Social media is changing the way that writers promote themselves and their books. Books, both fiction and non-fiction, can now be advertised on all social media platforms using a range of campaigns. Some are successful; others fail miserably. So it’s worth taking the time to learn what effective marketing is for books. That is, how to promote your book on social media well.
As an author, you may be caught up in the nitty gritty of writing your book and editing it. You might think that marketing is down to your publishers and marketing team. Well, that’s simply not the case. As the author, you have the highest stakes in the book succeeding, so marketing your book is just as important as actually writing it! You might even be a self-published author and responsible for your own promotional activities.
Social media is fast becoming the medium for marketing anything, so it’s natural that literature should follow suit. Here are some of the best tips for promoting your book on social media.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is just what it sounds like: creating content that drives people to read your book. This can be via social media and a website. Content should stir up interest in your book, establish an initial impression and drive potential readers to want to read more.
“It’s not enough anymore to create fan pages and interact with your audience. You have to create promotional content and publish it on a regular basis,” says Meghan Brett, a social media marketer at Do My Assignment and Coursework Help.
“This creates a ‘buzz’ around your upcoming novel and will lead to more people buying and reading it when it is released.”
Social Media Contests
Contests are a great way to get fans and readers involved. It also shows you appreciate them! You can create contests on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The reward might be something as simple as a shout out or a signed copy of the book. The contest can involve tagging friends who would like the book and sharing the book on their own page. This spreads the word about your book, bringing potential readers towards your page, and leaves your fans happy!
It’s an effortless contest and most people can’t resist the urge to win something for free with just a few clicks.
Offer a Free Chapter
Free chapters are a great insight into the book. And if your free chapter is good enough, readers will buy the whole book to see what happens next! For non-fiction books, free introductory chapters are basically a given now as they offer an insight into the argument or subject of the book.
Make sure to spread the news about the free chapter across social media and ask followers to sign up to your email list to receive the free chapter. Encourage fans to retweet, reshare, and regram the post!
Use Several Platforms
“This doesn’t mean use every social media platform. It just means find the ones that suit your target audience and use them well,” says Lee Hopper, a writer at Paper Help and Academized.
“Your demographic might be older, so you will be more inclined to use Facebook and emails. Younger demographics will be drawn to Instagram, Snapchat, and so on. Tumblr and Twitter have important fan clubs for many fictional books and series, so you just have to find the best platform for you.”
Facebook is the most commonly used platform, with 2.2 billion active monthly users. YouTube followed closely with 1.5 billion active monthly users, Instagram with 800 million, and Twitter with 330 million monthly active users.
Use Hashtags
Never underestimate the power of hashtags! If you’re not in the know, putting a # in front of a word creates a hashtag. This is a tag that can be searched for, and in the best-case scenarios, it becomes a trending hashtag! This builds up brand recognition and collects similar posts together too. The idea is to build up a community around your book, and hashtags can be used for this.
For example, you could ask readers to share their favourite moment in the book then hashtag the post. Using the special hashtag, you can see all the posts your followers have made about your book and then share their posts on your own social media stories or feed.
Be careful when using hashtags, however. Nobody wants to read a list of meaningless hashtags under a post. Use them sparingly and deliberately.
Invest in your Images
Social media is all about visuals. If you pay attention to the design elements on your feeds and pages, it will pay off. Think about the aesthetic you are trying to create and consider the colour of your feed, the arrangement, and the graphic design for your logos and banners. You need to also think about your “brand” in your content, so that when followers see a new post, they know it’s from you!
Beatrice Potter is a professional writer at English Essay Help and College Paper services. She writes about book promotion through social media. Beatrice is an editor at Business Essay Service.
