Social media for authors
By Louise Dillon
It’s one thing to write a book, but you also have to research it, promote it and sell it. This in itself can be a full-time job. Social media can be your friend here, but it can also be a void of procrastination, distraction and anxiety. So how can you get the most out of social media without it getting in the way? Louise Dillon, founder of Armadillo Social, explains all.
Understand why you need to do it
Social media is not just a way to sell your book; it can help you with many steps along the road.
Building your author platform
Whatever your book is about, use social media to establish your authority in your subject. Use it to talk about your subject through posts and blogs. If it is part of your work, then share posts of you doing it. Make a conscious effort to extend your network to get yourself noticed in the right areas. Connect with people who might want you to appear on their podcasts, speak at their events or contribute to their publications. Hashtags such as #journorequest on Twitter are worth keeping an eye on to raise your profile. All of this, before you’ve sold a single book, will help you establish yourself as a leader in your field.
Finding material
Social media can also be a great way to find subject matter for your book. If your book needs research or case studies, going online is a great way to find them. Facebook or LinkedIn groups can be your best friend here, but you can also ask your existing network to share with their friends. Everyone likes to be helpful.
Being part of your writing community
Writing can be a lonely business, but making links with other authors and people in the industry can provide you with advice, motivation and support.Author Joanne Harris regularly prompts author chats on Twitter with her #10things threads. You can find like-minded folk elsewhere using hashtags such as #amwriting, #Bookstagram or #BookTok. I’ll come back to this further down.
Finding readers
Building a social media following from the start of your author journey will ensure that, when your book is launched, you’ve got a ready-made audience of willing readers. The sooner you find these people, the better. This is especially true when it comes to pre-orders – which can do wonders for your algorithm. You can go one stage further and build an email database of people to receive a regular newsletter, who will be ready and primed to order your book when is available.
2. Decide where you need to do it
So now you know what you’re doing online, where should you start? My advice is always to pick one platform and do that really well. We’re all busy, we’ve all got a hundred things to do, so keep things as simple as possible. You can always add on more later but it’s better to be focussed than spread yourself too thinly across them all.
There are two questions to answer. First, what platforms do you already enjoy using? Second, what platforms are used by your potential readers or network?
Here’s a quick summary of the social media sites where you could be hanging out.
This is the big one, and there are plenty of authors that do well here but, in fact, it’s quite hard to build a following. Having an author page on Facebook is a little like standing on a stage, rather than mingling at an event. That’s great, but it’s hard to let people know you’re there. Facebook are keen for you to spend advertising money with them so if you don’t have a budget behind you, you may have your work cut out.
On the plus side, Facebook is versatile: you can post photographs, videos and links to websites to get a good range of content.
Facebook groups can be a useful place for you to lurk in on a personal level though. Here is where you could find your community of fellow writers. If you are writing about a specific topic, they are good, concentrated sources of interested people. You can’t post and run, but rather spend some time being an active member of the community and it can pay off. The Good Housekeeping Book Room has 42,000 members and often has people promoting their book. Author Beth Kempton creates her own Facebook groups for her free courses, so she can then promote her books. Her Summer Sanctuary course had 1,500 members ahead of her autumn book launch.
Instagram is popular with authors and there is a strong writing community. #Bookstagram has over 18 million posts alone.
It’s relatively easy to build an audience on Instagram, as you can follow, comment and engage with people in the hope they will follow you back. You can also use relevant hashtags for your subject area to reach the right people.
It’s heavily focused on images and video (reels). It doesn’t allow links in individual posts so it’s not brilliant for web traffic, but you can put links in your bio that people can seek out. You can include links in Stories, but these don’t appear in your main timeline and some people find them confusing.
Its users tend to be on the young side, and it skews slightly female. If you are writing about wellness, spirituality, food or design, this would be a good place for you to be.
I find it hard to write about Twitter at the moment. Since Elon Musk took over, it appears to be having something of a crisis and it’s difficult to know what’s going on. However, at it’s best, Twitter is a wonderful way to engage with the outside world on subjects you are passionate about. It focusses more on text and links to other websites than images and video, so many writers find it the most comfortable. It’s great for finding community and building your platform, although writers may struggle if they only want to use it for book sales.
