How To Coax Your Social Media Followers Into Actually Buying Your Books

Social media is at the forefront of a successful marketing strategy for promoting your book. But having thousands of fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest doesn’t always lead to thousands of book sales during that all-important first week of release. Thanks to algorithm changes, the organic reach has plummeted on Facebook this past year. And Twitter can seem like a noisy cocktail party where readers just aren’t listening to what you have social media marketing tips to say. But writers who try to counteract these trends and build sales by repeatedly posting and tweeting “Buy My Book!” will appear rude, pushy, and lose social media followers fast. Gaining social media followers on any platform takes time and effort—but building your following is the essential first step. There are companies that offer so-called quick fixes (“10,000 Twitter Followers In Ten Minutes!”), but be forewarned: Publishing industry influencers can spot these fake friends from a mile away. It’s better to gain readers authentically and organically rather than to plump the numbers with barely interested strangers. Respond to comments, develop relationships with your readership, and only mention your book is for sale in one post out of every ten. If you have real fans following you, they’ll be more likely to become social media marketing tools your customers. Building a healthy, targeted mailing list is the number one way to convert your readership into book-buying customers. Social media venues can change policies at any time, but if you can convert those fans into subscribers, you’ll have a captive audience. Make sure that the sign-up to your mailing list is featured on every page of your website and also at the top of your Facebook Author Page.

Tweet At Optimal Times For Your Audience

You may already know your best time to Tweet by hour, but an understanding of what your audience is likely to be doing will help too. For example, if you’re a coffee chain aimed at young professionals, there is a good chance that their day will be full of meetings which generally start or finish on the hour. So Tweeting just before or after will catch people as they are waiting for their meeting to start, or as they’re leaving it, perfect to get your cup on their mind. This will help to nudge your engagement rates up slightly as you adjust your posts to suit the lives of your audience. You can even use SocialBro’s Best Time marketing social media To Tweet tool to dig deeper into your audience, and find the best times to Tweet to specific sub-segments such as people who support a certain team, live in a particular area, or have a high number of followers. Asking for user generated content on Twitter is a good start, but it can be taken further by using rich media to encourage people to give opinions, make suggestions, and engage with your campaigns. For example, in 2014 @AdidasNEOlabel wanted to crowdsource ideas for a fashion show they were running that would connect with their target audience of 14-19 year olds and drive sales of their upcoming range. They used benefits of social media marketing Twitter cards to vote between which outfits would be used in the show, Vines of the event throughout the day, and used Twitter video showing people how they could get involved. This helped to create over a billion impressions for their NEO campaign, as well as a peak engagement rate of 18.4%.

Optimize Your Profile For Getting Discovered

Having a heavily RT’d post or receiving a ton of shares is great, but don’t forget there will be people who may find your profile of their own accord. For these people you need to ensure that you’re both easy to find, and it’s clear what you do when people arrive there. Have a cover photo that ties into your latest campaign, include your website link, and have a pinned post that gets across a key message or link. You also want to think about your bio, using social media for marketing as this will help you appear in searches on Twitter. While you want to have a standout, unique bio, it’s no good if it doesn’t help anyone discover your profile. Make sure you weave in key industry terms so that people can easily find you. If you’re just starting a campaign, then it may be worth looking at ways you can optimize your whole social presence. If you’re sharing content on Twitter, try to fit in a point related to the article or flag up an important section of the piece. This will go a long way to helping your brand establish a name in the industry and be seen as a thought leader. shows your company social media marketing strategies is staffed by people clued up about the industry they’re in, helping to establish brand trust. Alternatively, if the piece of content was authored by a particular influencer in your field, you can tag them in the post or ask a follow-up question. This is great if you want to connect with them and their community as it helps to create a natural relationship.