Ask the Publisher: Taking Social Media Impact to the Next Level
In the previous post, we discussed whether an active social media presence was for you. If it is, there are things to keep in mind to improve your results.
Here are a few tips:
When deciding which social media channel to focus on, think about what drives you—if you’re an avid Facebook user, your posts will be more authentic and engaging than if you’re trying to be a Facebook user. If you’re going to invest time into growing a following on any social channel, you want to be fully committed since it’s a long-term investment. It could take 1-2 years to develop the following you’re looking for.
Also, follower count isn’t everything. 1K engaged followers is better than 1M unengaged followers. In fact, 1K followers can be enough.
Personalize your marketing—it’s important to find, understand, and tailor posts to your unique audience. Think about each book’s target audience, where those readers (or for children’s books, the adult who will be making the actual purchase) are looking for content, and on which channels are best to reach them. Once you nail down your targeting, catering your messaging to that audience will help you close the sale.
Learn what kind of content readers prefer seeing from you on each social channel—your audience’s tastes may differ from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram.
Analyze your engagement data on each social channel to determine what content users engage with most. For example, your fans on Facebook may be interested in seeing updates about your writing process, whereas your Twitter followers might prefer reading your commentary on TV shows they also enjoy. Engage with fans authentically, give them content they care about seeing, and they’ll be excited to learn more about your newest books when you announce them.
Resources:
30+ Things Authors can share on Social Media: This post is a good laundry list of potential topics.