In today’s world, social media marketing has become an important spoke on the wheel of marketing for any business, including your author business. Is it absolutely necessary? No. The wheel will still turn without it, and the best thing about being in business for yourself is that you get to decide where you want to put your energy, and preferably, that’s in places that support you, not drain you.
For some, engaging on social media boosts their energy. They’ve curated their accounts well enough that what they experience supports their goals and personal peace. For them, getting on social media is usually a pleasant experience that allows them to engage and connect with readers on a deeper level.
For others, however, social media brings dread, draining their energy and leaving them feeling exhausted at best, emotionally wounded at worst. If this is you, don’t feel like you have to force yourself to “deal with it” because you think it will sell more books. Most likely, it won’t, because your dread will seep into your online presence in the form of lackluster posts and little or no engagement with others. Instead, put more energy into other ways of book marketing that you do enjoy. It’s absolutely possible to have a successful author career without a strong social media presence.
Like most authors, you probably fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Social media might not be your favorite way to spend your time and energy, but you don’t hate it. You’re willing to push yourself a little out of your comfort zone to learn how to leverage the benefits of these platforms. And/or, you may have come to realize by now that you prefer one platform or another or there’s a particular one you just can’t bring yourself to spend time on, for one reason or another. That’s okay, too.
Create a presence and build a powerful platform where you feel most comfortable, and you will find success.
That said, it’s important to know which platforms your readers use by referring to the research you’ve done for your target audience (you have done that research, right?). Know the demographics that most commonly use Facebook versus Instagram versus TikTok versus YouTube, and compare that to the demographics of your genre’s readership. Look at where other authors in your genre tend to hang out on social media, and how they use that particular platform. If you love all the platforms and all the different ways of using each one, be careful not to overstretch yourself. Consistency is key to every single one of them, so it’s better to be consistent on one or two than to be sporadic on all of them.
Successful Social Media Marketing Requires Engaging Content
There are many ways to create engaging social media posts. Most importantly: don’t be an obnoxious sales jerk who only talks about their book and demands people buy it. In fact, as in much of life, it’s smart to follow the 80/20 rule. In this case, 80% of your posts are about anything BUT your book, and 20% is about your book(s). Some ideas for that 80%:
- Your favorite things—This could be your family, your pet, your other hobbies, food and drink, what you collect, etc. For example, some authors can’t live without coffee and love to collect mugs. They share a post every now and then featuring their newest favorite mug and how it’s been a companion while they write. These posts let readers get to know you as a person.
- What’s going on in your life—Perhaps you’ve been remodeling your home or moving, it’s the end of the school year and life is crazy, you’re going on a long-awaited and much deserved vacation, you’re learning how to squeeze in writing or another passion with the rest of your life…these are all things readers can relate to in one way or another. It makes you feel more “real,” someone they could be friends with. Someone they trust — and we all want to trust who we buy from.
- Your writing process—Readers love to get glimpses behind the scenes as you write their next favorite book.
- Reading and books in general and sharing other authors’ books and news—If you’re an author, you’re likely a reader, too. Connect with your readers on this common ground by talking about reading, books, bookstores, libraries, and other authors (only if it’s supportive! Do not—I repeat, DO NOT—put down other authors and books. It’s not professional and will definitely backfire.)
- Ask engaging questions that stimulate conversation—Get to know your readers better and build a community by getting them to engage with each other. This is how you build a solid author platform as well as make potentially lifelong friends.
Social Media Paid Advertising
Your author page or account, your reader group, and your profile are all ways to reach readers organically. The other side of social media marketing is through paid advertising—paying the platform to advertise your book to potential readers. If you’ve spent any time on social media, you haven’t been able to avoid these ads. The great thing about today’s technology, though, is that ads can be highly targeted to those who are most likely to buy your book, or at least want to know more about it. When done well, paid advertising can bring a remarkable return on your investment.
If you don’t know how to run targeted social media ads well, though, you can waste a lot of time and money. While today’s technology does make it easy to target your audience, it’s not completely foolproof. Many authors are finding extraordinary returns on their investment with paid ads, while others experience mediocre results. Much of the difference is having the resources and ability to learn how to target ads and create images and marketing copy that sell, narrow down targeting to each platform’s best audiences, and track each ad’s success and adjust as necessary. These can be valuable skills to learn and marketing tactics to incorporate.
It can take some trial-and-error before you find what works for you and your book—and know that you will regularly have to go through this trial phase as each platform changes their algorithms. You can better your odds by researching success strategies (there are many groups on Facebook solely dedicated to book marketing and paid advertising) and possibly investing in a class or course. There are many to choose from, some great and some not-so-much, so do your homework to ensure the teacher, “expert,” or “guru” really has experienced success with the methods and techniques they teach. Make sure their incredible revenues they advertise are actually from their book sales and not for the class they’re marketing to you.
Social media can be fun not only for book marketing but for connecting with your readers and building community. The more engaging your content, the more readers you’ll attract, building your author platform, which helps boost book sales. Just remember to be authentic, enthusiastic, and consistent with your posts.
