Social Media for Writers: Which Platform(s) Should You Use?

Here are a few things to consider before you decide:

• Think about where you already spend your time. Do you find that you open Instagram multiple times a day and, even though you have a Facebook account, you almost never check it? 
• If you already have a channel with a large following, it might be worth it to re-engage with them. 
• Think about your target audience and where they exist on the internet, as well as what will best serve your author brand (a little research on the platform’s user demographics should give you some good insight).
• Find authors similar to yourself and take note of which platforms they’re utilizing.

Below, we’ve covered all of the popular platforms you might want to choose from, with a brief overview of their user demographics and best practices for posting content, so you can get an idea of which one(s) sounds like a good fit for you and your brand.

In order to get the most out of Facebook, you’ll want to post new content on both your page and in your group (if you choose to create one), and make sure to do the following: 

• Post a mix of content, videos, personal, and posts about your book(s)
• Take advantage of the ability to share links…like the link to buy your book! Make sure the link preview looks good. If not, you can change the image. 
• Use vertical videos. They tend to generate 40% more engagement than landscape videos since most people use social media on their mobile devices.
• Feature your latest book or all of your books in the header image on your page
• Keep your branding (images, colors, fonts, etc) consistent with your website and other platforms where you’ll be marketing your book.

Twitter

Twitter has 187 million active users, of which 70% are male, according to the popular social planning tool, Hootsuite. You’ll want to keep this in mind, especially if your book is more targeted to a specific gender. It’s also a fairly young market, with nearly 30% of its users falling between 25-34 years old. 

Twitter is all about text posts, or tweets, which are limited to 140 characters, though in recent months they’ve expanded their video capabilities as well. You’ll find a big community of authors here, which should come as no surprise on a text-based platform! 

The idea behind the limitation on characters is that tweets are often more conversational than a static post on your Facebook page, and the best (and often most difficult) way to engage with others on Twitter is to participate in popular hashtags. You’ll want to pay attention to which hashtags are trending, and use them in all of your posts to increase engagement. Since new tweets are posted constantly, yours will be quickly buried unless a hashtag can categorize it and keep it alive. 

While you’ll find a very supportive #writingcommunity for example, the same rule applies here: Don’t be afraid to post about things other than your book! Your followers will want to know more about you, your thoughts and ideas. 

Of all the platforms, Twitter has perhaps the highest necessity for engagement. Participate in conversations, retweet posts in relevant hashtags or from other authors. Follow people who follow authors in your genre, and actually engage with them and their content.

The four content tools are: 

• Posts are image or video posts that will appear in your curated gallery (aka profile page), and what will show up in the scroll when your followers search their feed. The more often you post here the best, but consistency is key.
• Stories are vertical video snippets that are connected with your profile image, and they are only live for 24 hours. It’s best to stay active here daily, but you have the freedom to highlight anything you like, and you don’t have to stay on brand. 
• Reels are snappy videos that show up on this latest featured feature – this is now the main center button on instagram and the most watched area of the platform
• IGTV offers an area for longer format videos, so it’s a good place to speak in depth about your book, your brand, your mission, etc. and save them to the top or your profile for easy access. 

Like with most other platforms, Instagram is organized by utilizing relevant and popular hashtags. It pays to do a little research and find hashtags that are trending for the kind of content you wish to publish. But also, it helps to follow some of these hashtags and engage with the users who are posting content there to try and increase your own following. For example, there are thousands of #bookstagram accounts which are just individuals posting about what books they are reading. If you can connect with this audience, you will have a strong following in no time. 

To make sure your Instagram profile is optimized, make sure you’re staying consistent with your branding (across all platforms and your website). Also, you’ll want to ensure you’re utilizing a link sharing app like linktree in your bio, since instagram doesn’t allow links in posts. Unless you want to change your one bio link constantly, you must put all of your links into a third-party program and then include this link in your bio so your followers will have access to any links you mention in your posts/stories/reels/IGTV, including the link to buy your book / see your website.

Pinterest

Yet another platform for the visual authors out there, Pinterest offers a different take on a social sharing platform. Probably the least social of all the social sites, Pinterest’s algorithm isn’t based on how many comments and likes you receive, so it can be appealing to those of you who dislike the engagement aspect necessary for most other platforms. But, there’s more to consider before diving into this anti-social gem. 

For starters, without that engagement, it’s much harder to convert followers into fans. But, considering there are 478 million active users, and 89% of them go to Pinterest for inspiration before purchasing something they either want or don’t yet know that they want, it could be a great way to increase your book sales. Plus, the new in-app purchasing availability can make this as simple as one click. 

Keep in mind, 77% of Pinterest users are female, so it’s probably best for authors who’ve written to this audience. 

When it comes to actually setting up your account, it can be a bit more complicated than some of the other platforms, but once the initial setup is done, it’s really easy to remain consistent. 

You’ll want to do the following to insure the highest rate of success:

• Get a business account. Its free to convert your personal one if you already have it, and a business account will allow you to serve ads
• Make sure your profile is on brand
• Create themed boards that all relate to your brand. If you want to keep some of your existing boards for personal use, just make them private. Follow similar accounts and engage with them. 
• Share posts from your own website (stick to consistent branding, and make sure they’re vertical!), as well as other people’s pins.
• Get your account verified. This is an extra step you need to apply for, but it will allow you to see more analytics. 
• Post consistently. The more active you are, the more Pinterest will show your pins to others. 

Youtube

If you’re already creating video content for Facebook and Instagram, you may as well add them to your Youtube channel. It’s easy to create a channel, and you can just as easily create settings so that your videos will be served to your primary audience. Youtube is the world’s second-most visited site, next to Google, with over 2 billion active monthly users, and more than 80% of the U.S. market accessing the site every day. It’s highly likely that your future readers are consuming video content here. 

Booktubers (readers who review books via video) are very popular, and engaging with them could assist your personal following or assist with receiving book reviews for your own books. 

The best way to grow your Youtube channel is to stick with a brand/theme. If you wrote a book about business leadership, for example, you might create lots of video content with both tips from the book, and those that didn’t make it into the book to give your followers a reason to keep coming back for more. 

Another way might be to talk about writing. You could give tips for aspiring authors, or talk about the self-publishing process, or anything else you’re an expert on.

Goodreads

While Goodreads has the innate ability to be a useful social media tool for writers — it was created specifically for authors and readers, after all — due to it’s outdated user interface, most of its 90 million members use it only to keep track of the books they’ve read. 

That said, every author should at least claim their profile / books on Goodreads, so that you’ll be searchable if and when readers do look for you. Readers can also rate and review your book, for good or for bad.  

If you do want to utilize it to get your book out there, a couple things you can do are: 

• Read and review other authors’ books
• Search the Goodreads lists, and add your book(s) to all relevant lists. This will help users who didn’t know they were looking for your book find you. 
• Make sure your profile is branded and optimized
• Friend people who follow authors similar to you, and comment on their reads

There you have it! It can be a daunting list to choose from, but hopefully this overview will give you enough of an idea about which social media tool is best for you. Once you’ve narrowed down the platform(s) you’re going to use, make sure you do everything you can to optimize your profile, post consistently, and grow your following! 

Starting from scratch means it will likely take a long time to gain traction with any of these social platforms, but staying consistent, engaged and onbrand will undoubtedly lead to book sales in the future.