If you are writing in a business capacity, then LinkedIn is definitely the place to be. It is easy to find people to connect with in your professional field, and the perfect place to show people how knowledgeable you are. When you connect with people, you can see each other’s posts and interact. There is also a ‘follow’ option, meaning you could get a large number of interested followers without having to be directly connected to all of them. The platform is making much greater use of hashtags too, so using the right ones in your posts can reach large audiences. Recently, LinkedIn launched a newsletter feature, making it easy to get subscribers too. Like ‘Facebook for Professionals’, you can share text, photos, videos and links to websites.
TikTok
Very much the new kid on the block, it would be impossible to write a post about publishing without talking about TikTok. #BookTok, as it’s affectionately called, has seen over 12 billion views worldwide and it’s only getting bigger. TikTok is less of a social media platform and more of a video broadcaster. You can build up a following but the real secret of TikTok’s success is its ‘For You’ pages, which show users content that it knows you like. With a fair wind, you can reach a lot of people quite quickly. It’s not for everyone; however, if your readership is likely to be under the age of 30, and you enjoy being in front of a camera, then it is definitely worth getting on board.
3. Decide what you need to do
With all that in mind, now it comes down to creating actual content.
Here are some areas you might want to think about:
Get planning
Social media may look like it’s done on the hoof, but a lot of it is meticulously planned. Set aside some time every week to think about what you are going to post and why (see above). Map it out on a bit of paper, or type everything out in a spreadsheet. There are tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite that allow you to schedule everything all at once, to go out at a later date. This has the advantage of keeping things focussed, and also giving you a good overview of the things you are posting, so you can keep it nice and varied.
Show people who you are
You may not know many authors personally, but people will be more likely to read your book if they like you. They aren’t doing it just to be kind; they are doing it because they already know you, and like the cut of your jib. We want a book, particularly non-fiction, to be one that speaks to us, that understands our struggles and talks to us in a relevant way. We want it to speak in language we respond to, reference the films we know and the bands we like and to feel like this is someone who understands us. The easiest way to do this is to show them. So feel free to be yourself on social media. Let people hear your voice (whether written or spoken) and see the authentic you. Hopefully, this is also the voice you are using in your book. If it’s not, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.
Create posts about your writing life and process. Give updates on how writing is going, when the draft is sent to the editor, meetings with cover designers. You want people to feel part of the process.
Talk about the things you are passionate about. Tell people about the books you are reading and the things you enjoy. Pets are always a big winner. I’m not saying get a dog purely for marketing purposes, but it’s a thought! 😉
Be sociable
It’s called social media for a reason, so don’t just use it to post and run. Don’t post endless graphics promoting your book and then wonder why no-one is buying them. You get back the engagement that you put in, so be curious about other people, talk to them, ask questions. You never know who you will stumble upon. Also use it as a way of seeing what everyone else is doing. Consider what inspiration you can take from other people. What lessons can you learn from posts that are working well and how can you put your own spin on them?
Experiment with different types of content.
Depending on which social platform you are using, you will naturally lean towards certain types of content, but try some out. Video is very popular at the moment, so think about recording a post to introduce yourself or talk about something you are passionate about. Short informative videos that teach the viewer something are very popular. You don’t need to take TikTok by storm but have some fun trying things out. Photos are also very important. Instagram have announced it is putting more emphasis on them, after it had its head turned by video, so get used to taking photographs as you go about your life. Social media likes faces. You may hate selfies (I include myself in this) but get used to showing people what you look like.
If you’re going to invest any money, I’d actually suggest a photographer to take some photographs of you that you’re happy with. You can use these as profile pictures, posts, on your website and to use as publicity pictures.
Also, have a look at some tools like Canva or Capcut to create some different content with graphics, text, animations and sound. You may unlock a whole new side to you.
And finally…
Don’t be overwhelmed by social media. It can be as straightforward or as complex as you want it to be. As long as you are clear about why you are investing your time and energy, you can reap rich rewards.
Louise Dillon founded Armadillo Social 10 years ago to show people the way on social media through strategic advice and training. She used the skills she had honed in her former career in television and transferred them to the online world. Clients include television companies, publishers, charities, and coaches and she regularly provides training for The Society Of Authors. She is also the proud winner of the Woman Who Special Award in 2022. In her spare time, Louise is working on her first book.
If you would like some help with making your own voice reach further, Louise provides 1:1 advice and video courses. You can find out more here.