It took me a while to figure out the true impact of social media. The moment came when I finished a book on my Kindle and was given the option to tweet that I'd finished it, when I was tweeted by the author just to say thanks. As I've always believed, it's the small things that count. That simple tweet made me look for other books by the same author and made me much more likely to look out for and buy his future releases.

Forums and reviews have been impacting on business for a long time. I've always relied on reviews by 'other people' and they obviously have an effect on sales. The infographic below confirms my thoughts and shows how much the customer still relies on word of mouth. It wasn't until Facebook and Twitter came along when things really started to change. Businesses started cropping up in news feeds and timelines, communicating with their audience like never before. NewsReach recently published a white paper about how social media has developed for businesses and how it is important throughout the customer journey.



To delve deeper I'm going to take you back to my own experience with author Mark Edwards . Simply learning more about him as a person made my buying choice easier when it came to deciding what book I should buy next and he was always kept in mind when friends and family were looking for a book. I kindly asked Mark Edwards to say a few words on his use of social media.



Mark describes how his use of Twitter has helped with networking and making friends and contacts: "...as well as being a fun place to hang out, Twitter is best for networking - with other writers, bloggers, people in the publishing industry. This has led to making loads of really good friends and contacts. Now, at any gathering of crime writers, you will find loads of people who have chatted at length on Twitter meeting for the first time but feeling like we really know each other".





Mark also points out the importance of tweeting the right stuff: "The worst thing you can do on Twitter is endlessly tweet links to your books.We do it a bit, to let people know when new stuff is out, or if a special offer is on. We also retweet praise and good reviews because we can't help it! Increasingly, Twitter is a good place to meet readers too and chat with them. If someone mentions one of our books in a positive way, we always respond. And we chat regularly with our readers on Twitter".





Of course, there are instances where online communications can do plenty of harm. I unfollowed earthquake-predictor Labrinth because there were many a time he tweeted iTunes links to his album. The social killing of book 'Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson" is a widely reported case . An apparent attempt to cash in on the life of Michael Jackson with ridiculous 'facts', a group of fans set up Facebook and Twitter campaigns and bombarded Amazon with negative ratings and reviews and naturally, it worked. Additionally, 'trolls' are not unheard of anymore with plenty of Twitter users directing abuse to famous users like Matt Lucas and Tom Daley









There's a lot of advice telling businesses to use social media but if constant posting of links is bad, what are we meant to do? Going back to Mark's story, he explains how Facebook is used to engage with fans and how they are making their way into books - "We have a small but loyal following and we announce news on here, ask for feedback and run loads of competitions. Lots of our Facebook 'fans' have their names in our books and we are always giving away signed books. We give away early review copies and try to get our fans to act as cheerleaders for our work." As Mark proves, it is perfectly possible for businesses to find creative ways of using these great new communication channels to fully engage with their consumer.





I'm afraid that social media will become too technical or impersonal, plagued with advertisements. It's important we don't lose sight of the core values of social media like how Mark has reached out to his fans like me. It should remain personal to each user and most importantly, sociable.

With thanks to Mark Edwards for his comments. You can find all of Mark's releases here.