There are so many reasons to start using social media as author.
Your book will need a helping hand in terms of marketing.
Social media is that helping hand.
Do everything you can to make sure people share your book on Facebook and Twitter. Oh look. Here’s 100 ways to get Facebook LIKES to get you started.
Note: This is part 5 of my ebook marketing special:
PREVIOUS PARTS
Part 1: Marketing ebooks online
Part 2: Writing Bestselling ebooks
Part 3: Selling more books on Amazon
Part 4: Digital marketing for authors
And now let’s look at how to use social media for authors.
How To use Social Media For Authors
*For the previous 62 parts, refer to the links above.
Social Media For Authors 72: Facebook Tabs
A Facebook tab is a separate page that you can add to your primary Facebook page. The tab can contain a variety of different media, like giveaways, raffles, and competitions.
You can use your Facebook tab to promote your ebook in a variety of ways
. I recommend familiarising yourself with the use of Facebook tabs and finding a fun way to make your tab promote your book. SocialMediaExaminer has a fantastic guide to using tabs to improve your marketing.
Social Media For Authors 73: Trailers
Create a book trailer for Youtube and Facebook: A great ebook trailer can advertise your book in a way that words and images cannot. A good ebook trailer will make your self published book come to life. For example, take a look at this trailer for Valerie Alexander’s Happiness: A Second Language.
Using Youtube successfully is a gargantuan subject demanding an article all of its own (join me on Facebook and Twitter and I’ll let you know when I inevitably write that article). But ultimately what works on Youtube is personality. Find your screen personality and sell it.
Social Media For Authors 74: Congruence
Create congruence across the board.
You want your ebook, your marketing, your trailer, your description, your landing page, and your social media to share the same personality. If you mix personalities you risk confusing your readers. By having one loud and clear personality you give your readers a clear idea of what they’re getting. That personality is also a marketing force in itself. So, choose a personality and make sure that personality is communicated in every aspect of your product and its marketing.
Social Media For Authors 75: share buttons at chapter ends
Include share buttons at the end of every chapter of your book.
Did you know that you can include share buttons inside your ebook? The trick is to use HTML-only share buttons.
I’ve gone ahead and made this really easy for you (you can thank me by following me on Twitter and Facebook).
Simply follow these instructions to put share buttons in your ebooks.
- Find images of share buttons.
- Copy and paste them into word (or whatever software you’re using)
- You’re going to create hyperlinks to use for the share buttons. So first click on your Facebook button.
- In Word, go to Insert > Hyperlink
- For Address, put “http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=<URL>” . The URL is the page you want to be shared (e.g. Amazon.com/YOUR_BOOK)
- Repeat with the Twitter button. But on the Twitter button put “http://twitter.com/share?url=<URL>&text=<TEXT>via=<USERNAME>” in which <TEXT> = the tweet you want, and <USERNAME> = your @name.
Now people can share your book from inside the book itself!
Social Media For Authors 76: Also embed share buttons in your sample PDF
Social Media For Authors 77: Giveaways
Run giveaways and give a copy of your ebook to some of your fans.
I’ve created a complete guide to using Facebook to get shares and likes. That article includes detailed information on using giveaways. So head over and read this article: How To Increase Facebook Engagement Rate.
Social Media For Authors 78: Use Analytics and Insights to discover what works:
You might not know what works for you audience. That’s okay. You can test and you can find out. If you’ve been running a blog and a Facebook page for a while now you already have a lot of information about what creates clicks (and clicks = interest). Go through both your Facebook Insights and your Google Analytics and ask yourself what anchor-text created clicks? What images led to engagement? What promises, what wording, what style, what personality has created user engagement? Use that information to learn about your audience and about who they are, what they want, and what they respond to.
Social Media For Authors 79: Put a link to your Facebook page, Twitter profile, and Email sign-up page in your Amazon preview
Even if people don’t buy your book you can still make use of Amazon’s massive audience. Just put links to your social media profiles and email sign-up page in your preview. Hey presto, free followers.
Social Media For Authors 80: Create relevant blog posts and promote on social media
If you’re selling a book via your own blog, make sure your traffic is directly relevant to the book.
