Recently I’ve been running some Headtalker campaigns for the benefit of my writer friend Lindsay Schopfer to try and help him out. I try not to post too many blogs that would only be of interest to other writers, but wanted to share my first impressions of the tool, good and bad, for any authors out there who might considering using it to spread the word.
What is Headtalker?
First things first, many of you probably stumbled on this article from Google trying to figure out what the heck Headtalker even is, so I’ll explain. Headtalker is a free online tool that allows you to create a social media message with a link that will be simultaneously posted by a group of people at a scheduled day/time. (For those of you familiar with the more popular Thunderclap, the concept is the same)
When you create a Headtalker campaign, you provide a link, a message, and a photo for the social media post. The link might be to your blog, the sign-up page for your newsletter, the Amazon page for your book (possibly for a sale or preorder) or any other page on the web you would benefit from having more eyeballs on.
People then agree to “support” your campaign by allowing their personal Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or LinkedIn profiles to post it at the designated day/time.
Much like gathering dollars in a Kickstarter, Headtalker (and Thunderclap) requires you to get a minimum number of supporters for your campaign in order for the message to actually be posted. If you have less by the deadline, the message doesn’t go out. Headtalker lets you pick your goal, but the minimum is 25 profiles. Note, this is a 25 profile minimum, not 25 people. One person supporting it with Facebook and Twitter counts as 2.
Here’s an example of what a Headtalker campaign looks like:
Okay, so why is that useful?
A Headtalker campaign helps you in a number of ways. Firstly, when the Headtalker posts to your supporters’ pages, the link is introduced into the pool of content that all of their network could potentially see. This doesn’t mean they will see it, or that they won’t scroll right past it without looking. Just that they potentially could. Since social media is at least partially a shotgun game, you can assume the more people who could potentially look at it, the more actually will.
Secondly, when a bunch of people all post about something at roughly the same time on social media, the algorithms tend to take notice and give more priority to that content in people’s feeds, making it more likely that the people you can potentially reach with your post actually will be reached by it.
Thirdly, a Headtalker can encourage people who normally don’t share your content to do so, getting you access to social reach you otherwise wouldn’t have had. Sometimes these people will be fans who normally just look and don’t share. However, there are numerous Facebook groups devoted to getting supporters for Headtalker and Thunderclap campaigns as well, meaning people who have never heard of you before will help you get your message out.
(Note: Many people on these Facebook groups will support just about anything in the hopes that you will reciprocate and also support their campaign. Whether you choose to do so is up to you. I look at everyone’s campaign but only reciprocate if its something I actually might post about otherwise.)
Things I Discovered About Headtalker
As of this writing I’ve run one Headtalker to conclusion and am currently working on a second for Lindsay, and what I’ve discovered so far is this.
Most of your support will be on Twitter
Maybe its because I used hashtags in the posts.
Maybe its because people looking for reciprocal support in those Facebook groups feel more comfortable letting Headtalker post things they may not care much about to Twitter over Facebook. I can attest there were several things in those groups I didn’t really want to share on my Facebook page, but didn’t mind tweeting because tweets have a short shelf-life anyway. I can only assume this is the case for others as well.
Or maybe its because people think Twitter will be more useful to the campaigns they support. I don’t know. But whatever the reason, almost all of the support for these Headtalker campaigns I’m running has been through Twitter profiles.
Of the 36 supporters we got for the first one, 28 were Twitter and only 5 were Facebook. As of this writing my new campaign has 30 supporters. 23 of them are Twitter and 4 are Facebook.
This isn’t really a good or a bad thing. However, if you go into Headtalker hoping for the somewhat greater shelf-life that a slew of Facebook posts provides over a slew of tweets, you’re probably going to be disappointed.
You won’t see the buzz
People may have liked and commented on a bunch of the posts/tweets from that first Headtalker. I have no clue. Since they were all original posts of the content and not shares of something I posted first I couldn’t see what if any engagement those posts might have gotten. This, too, isn’t necessarily a problem. If people have questions, though, they won’t be able to easily ask them of you.
However…
You’ll know how many people actually click on it
Headtalker does provide a nice, simple analytics tool that will tell you how many times the link was clicked, and by how many visitors. As of this writing that first Headtalker had 229 total clicks and 130 unique clicks. We can assume that somewhere between those two numbers is the number of eyeballs that actually saw the page on the other side of the link.
Headtalker can’t tell you how long those people stayed on the page or if they clicked on anything else while they were there, but at least you’ll know how many people took the time to click it.
Is Headtalker Worth the Effort for Authors?
My initial impression is yes, but you need to understand where I’m coming from.
Headtalker isn’t going to make your sales explode over night or suddenly double your social media following.
Plus, while it doesn’t cost money, it does require work on your part to make it successful. You have to spend time and energy promoting the Headtalker itself to get people to sign-up for it in order for it to do its job of promoting you further. Many would argue that the time and social real estate spent promoting the Headtalker would be better used promoting your blog or your books. In many cases they’re right.
So, is Headtalker actually worth what you put into it? Again, my initial impression is yes, if:
- You have a small group of people who will support it for you
- You’re willing to post it to the support finding Facebook groups AND support a handful of other campaigns yourself to get reciprocal support
If neither of those is true, then no. Don’t waste your time because support won’t just appear out of thin air. If one or both are true then I say go for it.
A Headtalker may require some work, but is really easy to run with a minimum goal of 25 supporters. With about an hour’s worth of total effort over three or four days, I got us over the 25 minimum, and the posts in the Facebook groups continued to trickle in support over the following weeks. The 25 minimum may not have earth shattering impact but for the amount of effort you put into it you can certainly get a lot of eyeballs on your content.
For someone with a small social media following I think a Headtalker can be an effective way to get more people to actually see the content you’re offering. For someone with a large following, I think it can be an effective way to leverage the collective power of the people who are already connected to you online.
The Catch
There had to be one, right? The problem I see is that the nature of gathering support for a Headtalker campaign means some of your support won’t be particularly useful, as it won’t be tied into your target market.
For example, on the new campaign I’m doing for Lindsay’s book “Lost Under Two Moons” we have a number of sci-fi/fantasy authors supporting that campaign whose followers will probably be really interested in the link. But how many of the people following the romance/erotica authors, orchestral music developers, or children’s card game creators who have also supported that campaign hoping I’ll support them back will actually care about a science fiction wilderness survival novel? Some, I’m sure, but probably not many.
Still, the ultimate goal of a Headtalker is to introduce the content to new people, and it certainly does that with gusto.
If you’re interested in hearing more about my experience with Headtalker in the future, let me know on Facebook, Twitter or the contact page. Thanks for reading!
