The Holiday season is here and soon the new year will be upon us! Because of the season and the coming new year, this is the perfect time to sit back and reflect, and turn our focus to our author branding goals. I always recommend quarterly check ins, so I’m updating what that should entail. Below is a checklist to get you started.
Achieve Your Author Branding Goals by Staying(or getting)Organized!
This is a good time to ask yourself how your systems and structures holding up. Personally, I’m a big fan of spreadsheets and keeping my thoughts, ideas, and plans in order. But the thing is, even those systems and structures can start to crumble if you don’t update them regularly. I’m guilty of this too, but it helps if you to stay on top of things in the first place! By setting yourself up to stay organized, and by simplifying your process you’ll find things are less of a mess during your quarterly check ins. In order to do that, some things should be done regularly. Some even daily.
These Should Be Done Frequently, or Even Daily
This doesn’t need to be an all-day effort. Just log-in with purpose and spend 15-30 minutes at least a few times a week. Take a few minutes in the morning as you drink your coffee, or catch up at the end of your day. Whatever works best for you! It will eventually become habit.
- Reply to any blog and/or social comments you have received on your content. Increased engagement is good for your brand and helps build loyal followers.
- Browse other author’s and influencer’s content on social to see what kind of engagement they are getting. And from whom—this can lead you to new influencers in the industry whom you can follow as well. It also keeps you up to date on things in your industry!
- Support your influencers by liking, commenting on, and sharing their content. This includes sharing on your blog and your social accounts.
Do These Things Now if You Haven’t Already!
- Develop an ongoing list of places to contribute articles to—again, I like spreadsheets for this.
- Bookmark influencer blogs and industry magazines and subscribe to helpful newsletters. This keeps you up to date and savvy. It also can inspire ideas for your own content.
- Develop an ongoing list of people to connect with and a plan to do so by 1) Following them. 2) Engaging with their content commenting on their posts. 3) Reaching out to them personally. Psst! These are those influencers you follow.
- Post on social at least four times per week. You can use tools like Buffer and Hootesuite to schedule your content each week.
- Subscribe to your own blog and mailing lists to ensure your messaging stays on point. It also gives you insight into how your newsletter or blog feed looks to others and can alert you to issues in scheduling, etc.
- If you haven’t started a list of your goals that can be crossed off, and/or revised now is a good time to do so!
Things to do Monthly
- Create content when you have time and schedule it for the coming week/s (videos, podcasts, blogs, articles to contribute).
- Analyze your social engagement. Do you see any oddities or patterns? How can you improve your engagement?
- Browse through rights-free images and develop a bank of cool images for future use.
- Write reviews for other books in your genre (on Amazon and GoodReads) and reach out to authors to network with.
- Read at least one influencer blog or article. Is there something you can offer this person that they might find valuable? Is there potential to collaborate and join forces? Take notes and catalog for future use. Turn these ideas into actionable items by giving yourself a deadline and setting calendar alerts.
- Write one new article or piece of content to contribute. Even if you don’t publish it somewhere, you will have it in your content bank for future opportunities. You can update it as needed when an opportunity arises!
- Take a quick peek at your website analytics and site health and update and/or remove old plug-ins. If you find this sort of thing terrifying, you hire help for this part, but most website platforms make it pretty easy!
Quarterly Check In Items You Can Do Now
On top of checking in on all of the above and holding yourself to task, there are a few more things that you really only really need to do quarterly. You can think of this as something you do every three months on whatever schedule works for you of course, but doing it seasonally is a great time!
- Audit your website content and update where necessary—don’t let your content grow stale!
- Check in on your Google alerts on industry topics and influencers to see if they’re still relevant and you’re getting valuable information.
- Google yourself! Is everything looking good? Do you need to update or create your knowledge panel? Is there incorrect information out there?
- Update your online profiles if necessary—this includes polishing your bios and updating information.
- Make sure you still love your headshot! Start planning to get a new one if needed.
- See if there are any upcoming deadlines for awards, contests, or submissions and make a list or spreadsheet of those you want to apply to. These things are happening all the time, so each time you see a new one, add it to your list!
Keep Yourself Motivated and Moving Towards Your Author Branding Goals Too!
Staying motivated is a big factor in your author branding success. One way to do that is to keep track of your influencers. This can inspire you and remind you of where you want to be. So can doing these quarterly check-ins! Otherwise it can feel like you’re flailing and you can lose your focus.
- Check the websites of your top three influencers. Create an actionable list of things you can do to compete at their level.
- Note any conferences they will speak at, or have spoken at. Do you want to speak there too?
- Who is endorsing them? Do these people align with your values and mission?
- Have they published a book recently? How is it doing? How are they marketing it?
- Where have they contributed content to recently? Is this somewhere you could contribute?
- What podcasts have they appeared on? Listen to these podcasts and see if they are a fit for you.
- Have they done any rebranding or website overhauls recently? Do you need to consider these updates yourself?
Author Branding Goals You Have Accomplished!
Keeping on top of your author branding goals requires these occasional check-ins to see where you’re at and what’s working and what’s not. But it’s also a great time to look at the goals you have accomplished, how much you’ve learned and how far you’ve come. Check these off your list and congratulate yourself. You deserve it! Besides, seeing how far you’ve come is a big motivator to keep at it.
Just as much as you should be proud of yourself for all you’ve accomplished it’s important to be honest with yourself. In what ways could you improve, push yourself a little more, or finally check some things off your list that you’ve been putting off? I find myself having to take stock of my to-do lists as a reminder. And on more than one occasion I’ve had to be honest with myself about where my own author branding goals need some help so I can refocus.
Have You Made a Book Award Part of Your Author Branding Goals?
Have you published a book this year, but haven’t submitted it for any awards? Maybe it’s time to go for it! Book awards do amazing things to boost your book and your authority. There are several independent book awards out there and likely one that’s a perfect fit for your book. Here is my evergreen list of Indie book awards for reference.
Staying on top of your author marketing and branding goals is a lot easier when you do these types of check-ins. Checking in helps you:
- Reassess
- Hone your strategy
- Stay focused and inspired
So take a moment to reflect and congratulate yourself for all you’ve accomplished so far this year! Then get honest with yourself about what’s working or not and get back at it!
What goals have you accomplished this year that you’re proud of? Feel free to share in the comments section on the original post.
*This is an update on a post, originally published on 8/24/22
