Top 3 Tips to Improve Your Author Brand with Social Media
As an author, you might be thinking, “Why should I waste my time on Instagram?” or “I’m on deadline. I don’t have time to tweet.” When used effectively, social media can dramatically boost discoverability and strengthen your author brand. You should make it a priority to schedule your Instagram posts, regularly update your blog, share interesting tips and stories on Twitter, and engage with fans on Facebook.
Why is Social Media Important for Author Branding?
This might seem like a waste of time or an optional part of being a successful author, but staying consistent in the social media game makes a big difference, especially when you’ve been asked to speak on panels, attend conferences, go on book tours, and give talks. People will look you up beforehand. They will tweet you while they’re reading your book on the bus. You’ll get Instagram comments from readers who are queueing at your book signing.
Kate Bowler, Matt Haig, Adam Kay, Dolly Alderton, and Elizabeth Day play this game very well. They consistently use social media as part of their public profiles as authors. It helps sell concert tickets, get podcast subscribers, and secure radio spots.
Readers really feel like they’re getting to know the authors, and that ultimately leads to more readers and more sales. If you’re new to social media and you’re still refining your strategy, our quick guide will help you get started.
Top 3 Social Media Tips for Authors
You don’t have to publish a blog post daily or tweet six times a day or post seven photos of your lunch on Instagram. But, at the very least, establishing and maintaining a consistent social media or blogging routine can make a big difference for audience engagement. With these three tips, you can strengthen your author brand through social media and develop stronger connections to your readership.
Tip #1: Be consistent
Publish a blog post every Tuesday. Update your email list each Thursday. Commit to at least two tweets a day. When you’ve got a new Instagram post, pop a link to that post in your story so that more people see it.
Imagine that your reader has registered for a conference where you’ll be presenting. She’s looked you up online. She sees that you last tweeted six weeks ago and that your last blog post was four months back. You haven’t posted anything about being at the conference. She’d like to share a tweet about meeting you or perhaps comment on a recent Instagram photo of you landing in LA for the event, but if you have no recent content to share, it comes off as though you don’t care.
Even if you can only manage one tweet per day or one blog post per month, if you decide to be a visible author on social media, establish consistency. It builds a genuine connection with your audience.
Tip #2: Be persistent
Accept the invitation to appear on a podcast show. Get up early to speak to a broadcast journalist. Attend a local TED event. Blog honestly about your experience. Respond to the comments on your Instagram posts. Ask questions of your Twitter followers. The more you genuinely connect with people and the more you show up, the more they will want to show up for you.
Tip #3: Be yourself
It’s perfectly fine if you’re extremely private, shy, or introverted. Many authors are. You don’t have to be on social media to be successful, but commit to it and maintain consistency with content creation if you do. If you’re very shy, share writing tips from other authors you admire, news, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, and articles from others in your field.
Write about what you’re comfortable with and use the platforms you enjoy, but don’t drop off of social entirely if you decide to be present on it in the first place. Find the rhythm that works for you as an author, but be available enough so that, when you attend a conference, you can connect genuinely with the reader who really looks forward to meeting you.
Once you’ve finalized your social media strategy and you’re ready to streamline your publishing journey, consider choosing PublishDrive! We make it easy to convert your ebook manuscript for free, publish and distribute to over 400 online stores, split royalties with co-authors, and boost sales with built-in marketing tools.