Reviews are references, especially for a writer.
In frankness, as a consumer of books and written content myself, I do not want to purchase a book from an author and spend hours scouring through pages and pages of material – Only to find out that I had expended resources (money) and time (scouting through the book) on a product that did not really provide any value.
This is the reason why reviews go a long way in supporting readers’ experience with an author. If an author has critiques, newer audiences will get curious about why other individuals had given them such ratings – And they would be encouraged to obtain a copy or more of that writer’s material in order to gain a personal experience of what other reviewers are talking about.
How do you earn a good review for your writing content that will build your audience? Bad reviews are just as ‘good’ as good ones. Earning a review, whether good or bad, is a benefit for a writer’s reputation. The best way to earn them is by putting out content that is unique to the writer.
To position yourself with unique content that will drive reviews for you as a writer, there are some recommendations that I would provide based on my study of successful writers in their genres.
1. Knowledge of Your Content
Expertise is not the driver of reviews. Knowledge is. A writer who has knowledge of their subject matter will be able to speak to different audiences: They can attract people who are more knowledgeable, those who are at the same level of understanding, and a group that is at the early stages of learning about that subject matter. Therefore, learn your craft and put out good, useful content that you know. The experts will chime in with their higher level views; those on the same knowledge sphere as you may agree or disagree; and those who have little to no knowledge of the subject would have learnt something from you.
2. Let Your Content Have Personality
Your content should represent you. Not another writer. In other words, do not adopt anyone else’s writing style. Develop or use your own individuality to create your writing. For instance, my writing style is very different from a very good friend of mine who writes, even though we were previously writing in the same genre. If I picked up a book without looking at the title or author, I could tell that it was likely written by her because she had a certain ‘voice’ to her writing.
Develop your writing voice so that your content will have personality. For more on this, see my blog about ‘how to develop a writing voice as a Christian author.’
3. Employ Social Media
You may think that you are too broke or its too early for you to have employees for your writing enterprise. You can actually have employees – They are called ‘social media.’
I have dubbed social media as the ‘personal assistants that you send out to broadcast your content to the world.’
You will need to do the work, of course (going back to the point about your not having any paid employees at the moment). However, when you put content out there, it continues to work for you, no matter whether you have the day off or not.
For instance, content created on YouTube will be streamed by users all over the world even when the creators are on vacation. The message on the media will continue to be broad cast as a marketing tool, even when you are not working. That is the ultimate employee.
When you have these tools working for you, you have a wider reach, and therefore, a greater opportunity of gaining reviews for your content.
Those 3 points are quite basic, yet they can go a long way in making a writer stand out with an unique message that is observed on social media – And therefore, gains attention and reviews.
What social media strategies do you use to broadcast your content? Feel free to share it below or leave tips that can help others!