There’s no doubt that the rise of social media has changed the rules of book marketing. Irrespective of the type of book you are promoting, you will need social media to stand out from your competition. Writers need social media to make themselves visible and attract more followers, but one of the biggest mistakes they make is leaving this part to the publisher and their marketing team. While they have well-established marketing strategies, you will still need to put some efforts into promoting your book on social media. So, if you don’t know where to start, keep reading this article and find the most efficient tips to promote your book on social media.
- Catch your audience with great content
Promoting your book on social media is more than interacting with your audience by answering their comments and questions. Your social media followers want more than that. They are looking for engaging promotional content that makes them curious enough about your book to buy it. In addition, once you’ve caught your audience with excellent content, they will want more. Thus, you will need to post content on a regular basis and try to come up with something new. If you are a self-published author and you have to do all promotional work yourself, you can use some of the best online writing services to help you create great content for your social media audience.
- Make influencers talk about your book
If you want to make people buy your book and recommend it to their friends and family, you have to make them trust you. While social media is a great channel of communication with your target audience, you will need more support. One of the greatest methods you can try to win the trust of your audience is collaborating with influencers. You can start by identifying the right influencers for your niche and use social media to engage with them. On the other hand, you need to make your audience think that there is a real connection between you and the influencers, not just a business collaboration. Thus, in the beginning, you can share the influencers’ posts on social media and let your followers know what you think about them and why you like their posts. Finally, you should also send a copy of your book to the chosen influencers and ask their opinion on it. One strong influencer is enough to give a boost to your book and help its popularity grow.
- Organize a contest
People are willing to put a in small effort in order to receive something in exchange. The same works on social media when you want to promote your book. For example, you can run a contest and offer a signed copy of your book or a free chapter to the winner. You can ask your audience to share and re-tweet a certain post from your social media page and offer five winners the chance to win a special prize. If your budget allows it, you can take things a bit further and offer a free copy of your book to your winners. This type of contest is excellent when you want to build your network. Why? When your followers share your posts, their list of friends will also receive information about your book. They will ideally take an interest in you and your book and end up liking, commenting, or sharing your posts too.
- Don’t forget about visuals
Visuals are a key element in successful social media campaigns–people react very well to them. Instead of reading a written post, your followers will always prefer an engaging photo. Apart from choosing relevant pictures related to your book topic, you will also need to pay attention to other design elements. For example, you should choose an attractive color palette and design for your website and social media pages. How do you know which colors are the right colors? You should start by knowing your audience. Once you know what they like and which the elements drive their engagement, it will be easier to choose the right design elements.
- Don’t underestimate the power of the hashtag
Hashtags represent a powerful tool that you can use to promote your book on social media. Put a # in front of certain keywords and transform them in hashtags. You can promote your book with hashtags in two ways. First, you can search for some of the most popular hashtags on your topic and use them in your social media posts. Second, you can also create your own hashtags and build a community around them. Apart from using the right hashtags to draw attention to your book, it is also very important to know how to use them. You should include them naturally in the text in a way that doesn’t affect the quality of your content. If you include hashtags in a relevant context, you’ll find this strategy to be one of the most efficient in promoting your book on social media.
Wrapping Up
The key to promoting your book on social media is doing your best to show your audience that you are different. Irrespective of which method you choose, you should be memorable. There are thousands of authors on social media who write the same type of books like yours. You can stand out and win your followers by knowing who you’re addressing. Whatever you do to promote yourself, you should always keep one goal in mind: offering relevant content to your audience. Once you’ve understood and discovered this secret, the rest will come naturally.
Daniela McVicker is an editor for RatedbyStudents. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature, and she is truly passionate about learning foreign languages and teaching. Daniela works with students, helping them to reveal the writing talent and find one true calling.
She can be found on Twitter @danielamcvick.