Reaching Your Audience On Social Media

Social media. We're all on it.

We all lose hours of our days scrolling through the latest posts watching the latest dance trends or seeing what's new in the book world so that we can place a quick order for a new book instead of reading one of the dozens in our existing TBR.

But did you know social media is also a great way to market your books?

Social media is one of the best ways for an author to connect with their audience because unlike billboards, radio hours, or television commercials - social media is free.

If I were to list all of the major social media networks out there and ask you if you had an account you most likely do, on each of them.

So how can you use this account to market your book and build connections?

Well first - 

Create An Authors Page

Whether you write under a pen name or your real name, it's a good practice to create a page solely dedicated to your writing and not the place where you post those beach photos from the vacation you went on last month.

You're looking to connect with potential readers, and while Aunt Janice may love seeing that picture of you and your partner standing in the water - your readers really couldn't care less.

It may sound harsh, but until you have a dedicated audience - they're there because they are interested in what you sell - not so much you… yet.

Join Writing Communities

Authors at every stage of the journey should be in at least one or two writing communities on their social platform of choice.

The very first people in line to buy your book besides maybe your mother and a few of your friends are going to be other writers who love to see their own succeed and support them in any way they can.

Even if they can't afford to buy your book, they'll spread the word, share your posts, and hype you up when you need it as well as be there for you on the bad days.

A writing community is an essential part of being a writer and they're easy to find with the next step.

Utilize Hashtags

If you're already posting about your book, but you're just throwing random hashtags on it like #book #writer # iwrotethis you're wasting your growth potential.

Hashtags are the time to be specific so you can get your post in front of the right people.

If you write a horror novel make sure you're including #horror. If it's a young adult novel make sure you're using tags such as #ya or #yanovel.

Your book has an intended audience and hashtags are how you find them and they find you.

Be Yourself

While this may seem a bit of a contradiction since I just said that you shouldn't be posting about yourself, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't still be you.

If you want to share your morning cup of coffee and breakfast with the world that's fine, but always try to connect it back to the reason you have the account. Are you fueling up for a long day of editing or writing?

Ask questions, and be truthful when asked questions.

You are what sets your book apart from the next one on the shelf. So don't try and be someone you're not just because you think it'll help you sell books.

I love being on TikTok, but you'll never catch me doing any dances no matter what.

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Social media is one of the best free platforms for you to market your book in a way where it doesn't even feel like marketing at the end of the day because you are making connections instead of just sales. 

Best of luck, 

B.K. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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