The Overnight Effect: Or When Marketing Happens While You Were Sleeping

Every morning I have a mini-routine where I check out all my social media sites to see if there’s been any activity. (I do it throughout the day as well, but the morning is the only time of the day where six to 10 hours have gone by without me obsessively checking my stats all day!)

Usually I can count on the following to have happened:

• A few new comments on my blog

• Six or seven new friend requests on Facebook
• Five or six new followers on Twitter
• Up to 10 or more new subscribers on Scribd.com
• 50 or more reads on my various free giveaway stories on Smashwords
• Etc.

Now, these may not be huge numbers to you but they add up over time and represent some great opportunities to reach out to folks who have actually taken the time to click on “Add” or “Follow” or “Subscribe,” which usually means they’ll recognize me if I write or message or nudge them back or, in most cases, just thank them.

What’s more, these are unsolicited encounters. Someone ran across my blog from a comment on somebody else’s blog, or read a re-tweet or something I shared on Facebook and was interested enough to friend or follow me or comment or subscribe or… whatever.

This is all good, of course, but my real point here is that there IS such a thing as the “Overnight Effect.” In other words, stuff happens while you’re asleep, or at the park with your kids, or the movies with your date, or in class or eating dinner or taking a walk.

This is pretty reassuring to me because I have to believe that, at some point, I won’t be able to work social media so hard or, for that matter, want to. I would like to believe that the Overnight Effect is in place for all of us, if we just work hard at our social media as often as we can and then… step back and let it do its thing.

You’ve done good work with your social media efforts; now trust it to do its thing. Think of all the blog posts you’ve written, tweets you’ve sent out into the world, the comments you’ve left here and there, the supportive things you’ve done for other authors, the reviews you’ve left here and there. All that stuff adds up.

The other day I had someone run across my blog using the search term “tricks for zombies.” I kid you not! I couldn’t have planned for something like that even if I’d tried. That’s the thing: there are so many ways for folks to run across you; let them. I’m not saying you can’t put the stuff out there; you’ve got to work at it but… once the work is done, let it sit and marinate and do its thing.

I can’t explain the Overnight Effect, or analyze it or even begin to theorize what’s going on while I’m not looking. All I can do is work hard during the day and then… step away. You do, too.

So, what does all this mean? I don’t know; I don’t have any 3 steps or 6 Secrets answers for this one. All I can offer is this once piece of advice: Step away from the mouse, go take a walk or get something to eat and trust that social media works even when you’re not working it!

Yours in publishing,

Rusty