Traffic for a website is like blood flowing through the veins: without it, the body dies. The challenge is that the blood will recycle, but social media is on a one-way trip if everything works. The only reason the website exists is to receive traffic, but social media can be considered a tool for delivering a message, and if that is all it does, it is indeed a one-way trip. The better use of social media would be to engage with an audience by inviting responses and comments.

The most successful uses of social media in driving traffic for this website that I have used are LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.

My Twitter account has about 8,000 followers, but even with that amount, I see no substantial evidence that Twitter followers drive traffic or will buy books. (Bring that up on Twitter, and you will get a lot of negative feedback)

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world and is full of valuable free information. Google and YouTube are like libraries ready with answers to almost anything. My limited approach to this social media approach for marketing suggests that I need to learn a lot more and use this.

I am told Instagram is effective, but most of those reporting this say it takes a long time to get results.

Social Media will drive website traffic and traffic to Amazon, where your book can be bought. But in the case of book marketing, getting traffic to the site is just a first step, and the book still has to sell itself.

My latest book, Work Matters: Insights & Strategies for Job Seekers in a Rapidly Changing Economy, is an excellent book with 5-star reviews about a timely subject.

I have placed this book in some University Career Centers, but I am still looking for new ways to market it because social media has yet to prove it will work.