A Writer’s Master Guide to Social Media Marketing.
If you’re a new writer, or anyone who’s trying to build an online presence for marketing purposes, you know it can feel like an uphill battle.
Ideally, we’d just publish the book and people would flock to us to buy it.
The reality is that nobody will know you have a book for sale if you don’t tell them.
Anyone wanting to sell any product these days will need to be online and have a basic understanding of how to get noticed.
Your online presence might refer to anything from blogs to social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. It all comes down to ensuring that when a potential reader looks for you or for a book in your genre, they’re going to find something.
Here is a Master Guide to creating, growing, and maintaining your online presence.
First things first: who are you trying to reach?
Do you write romance? If so, your target audience is probably women.
Do you write technical manuals? Your target audience is the people who work in that field or with that product.
Once you know who you are writing for you can target platforms where those readers hang out.
Here are some basic demographics, but keep in mind these numbers may fluctuate a lot.
There are many, many more but these are the ones I use personally and can recommend for building up your social following.
You might also want to consider WhatsApp, Wechat, Douyin, QQ, Weibo, Kuaishu, Qzone, Telegram, or Quora as they all rank over 300 million monthly active users.
I’m going to take a second here to plug Patreon and Onlyfans.
These have notoriously been used for adult content or gamers, but I’ve recently seen more and more authors moving to these subscription based platforms. They will generally put the subscription price around the cost of one short story, which is minimally 4.99. Then they post a new, original story to the platform at least once a month. This is a brilliant way to keep readers engaged and keep income coming in each month.
I personally use Patreon as the exclusive source for all things Cunningfolk and I reserve OnlyFans for exclusive naughty stories and audio recordings of those stories. You don’t have to sell skin pictures, just sell what you’re already writing! If you feel like you have a voice for it, you can even record yourself reading the stories for your fans, making it more personal than just buying an audio book on Audible.
Okay, your next step is to create a home for yourself online. This means you need a website where they can come to learn more about you and what you are offering.
This is the first thing people and publishers will look for when investigating a new author, or when researching whatever product you’re selling.
At a minimum, your website should include a page about you, another page for your books or products, and a contact page with a link tree to everywhere they can find you online, including social media platforms, stores, goodreads, etc.
You can find more information on how to write a good ‘about’ page here: 3 Tips to Write an Amazing Online Bio
I highly recommend that you invest in a custom URL. YourName.com or your business name.
Having an good domain name will give your site a lot more authority and make you easier to find.
Let’s talk about blogs. If you have the ability to include a blog with your website, then you should do it. Having a blog will encourage search engines to visit your website more often and help you rank higher, which makes you easier to find if someone does a search for books or products you are offering.
At a minimum, you should post a new blog post every month. You can write them all in one day and just schedule them ahead of time, but you need to have at least one new post each month.
Weekly blog posts are better.
Analytics have shown that the best time to publish your blog posts is between 9am and 10am on Tuesdays, so adjust your scheduled posts to come out during that time period or just before it.
For writers, great topics for blog posts include notes about your current work in progress, book reviews, or conversations about the writing industry and marketing.
Whatever you blog about, never try to push readers into purchasing your books, that comes across as desperate and will drive them away. Their time is valuable, so give them something of value to read.
You can talk about your work and your writing, but do it in a way that entertains or gives your readers some value from reading it.
A newsletter or email list is another great addition to your website. This should be done similarly to your blog, which every newsletter or email offering quality entertainment or value to the reader. Give them a reason to keep opening your mail when it arrives.
One newsletter or email per month is good, don’t flood their inbox or they’ll quickly unsubscribe!
You can find more information about crafting a good email campaign here: How to Master the Art of Email Marketing
Now that your website is ready and you’ve got a couple of blog posts under your belt, let’s start directing people to your virtual front door.
It’s time to work on your social accounts.
You don’t have to be present on all of the social platforms we listed earlier, just pick one or two to focus on at first. If you find that you have time you can add more later.
Go back and look at the ages and genders of each platform to determine the best places for you to be.
Each platform has its unique strengths and flaws.
Facebook can be used as a daily micro-blog with little notes and pictures of what you’re working on or currently doing.
Instagram is great for those with an artist eye or a knack for photography.
TikTok is great for those with limited time. Just a 30 second video once or twice a day will work, although three times a day is better.
No matter which platform you chose, make sure that you offer some value for your followers. Make your posts funny or informative. Give them something to think about or something nice to look at. They are gifting you with their precious time, so give them something worthy of that time.
On each platform, assure that you have included a nice picture of yourself and a link back your website.
It’s important that you don’t use social media to push products or books.
If someone walked up to you on the street and started pushing their product in your face, you’d probably get mad, right? Social media is the same way. You’re selling your personality and your friendship. You’re offering a conversation and letting them get to know you.
If they like your energy levels and the way that you communicate, they will want to know more and they will follow the link to your website.
It’s okay to occasionally post a link to a blog post or a product that you’re especially proud of, but do it in away that they don’t feel pressured to go look. You’re offering a look at something you love, so they can better understand you. You’re not demanding they go witness the glory that is your product.
Another important thing to remember is that you need to engage with your followers.
Answer comments. Like their posts and pictures. Add to the conversations that are happening in a positive way, like you’d talk to someone you care about. Don’t get into arguments. Be polite. Be professional.
Once you have a profile created on each of your chosen platforms, you’ll need to set up a schedule for keeping them active
The more you interact with people, the more you will gain notice and the more people will find their way back to your website.
The best days and times to schedule posts, per platform, are as follows:
Try to schedule your posts to these schedules when the most users are online and make sure that you stay for awhile afterwards to answer comments, reply on other users posts, and engage in conversations.
You can schedule your posts in advance using tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer, but you’ll get the best response if you’re online during those peak times to engage your followers.
You’re on your way now! I know this is a lot to digest, especially if you’re just starting out, so bookmark this page so you can come back and reference it again when you’re ready to add new platforms to your system or to review your progress.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave it in the comments or to send me email directly. If there’s a platform you’d like help with, which I haven’t covered yet in my blog, let me know and I’ll try to cover it in an upcoming post.
