Gone are the days when social media was used only for connecting with your family and friends. It’s safe to say that in recent years, social media platforms and the ways in which we interact with them both personally and professionally has changed.

Marketing is a fantastic stage in the publication process. Your book has been published and this is where you can be creative, promote and help to push your book.

Using social media as a marketing tool to promote and sell your book can be daunting, especially if you’ve never used social media platforms before, but we’re here to help!

Top social media platforms recommended to promote your book include:

   Facebook

   Instagram

   Twitter

   YouTube (For video content and book trailers)

Not all social media platforms are the same and work for everyone, look at each platform carefully to decide if you feel it is right for you and your book.

Other digital avenues to promote your book include:

• Podcasts
• Vlogging

To understand how important social media in 2019 is, here are some statistics:

• 3.48 billion people now use social media
• 366 million new people started using social media in the last year
• 1 million people sign up to social media every day
• More than 40% of users online use social media to research new brands and products
• Facebook has 2.32 billion monthly active users
• Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users
• Twitter has 321 million monthly active users

Although traditional marketing such as newspapers and magazines are important for your book, digital marketing and social media platforms allow you to engage with users in a visual way, and this can play to your advantage.

The use of creative imagery, stories, highlights, video and much more can help you to:

• Reach bigger audiences (How many people see your book and in what country)
• Be seen by businesses (book stores, libraries and online only book companies)
• Engage with other authors, influential bloggers and celebrities in the publishing world.

The list of possibilities for your book become endless once you go digital. That’s why we’ve put together 5 key tips that will help you when self-promoting online!

Find the Right Community

Having a social media profile is one thing, engaging with users is an entirely different ball game.

Getting yourself recognised online is key and the best way to do that is to engage with users online. Recommended users to follow include:

• Book Communities
• Book Bloggers
• Book Reviewers
• Other Authors

It’s also important to keep up to date with industry news and book events / fairs / exhibitions. Follow key pages, businesses and brands that are relevant to the publishing industry and your book, you never know what might pop up or where you could land an author signing event!

Share Your Work

Promoting your book online is trickier than it may seem, it’s important to have varied content.

Content could include:

• Promotional material
• Events or signings
• Blogs
• Reviews and Feedback
• Newspaper Articles
• Radio Interviews
• Podcasts

The frequency that you post is key. Too many posts at one time can feel like spam, especially if you don’t have the audience to engage with it. Not posting enough can leave your page feeling a bit stale and unloved – so find a balance!

Pick a Platform

You don’t need to be on every social media platform for your book to be a hit.

There are a multitude of social media platforms online right now, finding the best one to promote your book, and one that you particularly enjoy posting on is important.  

It’s recommended that you’re on one of the top 3 social media platforms, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Research the platforms first and look at the types of communities on them to help decide if it’s right for you.

Hashtag Help

Depending on which social media platform you choose, hashtags can become a crucial part of posting.

Predominantly, Twitter and Instagram use hashtags as a way of engaging with the day’s most relevant topics or to target specific communities.

Hashtags can help you target a more relevant audience and gain exposure for your posts.

Our top 5 hashtag choices on Instagram, relevant to authors include:

• #BooksBooksBooks
• #Authorlife
• #Bookstagram
• #Bookshelf
• #Booklovers

Social Scheduling

It’s impossible to spend all day on social media, some of the key times to post are when you’re sleeping, working or socialising, so the scheduling tool can become your new best friend!

Facebook and Twitter both have scheduling tools available within the platform that allows you to create posts and pick a later time or day to post them, helping you to get ahead of the game.

Although it’s good to not look robotic, scheduling posts in advance frees up time later that you would have spent creating them. This means you can get on with your day, or spend that free time interacting, with likes, comments and new followers.

Top Tip – It’s good to post at least once a day to keep your profile looking fresh, loved and attended too, but it’s entirely your choice when and what you post.

Summary of Social Media

We know that venturing onto social media can be scary, they’re big platforms and confusing ones at that.

Social Media platforms offer a world of possibilities, you’ve already done the hard bit, now this is your chance to be creative and enjoy promoting your creation.