HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK OR ARTICLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
A Short Primer on What To Do Once Your Book or Article is Published
By Linda Kissam “Food, Wine & Shopping Diva”
ON BIG BLEND RADIO: Travel writer and publicity pro Linda Kissam shares tips on how to promote your written work on social media. Watch here in the YouTube player or download the podcast on Podbean.
Promoting your book on social media is basically a 5-Step Process. Here’s what is involved in creating an action plan.
Launching a social media campaign takes time, perhaps money, and definitely requires consistency.
How much time are you willing to put into creating an action plan that will include:
1. Identifying goals
2. Doing research
3. Setting up a website
4. Deciding how much time, effort, and perhaps the money you are willing to put into this promotion.
5. Launching your social media promotion
Here’s what you need to do:
Identify Goals
What exactly does success look like for this project?
Consider these factors:
Are you looking for fame?
Are you hoping for fortune?
Are you looking to just inform or share your book or article?
Do you need a website?
Who is your audience?
Once you know what your goals are, let’s look at how you move forward.
Do your research
- Search the web for similar articles or books
- Find out who else is doing what you’re doing and how you are the same or more importantly – unique. How are they promoting their book or article? What resources are your competitors using, that you could be doing also?
- If you’re going to put up a website, identify three websites you love. Show them to the person who is going to build your website. Tip: Start simple. Have it built so that you can add and delete content as needed.
Once you have a website up (Step 3) or decide you do not want/need a website, it’s time to move forward to the next step.
Commitment
1, Realistically, how much time are you willing to work on promoting your book or article? Start with two days a week, two hours a day, and add in as you can.
- Refer back to your goals weekly to judge how you are doing. Decide whether you are on point to reach your goals or if you need to do more.
Tip: Give yourself one day off completely from promotions. Leave the computer keys alone and rejuvenate.
Time to begin your Social Media
Know who your target audience is, what time they are likely to be engaging online, which of the social media programs they are likely to be looking at, and what result you want. If you do not have this info yet, repeat step one – research.
The best result a media post can do for you is that the reader wants to know how they can connect further with you, your book, or your article. Your social media post should just be a teaser to get the reader to learn more about you, buy your book or read your article. This is why you have a website.
Drive your readers to your website where they can find out how to buy your book or read your article, learn more about you, what else you have done and what you will be doing in the future…including being available to speak to groups about your work.
Now that you know what you want from your social media efforts, let’s take a look at how you get results.
Tips on Posting on Social Media
- Put aside a minimum of two hours, per day you are posting.
- Compose your post offline before you go online. Decide which social media platform(s) you will be using. Facebook is the easiest and biggest. Instagram has a book/article-receptive audience and Twitter is a good source of feedback. YouTube is also a great visual option. If you don’t know which is best for you – go back to step one and do more research.
- Make you post no more than four sentences in a statement or question format.
- Make sure you provide a website link readers can follow to get to your book or article.
- Always post a picture along with a message. It should be eye-catching and relevant to the point of what you are talking about. Free high-quality photos can be found through several online agencies, or use your own from the book or article.
- Keep track of the responses you are getting. Do you get more likes on your Saturday posts? Do you get people to follow your link when the pictures excite their curiosity?
Example of Promotional Social Media Text:
Next time you’re planning to visit Washington State, try a farm stay. It’s all about the rural experience and putting a personal face and story to local farming. Perhaps the coolest part of my visit was …more
Linda Kissam ‘Food, Wine & Shopping Diva’ is a professional travel, food, and wine writer who specializes in easy, breezy destination stories sharing her favorite things about the places she visits. Visit www.AllInGoodTaste.info
