12 Social Media Tips for Writers and Creative Entrepreneurs

Social media helps writers with the following:

- Build your brand

- Grow a relationship with your audience.

- Offer more efficient customer service.

- Sell your work on the social media platform.

As a vital tool for marketing your work, you need a social media marketing strategy.

If you are looking to up your social media marketing skills, here are 12 social media tips for writers who wish to reach more audiences and sell their work.

Enjoy Social Media

The buzz about how social media helps writers and other creative business owners to promote their work sometimes dampens the true idea behind it.

Social media is a medium to interact with real people, it’s not just a place to dump the link to your latest article and expect people to click them.

Be human. Don’t make your activities online seem as if robots created the content. Show your fun side and your audience will trust you, read your posts, and even buy from you when you offer a book or writing program for sale.

Know Your Social Media Platform

You’ve probably had a Facebook or Instagram account since the time it began, so you believe you are already familiar with it.

But new features are coming on these platforms to make them better for their users, and you may not be aware of it.

Visit the official websites of these social media platforms to learn about the latest features that can improve your social media following.

Offer Valuable Content

Many digital marketers preach it. Content marketing is important for any serious business owner in the 21st century (yes dear writer, you are a business).

So key into different content types that connect you with your existing and potential customers.

You should not post only pictures and information about your writing alone; it might discourage people from visiting your profile. Mix your content with stories, quizzes, infographics, and user-generated content.

To make it easy, use the 80:20 rule. Let other content be 80% while promotion of your work is 20%.

With this, you avoid being too promotional and allow people to appreciate your brand.

Reply Your Messages

So you got people to react to your posts on social media, the expected thing is for you to reply. It’s how people know you are serious about your brand.

You don’t want to disappoint your fans by taking too long to reply to messages or leaving them hanging with an emotionless auto-reply. React promptly to your message, comments, and reviews.

Keep Track

So many people claim to know all about social media marketing, but when you ask about analytics, they have little or no idea about it.

A fellow writer once thought analytics was a new social media platform.

Being able to keep track of your growth on social media is important for different decision making like:

- What age groups check your profile

- Types of posts people like

- Number of followers gained or lost

- Location and preferences of your followers and visitors

These important details help you monitor your successes and challenges, set the right goals, and decide how to improve your presence on social media.

Be on the Right Platform

You don’t have to be on all social media platforms. Being on too many platforms can be overwhelming and hurt your publicity drive.

Some businesses are well suited for certain platforms. For example, crocheters, and DIY lovers use Pinterest and Instagram more than Twitter.

Know where your audience is and use that platform to full effect. As you grow your business and social media following, you can add more platforms.

Smart Tip: While it’s better to be active on one or two social media platforms, register your name on other platforms.

You wouldn’t want to get popular on one platform only for someone to take up your brand name on another platform.

Some businesses and personal brands that became successful have had to pay to retrieve their name.

Have a Brand Guideline

Whether you are just starting or already have loyal followers of your work, create a set of rules on designs, colours, and content types for your brand.

Don’t post something disrespectful or insensitive. We are in the cancel culture era and one tweet from an influencer can ruin your career.

Stick to a set of rules about posting that helps your customers identify easily with your content.

For example, if asked to describe the Coke drink, one of the first things you remember is the red colour on the bottle.

That’s why Coke will never use Pepsi’s blue. It’s red and colourful, and the Coca-Cola brand sticks to it.

Create a guideline and work with it, to keep your social media activities respectful and recognizable.

Plan and Schedule Your Post

Managing multiple social media platforms is a difficult task. To remain relevant on all these platforms, post new content daily or weekly. However, you can forget to post regularly and lose your followers.

A good way out is to plan and schedule your post. To do this effectively, you need to know how to balance between quantity and quality and it differs from one social media platform to another.

There are wonderful apps like Buffer and Hootsuite that automates the process for you. You should check them out.

But if you are not a fan of these apps, you can use a reminder on your phone to let you know when you have to post.

Have a Call to Action (CTA) Always

Social media helps writers push their content to different people but every piece of content you put on social media should encourage your readers to take a particular action.

It could be to buy a book, follow your page on another social media platform, read your blog, or support a charity you like.

Use a call to action to capitalize on conversion and customer loyalty.

Use Hashtags

In 2007, Chris Messina typed the first hashtag on Twitter, and Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, did not think it would become popular, but he was wrong.

The hashtag is on every social media, and as a writer and creative entrepreneur, use hashtags in your content to increase your followers and brand recognition.

Take advantage of trending hashtags but make sure it matches your brand guidelines.

Smart Tip: Create a hashtag with your name and put it on all your content, e.g. #writtenby {put your name here}

Track the Competition

There are two types of competition on social media:

- The Direct competitor: Those who write in your genre or content types (say, middle-grade novels, freelance blogging, etc.)

- Target Audience Competitor: Those who seek the attention of your target market (parents of kids between ages 8 and 12)

Monitor the activities of both competitors. But don’t put too much focus on their activities to the detriment of your writing.

Tracking the competition assists you in improving your services; it does not call for a fight with other writers, dirty competition, or worse, changing your writing voice.

Social media is big, so find your space and expand within it.

Be Authentic

Finally, we are at the most important social media tip. Be original with your activities on social media.

It does not mean you won’t copy others, but you will always reflect your style in your content.

Do not let your personal beliefs damage your reputation online. People with different beliefs and ideas read your work or buy your books, don’t lose them because of the content you post on social media.

Conclusion

And that’s it. There are many ways social media helps writers but these tips are a good start.

Use them to improve your presence on social media, gain new readers, earn new clients, sell more books, and grow your writing business.