You might have a great blog and you might have a great book, but if your book and your blog aren’t closely related you won’t get people buying your ebook. Make sure you’re blogging about subjects related to your ebook. The tighter the bond between blog and book, the better.
Social Media For Authors 81: Testing
Test different social media posts to see what creates action:
Social media really is a rubik’s cube. Honestly, that Facebook like button is enough to discombobulate anyone. It takes a real genius to know precisely what will and won’t work on social media. But thankfully you don’t have to get your social media efforts right the first time.
Test out different posts. Try advertising your book via images, quotes, by sharing testimonials… try everything and determine what works. Once you find the right approach to social media marketing, use it.
Social Media For Authors 82: Facebook Ads
Once you find a social media post that will generate clickthroughs and sales, pay for advertising (but not before).
So you finally find precisely the right post with which to advertise your book on Facebook and Twitter. Now’s the time to pay for advertisements. Twitter and Facebook ads can help you to reach a huge audience. Be willing to pay for that extra exposure, but only once you’re confident of the right kind of post to use for the ad.
Social Media For Authors 83: Include a “Look Inside” like on Amazon:
This speaks for itself. People like to know what they’re getting. Show them.
If you’re publishing your ebook on Amazon or similar sites the preview will be taken care of for you. But if you’re selling your ebook via your own blog you will need to create your own preview system. I recommend embedding your book as a PDF on your site and (importantly) allowing people to preview your book without leaving your site. You want people to stay on your site, not leave, and you also don’t want them to have to download anything pre-purchase simply because most people don’t trust downloads (due to the prevalence of malicious code).
So, create your preview and make sure the preview takes place on your site and ideally on the same page that the book itself is on. If you’re using WordPress you might like to try out the plug-in PDF Embedder.
Social Media For Authors 84: Throw an ebook social media party:
Make a big deal about your ebook on release day on social media. Give your book away. Run contests for signed copies. Tell other authors about your book. Most people will find this silly, and it is because, really, who throws a social media party for a book? But silliness is part and parcel of the point. Take a look at the most popular Facebook pages and you’ll find that most of them are also silly. Silliness can be serious money.
Make your ebook party silly and fun, then people will get involved just for a laugh. That laugh, however, is enough to make people share your book, which leads to free exposure.
Social Media For Authors 85: Work on your engagement rates
Make use of all the tips contained in this guide to improving Facebook engagement rate.
Social media for authors 86: Google Adwords Ads for authors
If your book really is taking off, use Google Adwords ads.
If you find a social media post that blows up and leads to sales, hit up Google Adwords and purchase some advertising.
Social Media For Authors 87: Be a Youtube personality:
Right now, two Youtube personalities are sitting pretty on the New York Times bestsellers list. Felicia Day a self-proclaimed nerd whose book You’re Never Weird On The Internet is currently at number 5 on the non-fiction list. Meanwhile, Colleen Ballinger Evans capitalised on the success of her Youtube personality Miranda Sings by writing Selp Helf, which currently sits at number 4 on the Advice and How To list.
Becoming a Youtube personality is far from easy, given the amount of competition. It’s a subject I’ll be tackling in a future “Ultimate Guide To…”. Join me on Facebook and Twitter and I’ll let you guys know when I’ve written it.
But should you succeed on Youtube you will be met with hundreds of thousands of fans, many of whom will gladly purchase your book.
Here’s how to grow a Youtube channel.
Social media for authors 88: Use word of mouth:
Finally, the oldie is still the goldie. Talk to people about your book. You’ll be surprised how far some word of mouth advertising can go.
And there we have it, 91 ways to sell and market your self published ebook. Join me on Facebook and Twitter for more.
And that’s how to use social media for authors
This is the end of my 91 step guide to selling and marketing your ebooks.
PREVIOUS PARTS:
Part 1: Marketing your ebooks
Part 2: Writing Bestselling ebooks
Part 3: Selling more books on Amazon
Part 4: How to grow your author platform online
Part 5: Social Media for Authors
Part 6: Building an author platform
I hope you have enjoyed this read and found it useful.
As a professional online marketer I would love to help you with your book releases and marketing.
Contact me today.
