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Are you a writer looking to succeed in the competitive publishing industry? Do you want to build your author brand to promote your work and better connect with your audience? Then, social media can be a great marketing tool for you.
Why is that? There are over five billon social media users across platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and TikTok today, with an average of 6.7 social platforms used each month. It means that billons of people today are using social media for different reasons and they are not limiting themselves to one platform—and you should follow suit.
The only way you can build your author brand is by ensuring your presence across multiple social media platforms, especially those with a high number of users and engagement. Recent data shows that the social media platform with the most users today is Facebook, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok.
Although a popular “microblogging” platform where you can share your opinions on different topics, X comes in 15th place with 600 million active users. But, it is still one of the main social media platforms to engage your audience to build your author brand.
It is because X ranks fourth in active engagement rates behind TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook and is a good place to find and connect with an audience interested in the subject matter you’re an expert in and write books on.
However, the strategies you need to use on X to build your author brand on social media using book promotion services will differ from those that work best on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
This comprehensive guide provides step-by-step instructions for building your author brand on these four social media platforms. These instructions, or social media tips for authors, are best practices commonly employed by book promotion services to promote and build an author brand on social media.
How To Build Your Author Brand on Facebook
Facebook is the social media platform with the most users, and many other authors are on it vying for attention from your target audience. So, how can you get ahead of these competitors to promote your work on Facebook and build your brand?
There are several things you can do, including using the groups, live videos, and posts features of the platform to connect with your fans and attract new audiences. You can also use Meta’s Business Tools to automate many steps. However, it is better to do things manually yourself or by using professional book promotion services to perform the following actions:
1. Create An Author Page
The first step in building your author brand on Facebook is creating an Author Page that is separate from your personal account. It will help you to establish your professional presence on the platform—you can choose to use your photo as the profile picture and upload an image of your published book as the cover page.
Write a short bio related to career as an author in the “About” section and add your phone number, website URL (if any), and links to other social media profiles under contact information. It will establish your presence on Facebook as part of the platform’s professional bookwriter community.
2. Post Engaging Content
You must create and post relevant content to keep your audience on Facebook engaged. It can be posts relating to your writing process, sneak-peek into upcoming book releases, updates on author events, or snippets from your most recent books. Posting regularly will help you to build an engaged and informed community of followers.
3. Build a Community
Building an active community of followers is the fastest way to establish a loyal reader base that eagerly awaits your next book release. You can use book promotion services for this purpose, who can pose questions to your followers, respond to their comments, and host contest and giveaways on your behalf to keep you audience engaged and loyal.
4. Join Relevant Facebook Groups
Another strategy you can employ to build your author brand on Facebook is joining groups where books or topics related to your genre or niche are discussed. It will allow you to connect with people who share your interests, establish yourself as a thought leader on the subject, and then direct people curious to “know more” to your Facebook page.
Just make sure you’re not engaging in spamming or consistent self-promotion or you will get banned from the group.
5. Use Facebook Ads
If you’re among the community of professional book writers who are not hesitant to spend money on advertising, then Facebook Ads can help you find and reach your ideal readers using behaviors, interests, and demographics.
You can entice users to click through and learn more about you or your books by using book promotion services that can create ads with compelling copy and eye-catching graphics to promote your author brand through Facebook Ads.
6. Use Live Video
Facebook’s live video feature lets you connect with your audience in real time. You can use it to host a live video stream where you give insights into your writing process, answer your audience’s questions, and discuss your books or their topics. This is a great way to build a personal relationship with your readers and followers on Facebook.
7. Generate Buzz Around Your Upcoming Books Using Facebook Events
Facebook Events is another great feature on the platform that you can use to generate buzz around your upcoming book release amongst your readers/followers. It is the perfect wayto promote the book launch events as well as the different events leading to the release of your book, including book club discussions and author signings.
8. Track Your Posts and Ads
The above steps will help you build your author brand on Facebook, but you can only be sure of the results when you track the performance of your posts and ads on the platform. Analyze the data to find which type of ads and content engage your followers the most. You need to focus more on these high-performing posts and ads while abandoning the types of ads and posts not doing so well.
9. Stay Authentic and Regularly Engage With Your Audience
The most important thing you need to do to build your author brand on Facebook is to stay authentic. If you’re having genuine interactions with your followers through your posts or live video sessions, they will see you as a trustworthy person.
You can build your credibility further by promptly and regularly responding to the comments and messages of your followers to keep them engaged. It will help you to build a strong and long-lasting relationship with them.
How To Build Your Brand on TikTok
Most of the social media tips for authors will be the same across platforms. These include the following:
- Creating an Author Page/profile
- Posting engaging content
- Building a community
- Joining relevant groups
- Using paid ads
- Using live video
- Tracking the performance of your marketing/advertising efforts
- Staying authentic and consistently engaging with your audience
However, a few things must be done differently on social media platforms. For example, TikTok is a great platform to reach younger audiences interested in romantic or fictional novels. You can reach these audiences on TikTok and connect with them using short and impactful videos that are entertaining at the same time.
Most people who use TikTok use it for entertainment, so you would want to keep your videos light-hearted. At the same time, you would want to use these videos to showcase your personality and books. You can do this by providing a sneak peek into your writing process using snippets, participating in challenges to build a community of followers, and using hashtags trending to drive engagement and expand your reach on the platform.
How To Build Your Author Brand On Instagram
Instagram is a great platform for engaging your audience with visually rich content. Social media tips for authors to build their brand on Instagram include promoting their brand using behind-the-scenes glimpses into their writing process and life as an author, creating author-specific accounts, using trending hashtags, and engaging audiences using Stories. You can use these stores to display your book covers, give shoutouts, or engage with your followers through a Q&A session.
How To Build Your Brand on X (Formerly Twitter)
X (formerly Twitter) is a great platform to provide quick updates about your books, events, or general industry development to your audience. It is also a great place to connect with your fellow writers.
Some greatsocial media tips for authors to build their brand on X includes participating in writing challenges, sharing bite-sized updates and sneak-peek into your writing process, engaging in real-time conversations, and connecting with literary agents and influencers to expand your reach.
Building an author brand in today’s competitive or cutthroat environment is not easy. However, the strategies or social media tips for authors provided above are a good starting point to set your author brand apart from the crowd and truly stand out in front of your audience.