What’s so important about social media and marketing? Let’s take a minute to check it out!
Yep, social media and marketing. These are two things that go hand in hand, but many authors, especially indie authors, simply dread. Social media and marketing are two very thankless jobs. Sure, it’s great to interact with other readers and authors, but wow, can it be a time-sucking chore?
We often have people contact us about social media and marketing, but it isn’t one of the services that we offer. It’s just a time-consuming and never-ending chore that we haven’t been able to commit to. What works for one author often has no results for another. There are ways that you can make your social media and marketing easier and less time-consuming, but no matter what you do, it’s a very involved process.
There are a lot of different social media platforms these days, and to focus as much attention on each as you should is more than a full-time job in itself. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and so many more. Then you add in author marketing platforms like Goodreads, Amazon Author Central, AllAuthor, BookBub, Facebook Pages, BookWorks, and many more. Just there that is 11 different platforms. Not all of them require attention every day, but most do.
So, what do you do? Most indie authors already have another job, which takes up a lot of their time. Between writing, marketing, working, social media, and real life, it doesn’t leave a lot of time to manage social media.
Below are our tips for helping to balance social media and marketing!
- Our biggest suggestion is to focus on 2-3 social media platforms well. Instead of just doing a little on each platform, do a lot on two or three platforms.
- Keep the content fresh and interesting. Instead of just promoting your own books, create unique and interesting content that gets your followers to interact with you and engage on your social media.
- Create your social media brand. Try to have a theme that relates to your website, books, and social media. (I have attached some examples of our own social media branding below).
- Create some interesting content that people will want to share. Instagram is a great place to share some amazing pictures and graphics.
- Be proactive with your social media. Participate with other authors and build your network.
- Make sure your profile is short, descriptive, and stands out. Use a real picture and make sure your profile screams, ‘I’m a real author who loves their work!’
- Cross-promote your posts across your entire social media network.
- Sites like Buffer allow you to schedule your posts and make the entire marketing job just a little bit easier.
- Build a website and give something away to help build an email list. You can then use your email list to promote special deals, giveaways, and new releases.
- Build a list of reviewers, promoters, beta readers, and bloggers. If you can help another author out with guest posts and takeovers, then they’ll help you out when the time comes!
The Importance of Social Media and Marketing! – Conclusion
Now you should have a much clearer idea about the importance of social media and marketing for authors, especially if you’re a self-published author or planning on self-publishing your book.
At Indie Publishing Group, we’re proud to assist Canadian and North American authors in self-publishing their work. If you are in the process of writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting, cover design, professional editing, or uploading to self-publishing sites such as Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us.
Our experienced and professional self-publishing team is standing by to assist you with your self-publishing dreams.