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If you’ve written a new book and want to get the word out, look no further than social media. You don’t need to hire a marketing agency or pay the big bucks for an agent to do all the promotion for you. Using the top social media platforms, it’s possible to run a cost-effective marketing campaign that galvanizes your supporters and sells more books. Here’s what to do next.
Step 1: Tailor your marketing to your target audience
Since social media is perfectly suited to niche demographics, you’ll want to do some upfront work deciding who your book is for – and who it’s not for. You’ll spend too much time and energy trying to be all things to all people. So instead, focus on the groups or communities that are most likely to buy and read your book.
Many social media platforms make this very easy to do. At a glance, you can see demographic breakdowns by age, gender, and geographic location. With a little more work, you can see which interests and preferences your readers have, which sites or groups they are likely to visit, and how much they engage with your work. With that in mind, it’s easy to come up with a plan for specific social media platforms and specific demographic niches.
Step 2: Embrace the “social” in social media
The more that you can involve yourself personally in the promotion of the book, the better off you are going to be. This can mean different things to different people. At the very least, you’ll want to spend time sharing your journey in writing and launching the book. This could mean virtual events, such as live Q&A sessions, webinars, or live streams. It could also mean engaging directly with people who have left comments or questions on your social pages. Or it could mean uniting community members around certain upcoming events, promotions, or contests.
Step 3: Use data to fine-tune your marketing approach
No matter how much upfront work you put in, you’ll still need to follow up throughout your marketing campaign. With data analytics tools, you can see which type of posts are getting the most engagement, which hashtags are bringing in the most fans and followers, and which types of shared content (such as a preview of an upcoming chapter) are getting people to sign up for book sales.
Step 4: Reward your followers
Don’t make a book launch all about you. It’s also about your followers, fans, and friends who made it possible. So, at some point, you need to think about rewarding your followers. It can be something as simple as giving them “exclusive content” that’s not available anywhere else. Or it can actually be a full-fledged giveaway with real economic value. It’s up to you, and your budget.
Conclusion
By following these four steps, you can ensure that social media becomes an effective tool in marketing your new book. Even if your first book doesn’t fly off the shelves, you’ll have a much stronger community, and even more fans and followers lining up to buy your next book.
