Last time, we broke the sad news that social media does not equal sales and we heard a ton of positive feedback, well we’re here again to semi-break you heart and inspire you with Social Media for Authors Part Two: Content, baby!
Sure, a corn field might have told Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come” and while that’s partially true on the internet, it’s more like “if you build it, then pour your time, energy, persistence, personality and luck into it, they will probably come.” Also, if a corn field starts talking to you, you might want to see a professional… or mow down a few hundred acres of that corn field and build a baseball diamond in Iowa for the ghosts of baseball past. Either or.
All this corn business to say that, you’ve built your online presence now it’s time to share what really matters.
#2 Content, Content, Content baby!
There is no such thing as effective social media marketing without content. Real social media marketing takes dedication. source
And you have to work at it!
We are often asked, “But what do I post about? What do I Tweet about?”
That’s a hard question to answer when you are in-between books or aren’t actively promoting something new. But we think this is actually the BEST time to create content. Sit down and map out a month’s worth of blog post ideas. Maybe you will write around the theme of “Best Summer Books.” Show your readers the city where you live. Talk about things that you like that AREN’T book related (TV, movies, music, etc.!). Show your followers you’re a real person who likes things outside of books. Use your “downtime” when you’re not actively promoting a book to hone your voice and develop a relationship with your readers and followers online.
We recently read a social recommendation from a major US publisher to their authors (which is sadly no longer available online) but it was intense. They recommended among a mountain of other things, multiple posts to many different social media accounts every day. While some of this we don’t agree with- the point behind their advice we do:
Social Media takes dedication and focus. That is how social media growth and expanding your audience will happen.
You create content with the books you write but in the off-times when we aren’t pushing a new book you need to be generating content that can be shared across the internet, engaging your current fans and fans to come.
They (who’s they?!) say content is king. Content (and not milkshakes) is what brings the boys to the yard. So how do you create this content? Look no further…
Content Ideas and Rules
1. Read our post on your 5 Daily Social Media Duties – cause there’s stuff you need in there
2. BE YOU – followers want to know more about YOU and not just the author-you, they care about what you watch, listen to, think about this or that. ALL of that is important. A fan might initially follow you because they like your writing but they’ll stay because they like YOU.
3. Pay attention to current events in your industry – Stuff’s going on in the world, not only in your neighborhood but in your field of work. Make sure you’re reading the latest news on the publishing world and SHARING it!
4. READ… and REVIEW – Your books are not the only thing that’s ever been printed in the history of the world. You do not live in a vacuum of YOU. Get out there and read other books and better yet review other books! Didn’t like it? You don’t need to share it. But if you liked it, you sure should! And make sure you TAG that author in your review. Try writing a book review in 140 characters or via a Reel or TikTok. Could you do it?
5. Build Relationships – Share posts and goodies from your friends and people you admire. Sometimes good content is retweeting someone else’s good content! You can also build relationships this way, join in on another person’s online conversation and then contact them afterwards if you had a meaningful exchange and then… hold on to your butts… take your relationship offline into the real world! Meet up! And there you have even more content.
“It’s that simple!” they said while evilly twirling their mustaches.
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