Social media marketing is a great way to advertise your book
It is never too early to begin a social media campaign for your book. Many authors are confused by this. How can you begin marketing if you don't have a finished book to talk about?
Social media marketing is about networking, NOT advertising. This is very important. If you treat social media as a place to post ads 24/7 you will struggle to grow and get engagement.
Imagine your chosen platform is like a cocktail party. It's a big room filled with friends, strangers, celebrities, and a few weirdos. Your job is to start interesting conversations and draw the right people into your corner. This is sometimes called your tribe.
Types of Social Media Posts for Authors:
Common Ground: interests you share with your readers
Personal: relatable personal moments
Book info: Share information about the book
Ask: Ask your followers to do a free action
Sell: Posts asking for money
Most of your posts will be common ground and personal posts. Simply pick topics that are interesting to you and to people who would love reading your work.
An obvious topic is to talk about other good books in your genre, but don’t limit yourself. Your social media feed needs to include several topics to remain interesting.
Your personal posts can be as revealing or as lighthearted as you would like. Some social media mavens claim you need to share deep, personal scars to get high engagement. I personally find that my posts about desserts get tons of comments. Since I’m way more comfortable talking about ice cream, that’s what I do.
It’s important to warm up your audience with ask posts even before your book is available. You are requesting a free action, such as a click, tag, vote or comment. The more your audience interacts, the more invested they will be in your upcoming release. I created a list of 20 free things your fans can do to help your book.
Book posts should make your audience want to know more about the book. Leave a little to the imagination, please! One sentence reviews are awesome. If you share a screenshot of 3 paragraph review I won’t read it, especially not when I’m scrolling on my phone, which is how most people access social media.
Less than 1 out of every 10 posts should be a direct sale post. The great thing about selling on your social media platform is that you have already told us all about the book. Tell me why I should buy it NOW and give me the link to click on. New release? Sale? Book club discussion? Always use a tracking link so you can see actual clicks.
Tracking links are a great part of monitoring your social media platform. You want to find the right mix of posts that help you grow, engage and sell. A social media manager like Hootsuite or Zoho can help you. The best ones allow you to schedule your posts at the best times.
Keep learning. Social media sites change their algorithms and rules all the time. Focus on growing on one platform at a time. Encourage your followers to also sign up for your email newsletter and other social media platforms so that you have multiple ways to contact them.
Using these techniques, you can build an effective social media marketing plan for your book, even if it hasn't been released yet.
Once you build your following you can start planning a social media book launch!
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