[image: Baroque Rackett (a musical instrument)] Know why you’re making a racketWord of mouth is powerful. It’s the backbone of social media marketing.
It’s easy to misuse if you don’t know your goal.
Quite common in some circles to tweet or post or pin and then ask the community to pass it along.
Before you do, ask yourself some questions:
- Can you genuinely endorse this book or author or are you simply doing them a favor?
- Will your followers know that?
- Is that the right reputation for you?
If your aim is to be someone who is known for sharing; that you talk a lot about books and authors; you’re a hub, a town crier, then share far and wide. Be the town crier, the hub, the sharer.
If your aim is to be the specialist, the guru, the trendsetter or maven, that’s a different path. You’ll have to be selective, sharing only those tweets, posts, books and authors your fans are expecting. And they’re expecting something specific: the right genre, the level of writing quality, all the things that make a book or an author just right for your fans and for you.
And it’s not personal.
Swapping tweets, reviews, endorsements, or blog posts isn’t necessarily the best choice. The key is swapping. If the reason you’re giving your word (of mouth) is a swap, a favor, you and your fans need to know that you’ve chosen to the role of town crier: give me your message and I’ll share it.
Mavens are more selective, only forwarding what they’ve chose, what’s important to them. Their word (of mouth) means something more specific.
One is not better than the other. Town criers serve a purpose. So do mavens.
The question is, which reputation do you want: clearinghouse or curator?