If you are an author looking for the best ways to achieve book success, you need to develop a new skill set that’s crucial today, which is social media proficiency.

Whether your book was traditionally or self-published, it is essential to know how to market them. And, one of the best marketing avenues at the moment is social media. Handing out flyers, doing TV commercials, going for a radio advertisement, and putting up banners might not be necessary. Social media marketing is way too different than traditional ones. It is more personalized, efficient, and convenient.

Through social media, you can let your brand speak, reach more readers, and give your book the visibility that it deserves. But, like other marketing methods, it’s not always a piece of cake. You should know how to fully use the different social media platforms. If not, then worry not!  Here is a full social media guide for authors that you should know.

Why do authors need social media

The main reason why every author needs to use their social media platforms is for book marketing. Although you can still generate profits off the different channels, there are still endless sales and brand awareness possibilities through social media. Moreover, many companies and events offer this kind of service. Their primary aim is to help authors get brand recognition, generate more leads, gain a wider reader base, and get more profits. The Festival of Storytellers powered by ReadersMagnet offers just that; all you need to do is register for part two of the event as mentioned earlier and sign up for the Social Media add on for TFOS.

Marketing through social media gives you more freedom to communicate and promote your concepts and interests while having your book conveniently available. Thus, if a person fancies you as an author and gets entertained by your works, they will most likely enjoy your writings because of the things you invest and inflict into them. It is more of attracting your targets through social media marketing and letting your traits and works do the rest.

What’s the best social media platform to use

There is a wide array of platforms that people use and enjoy these days. But for authors, Twitter is the best one to attain success, especially the self-published ones. Why? It is because it already has established and growing writer and reading communities. But, the challenge is to keep up with your fellow authors given the group’s size. You also need to know how to fully use Twitter, like the following:

  • Know your audience – study the current trends that match the interest of your targets.
  • Demographic – know the percentage and ratio of people viewing and interacting on your tweets, as well as their age range.
  • Posting frequency – plan how often you should post, typically seven times per day.
  • Content relevance – ensure that your tweets and retweets are relevant to your goals and targets.
  • Hashtags – use appropriate tags for better visibility.
  • Profile set up – build your Twitter profile, from the header to the pinned tweet, and make sure that it matches and speaks your brand.

Tips in using Instagram

Aside from Twitter, Instagram is also a widely used platform today. There are various authors, readers, and book bloggers conquering Instagram. Some extremely found success in that platform, while others often found their downfall. So, you have to know what strategy works for you. You must put in mind relevancy, frequency, and tags. Thus, here’s how to use Instagram the easy way:

  • Pick a beautiful image to post on your main feed.
  • Use an entertaining meme or an engaging photo for your story.
  • Know how often you must upload, once on your feed while several times on your story.
  • Observe and maximize what’s more engaging and gives you more freedom, the Instagram story feature.
  • Look for suitable hashtags for your postings.
  • Post high-quality graphics about your book, life updates, and other things that will still go down to your niche.

Guide on using Facebook

The main difference between Facebook from the two aforementioned platforms is that it enables you to make friends, connect with followers, and make a personalized group that can be considered as a club of you and your readers. Thus, it promotes better engagement. All you need to do is the following:

  • Create a Facebook account and build your profile
  • Make a Facebook page and boost it by posting graphic material a maximum of 3 times a day.
  • Do not forget to write a caption and hashtags on your posts.
  • Create a group exclusive for your followers
  • Promote the group on your page so your targets can see and join in it easily
  • Interact with them as often as you can

Bonus: How to Use YouTube

YouTube can be the toughest platform to get on and manage. Why? It’s because you have to be more creative and consistent to keep your subscribers and views coming. Thus, you need to be authentic and different. You must own your brand and create an identity regardless of the slow but sure growth offered by YouTube. Hence, here are the basics that you must know:

  • Study the interest of your audience
  • Think of authentic concepts, such as DIYs, tips, how-tos, guides, etc.
  • Plan when you’ll upload your videos
  • Work on the descriptions and other tags for engagement purposes
  • Track your progress from subscribers to views
  • Be consistent

In conclusion, social media marketing is the most accessible and advantageous author platform that promotes book success, brand awareness, and growth. But, you should also know how to navigate each platform to get along with the competition and rise on top.