6 Quick Social Media Marketing Tips For First Time Authors
Have you ever thought how important it is to have your own book and how it correlates with Social Media? Read on and learn more about the top 6 social media marketing tips we listed for first time authors to help them sell more books.
In the present time, Social Media is one of the best marketing tools to help you sell more books, to more people, around the world. First thing’s first, you have to have a book or if you have started writing, you have to finish your book! These quick marketing tips can help you frame and market yourself and your work in the internet sector.
Being able to finish a book is a huge accomplishment in itself. Why? You are one of the few people who are able to finish a book. But if you think that writing and finishing a book is hard, you have yet to experience the most challenging part that is marketing.
Gone were the days when authors could write their book, hand it to their agent, and let the publisher do the work. Today, authors themselves do the writing, editing, publishing, distributing, and marketing. The social media has proven its tremendous part in marketing by offering a countless number of opportunities for self-publication and distribution. While offering greater opportunities is out of the question, social media also brings about numerous competitors. An established author might not experience the same level of difficulty of selling their book compared to first-time authors.
Here are 6 social media marketing tips for first time authors to help sell more books:
- Content is everything
If you are to maximize the social media to market your book, the amount of time and effort you put in your book to ensure its quality should also reflect on your social media content. Keep things clear and direct by extracting the essential and most important information for your audience. Showcase your authority on your chosen topic because authors are experts.
Display your degree of expertise on the topic by engaging and providing high-quality experience for your audience. Make every Facebook post, LinkedIn article, and tweet worth reading by providing information and tips your readers can’t read elsewhere. Keep things short and direct to the point.
Take note, your audience or your readers do not want to read something that is beating around the bush. It might lose the readers interest—stick to the subject that you are pointing out.
- Explore new media
You get a much better chance of engaging your audience by trying other social media platforms and find more network marketing goldmine. Facebook and Twitter have long been established among the top social media platforms, but that does not mean we cannot explore other platforms.
Social media platforms such as Vine, Instagram, and Pinterest prove to be good alternatives for images or videos on your topic, and Google Plus and Tumblr are also extremely good content-based social media platforms to consider. Create a clear strategy for each. Do not engage them all at once, engage one platform at a time. With this, you can effectively increase your audience and sales.
Remember, when we talk about new media, it does not focused on one or two platforms but you have several options. Since it has grown wider, always make sure to expand your research to where or what social media platform would be best to reach out your target audience.
- Respond to comments
Be “social”, respond to every comment be it positive or negative. Answer inquiries and entertain questions. It will surprise your audience or reader when you listen to their questions, suggestions or opinions–just make sure you respond and follow up in a genuine way. Keep in mind that developing a good conversation and building an ongoing relationship with your audience is the main goal. You are doing a big favor to yourself, and your book, by composing a simple expression of gratitude for someone who took the time read your post and comment. After all, Social Media is a form of communication. They do not call it “social” media for nothing.
- Build a connection with other authors
To whom and why should you connect? Connect to authors having similar subject or genre as your books. You never know what other authors can bring to the table. Their suggestions and opinions might be of benefit to you and your book. This way, you can also gain exposure. Develop a relationship with other authors by commenting to some of their posts.
- Keep an eye on your results
Track your progress to know whether or not your efforts are yielding good results.Google Analytics is a free premium web analytics service to help you track website traffic and also helps measure website, app, digital and offline data to customer insights. You may track your progress using Google Analytics on a monthly basis. Put more effort into platforms that yields better results. If LinkedIn works better thank Twitter, then focus more on LinkedIn and try to make a few adjustments in your strategy and approach on Twitter.
- Give your audience a peek inside your book
Letting your audience have a peek inside your book can improve your sales. Provide and post links to your website on your social media account so that your followers may be able to download perhaps the first chapter of your book- it is a great way to keep your readers hooked. This is also a great move to keep your readers involved and interested.
Social media marketing is a constant challenge and a serious business to authors because it involves time and a bit of work. Social media marketing represents an enormous opportunity for exposure. If you execute your strategy carefully, you will be able to publicly communicate with thousands—or even millions—of people, all at once. It is certainly not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, and if you do not quite know what you are doing, you could wind up wasting all of your time and effort to something which does not work. Once you start to accumulate a solid audience and make a mistake, the time and effort spent on all of these can go to waste. It is best to manage your time wisely. Improve your book sales by devoting time to your social media marketing.