dog.