3 Social Media Do’s (and 1 Don’t) for Authors

As an author, it’s important to get your books out there, know your audience, and communicate with them. Afterall, they’re the ones that buy your books! Social media is a great way to directly reach your audience, market your titles, and grow your following. Whether you’re starting from zero or have 5,000 followers, growing your social media platforms, no matter how big or small, can help you establish your brand as an author and reach even more potential readers.

Here are three tips to get you started!

DO set up all your accounts.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are great platforms to start with if you haven’t already made accounts. It’s usually best practice to keep your usernames consistent across all platforms, so users can easily find you no matter what platform they’re on. Additionally, make sure any images you post, from profile pictures to book covers, are high quality and up-to-date. Canva is a free, easy-to-use tool to create and design graphics for social media.

DO engage, engage, engage!

We know you’ve probably heard this one before, but that’s because it really is that important! People want to follow engaging accounts that provide value to their lives. Posting consistently engaging content, whether it be a poll, an open-ended question, or a fun graphic, is a great way to get people to comment, like, and share your posts! Speaking of value…

DO follow the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 rule states that around 80 percent of the content you post should be useful to your audience while 20 percent of the content you post should be promotional. “Useful” basically means it educates, entertains, or provides some kind of value to your followers. As an exercise, think about the accounts you like and enjoy following yourself. If they just promoted themselves all of the time, you’d probably find it pretty shallow and boring to follow. The key is to communicate with your audience, not at them.

DON’T buy followers!

Although you may be tempted, buying followers is never worth it or the investment you think it will be. If anything, these followers will actually be detrimental to your social media strategy, as they are usually fake accounts and bots that don’t interact with your content. You want active, engaged, real people as followers!

Although it can seem daunting, social media is a great tool for authors that provides the opportunity to connect with your readers like never before! Take advantage of that any way you can. If you need help with your social media strategy, feel free to contact us for some professional guidance and assistance!