Before we even tackle HOW to use social media let’s discuss the question really burning in your soul: Do I Need To Use Social Media?
Straight Answer: NO.
You do need a base of operation on the internet, you need a place where people can find you, but you don’t need social media. If you absolutely can not stand any kind of social media, from forums to Tumblr, give yourself a pass and find another way to market (active blog, newsletter, regular speaking events, bribing every librarian in the nation, whatever).
The reason everyone from the local self-pub guru to your Big 5 publicist is telling you to have a social media account (or nine) is because social media is the new bookstore. More readers find new authors on social media than anywhere else. The easiest and most effective way to build your fan base is to put yourself in a place where your readers are already mentally prepared to shop for books. It’s why your print copies are generally sold at a book store and not the butcher shop. People show up at the bookstore looking for books. People show up on social media looking for entertainment. Being on social media – accessible and findable – helps your books sell.
How To Choose Your Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Tumblr, Pintrest, Reddit, Youtube, SnapChat… the list of social media hot spots grows and changes with every passing year. I’m writing in February 2020 and by March the list may look different. With that in mind I’m trying to keep this generic enough that it will apply to any social media that pops up between now and the inevitable heat death of the universe. When you invent time travel, let me know if it worked.
Know What You Like
The #1 complaint I hear from authors struggling with social media is that they absolutely hate X. They don’t like the layout. They don’t like the colors. They don’t like whatever. So they have an account and they don’t use it because they hate that website. And, because they hate that website, they’ve decided they hate all social media. Trust me on this one – big leap of faith here – you don’t hate all social media.
There are lots of different kinds of social media and lots of ways to engage. Try them all until you have a couple of clear favorites. Commit to spending at least an hour on them a week and then try to link as many of them together as possible so that your Insta populates your Tumblr, Twitter, and anything else you can link to it.
Know Where Your Readers Are
Social media attracts different age groups, but more importantly it attracts different types of people. Highly visual people are going to gravitate towards things like Instagram while your chatty types like Twitter. People who like organized tags love Pintrest and those who prefer chaos are found over on Tumblr. That means there are sometimes limits to some of your cross-over advertising. Make sure you cross-post with the audience’s needs and personality in mind.
Example? Maybe you found a really fun list about something that ties to your book. You could post that on Pintrest and Tumblr with great success, but it might get missed on Facebook. You don’t need to post it everywhere.
Know How To Control The Media
This is key for any form of digital imprint. You always want to use the format that gives you maximum control. For Twitter that means using Tweetdeck so you can schedule tweets and limit who you see. For Tumblr that means figuring out how to schedule things. And so on and so forth. A quick Google search of “How do I ____ on ______” should get you a tutorial on how to set up social media.
How To Use Social Media To Attract Fans
Once authors have stumbled unto the unholy arena of social media the next obstacle is finding fans. I’ve seen a lot of people trying to attract fans the same way people were trying to build blog readership back in 2007. If you were lucky enough to miss that madness the general advice at the time was to follow as many other blogs as possible and comment on them frequently so people would follow back to your blog. The only explanation for this advice is that the internet was young and we were stupid. Learn from the burn out of authors who went before and don’t do that.
Decide On A Look
For whatever form of social media you pick, choose an identity. It can be your true, messy, authentic self. It can be a gloriously curated visual poem. It can be anything in between. And it can change with you and your life. But, to start, figure out what the goal of the social media is.
My Pintrest exists simply for my fans who have Pintrest. I only have boards for books and I only use Pintrest to sort pretty pictures by books. Effective? I have no idea, but it’s there. My Tumblr is strictly for fun. I rarely talk about my books there and I don’t try to advertise much. My Twitter is where I spend 90% of my social time and where I make 90% of my sales. Each of them have a slightly different look but are unified by similar themes: battle couples, enemies-to-lovers everything, general rage at the injustice of the world, and comments about good food.
Share What You Like
The #1 trick for finding new followers and attracting new readers is not advertising, it’s building a common ground. Talk about things you like that also overlap the interests that led you to write your book.
Fantasy Starter Pack: any movie with queens, the new fantasy book you loved, tours of castles, folklore, mythology, historical stuff from the time period you borrowed from
SciFi Starter Pack: anything space related, NASA, the new SF blockbuster coming out this summer, new tech, the book you read and loved
Horror Start Pack: true crime, ghost stories, that book you just read that kept you up all night, the new horror movie you loved
Any Genre Starter Pack: that cute animal picture, a headline of something relevant to your interests, the last book in your genre you read, and that thing you want to see in the genre movie
Do you see a pattern here? You’re talking about things you love that other readers in your genre love so that they come to your social media feed to talk about what they already love, and then there’s a book! By you! Isn’t that exciting?
Mix Your Advertising In With Everything Else
One thing that drives people away from your social feeds is constant advertising. Remember, people are there to be entertained, not to shop. Every sale that comes from your social media feed is an impulse buy. This isn’t a problem if you’re on social media all day, but if you’re social media is an afterthought because you have a job and life that take you away from the screen sometimes… you need to plan ahead. You can schedule casual things on your social media feed.
You can schedule a cute quote or joke.
You can schedule a random question about clothes, food, or whatever you like.
You can schedule snippets of your WIP.
You can schedule an account that looks casual and spontaneous but that is completely under your control in less than an hour a month if you have everything set up in advance.
Ready to hit the social media feeds and wow them? Awesome! If you still have questions feel free to leave them in the comment box below and I’ll see what I can do to help.
