22 Social Media Marketing Tips For Authors

 

In case you are wondering what to plan for as you seek to execute a social media marketing campaign to promote your book, worry no more. Let me set you straight. Obey these 22 rules:

1. Yes, you need social media to successfully launch a book — and yes you need a plan. So, get to it!

2. You must determine how many social media platforms you will be active on, choosing between the legit biggies: Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, You Tube, Pinterest, Tik Tok, and Snapchat. There are also smaller but significant ones, such as: Threads, Truth Social, Clubhouse, and Telegram.

3. Perform a social media audit: Which platforms are you on and what needs to be done to make them work better for your needs and goals? What do you do well — where do you fall short — and what needs to be tried or experimented with? Compare yourself to genre-similar authors and see what their digital media footprint looks like.

4. Determine what you will outsource (find a surrogate), what you will do, and what will sit on a wish list or get dismissed after a thorough review of the possibilities.

5. Create detailed profiles, with photos and videos, for each platform you are on — and revise/update it every three to six months or whenever something new or major happens, such as a new job, new book, new location, etc.

6. Learn the basics to function on each platform but also plan to take time to consume free tutorials online about all of the features of a platform.

7. Plan to post regularly and frequently. This could mean posting daily, or multiple times per day — or week. Whatever the frequency, be consistent so readers can anticipate your predictability.

8. Determine your editorial voice and define the persona that you want to project. In essence, how do you want to sound or come off. For instance, are you funny, serious, angry, smart, graphic, descriptive, story-teller, etc?

9. Join many relevant groups and be active and engaging on them.

10. Take time out to solicit people to become a connection/friend/follower of yours.

11. Schedule your posts so that you can build up content and ensure it goes out at all hours of the day without you being awake to do anything. Draft a social media editorial calendar. Are there upcoming dates that tie into events, anniversaries, holidays, seasons, and honorary days that you can identify and anticipate a way to exploit for crafting related content? Start to bank your ideas, links, or stories that you may call upon for future posts.

12. Know why you are doing this. Set goals. Remind yourself of the reason you spend time and brain cells on social media.

13. Measure and adjust your approach, change your goals, and try harder. Monitor the time you invest and compare the pay-off to other activities and investments of time and money in order to determine the most effective approach to book marketing.

14. Balance your posting between sharing the content of others, messages to push the selling of your books, questioning things, commenting on related news, offering views and insights/advice, pushing your own blog or podcast, and bragging about an accomplishment, like an award or good book review.

15. Posts should be short, contain a visual image, and where possible, a link back to your site that showcases good content and doesn’t just spam people with an amazon link to buy your book.

16. Comments, likes, and sharing other people’s posts is a necessary part of the game.

17. Be prepared to experiment with advertising on social media, from boosting a FB post to advertising your book on other people’s feeds or blogs.

18. Beg people to share, retweet, and re-post select pieces of your social media content.

19. Run a special offer, book discount, or give a free download of interesting content on your social media..

20. Promote a charity or cause on your social media, not just because you support them but because it helps with your branding.

21. Monitor what is trending, in the news, and influencer posts to see if you can capitalize on something.

22. Consider live-streaming an event in Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or LinkedIn Live.

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum