3 Social Media Mistakes Writers Make
You’ve written your book. Now, what’s next? It’s time to market it. You can use social media for free to reach your ideal reader. However, social media for writers requires you to be social and learn how to engage with your audience. Therefore, in this post, you will learn three social media mistakes writers make, and how to avoid them. Along with tips on what to post instead.
Let’s start with three mistakes to avoid.
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#1 Buy My Book
“Buy my book” is a phrase you want to avoid using very often when marketing your book on social media. Yes, you do want to include calls to action to your followers, but you want to first focus on building relationships. Don’t fall into the trap of your social media posts being a one-way billboard that often gets ignored in the newsfeed.
#2 The Lonely Link
How often do you actually pay attention to a post on social media that contains a link and nothing else to describe it? I would guess not very often. In order to engage your audience, let them know more about the link and why they should click on it. How will clicking on your link benefit your readers? Draw your readers in with a compelling reason to click on your link and take the next step with you.
#3 Repetitive Posts
Are you guilty of posting the same thing about your books on social media? Granted, repetition is good for marketing and it takes the average consumer seeing something at least seven times before they buy. However, I recommend you avoid posting the exact same thing over and over when marketing your book. These posts won’t be very effective over time because, as humans, our brains crave new information.
What Should You Post Instead?
First, I want to encourage you to follow the 80/20 rule. Make 80 percent of your posts social and only 20 percent related to buying something from you or what I call a make offer post.
Social Post Ideas
Here are some social media post ideas:
- Ask an engaging question.
- Share about a significant milestone in your career as an author and invite your followers to celebrate with you.
- Reveal something personal. This humanizes you and makes you real.
- Congratulate others on their accomplishments.
- Share a video related to your niche/genre (one that you create or one someone else has created).
- Create a “pick your favorite” post. People love to share their opinions. For example, you can ask your audience if they prefer print books or eBooks. This always gets a lot of engagement.
- Share an inspirational quote.
- “Caption This” post. Share an image and have people come up with a creative caption.
- Answer your reader’s questions. Feel free to post your reply as a written post or a video. This can be a recorded video or a live video.
Make Offer Post Ideas
Here are some social media posts about your offers:
- Post about a sale, coupon, or giveaway.
- Share a snippet from a review.
- Share a free excerpt from your book.
Success leaves clues. Watch how other successful authors in your genre interact and engage with their audience and adapt it to your own social media marketing.
Social Media Templates
One of the most effective ways to sell your book on social media is to use permission marketing. With a few simple posts worded in a certain way, you can get your audience raising their hand, showing interest, and asking you to send them more information about your book(s). Instead of pushing your audience away with salesy posts, you’ll be drawing them in and they will start asking you for the link to buy your book. How awesome is that?
To make it even easier for you, I created social media templates you can quickly edit and start using today. You can get your social media content for the next month done in 90 minutes using my templates so that you can reach more readers with your book (without being pushy or salesy). Learn more here: https://minimarketingmessages.com
About the Author
As an author coach, Shelley Hitz is on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. Your words matter and will impact and encourage others as you take the courageous step of faith to market them. Shelley specializes in helping Christian authors market their books in her online membership, Christian Book Academy. Shelley and her husband, CJ, are the hosts of the Kingdom Writers podcast. Learn more at ChristianBookAcademy.com.
