We’ve compiled some best practices for authors to implement through their social media to best prepare for letting their audience know about their upcoming book release.

Facebook

  • Create a public author page. You can convert your private profile to a branded public Facebook page. This allows for an unlimited number of followers to receive content in their newsfeeds, and all of your friends will automatically become followers in the page conversion. When it comes time to advertise the release of your new book, you can do so via this public author Facebook page.
  • Once established, brand the author Facebook page using a professional author headshot for the profile image, and a header image that showcases the cover of your new book or a tagline from the website. Update the About and Bio section to include full bio, branded tagline and links to your website. Make it clear that this Facebook page is supporting the content and community gathered around not only you and your new book as well.
  • Develop a content plan from your book(s), blog posts, and speaking events to post throughout the year. We recommend aiming for at least one weekly post on the public Facebook page.
  • Consider posting an announcement about the forthcoming book and pinning that post so new followers see the book information right away.
  • Conduct quick monthly study of analytics to track popular posts (content), follower habits (ie: time of day followers are on Facebook, post during peak times) and follower demographics to better speak to the community and similar pages to watch market trends.
  • Look at post insights to determine what types of posts are resonating with your audience—ie: content from books, article discussions, speaking event announcements, etc.
  • To establish a pattern of engagement, we recommend setting aside some advertising dollars to put towards lead generation or engagement campaigns.
  • Always incorporate images in Facebook posts with content quotes. These will become more shareable. Use Canva.com or another similar service to design social media images with content. Be sure to always include an image, quote, and website URL or hashtag if applicable.
  • Encourage engagement on Facebook posts by asking for comments and shares and presenting a call-to-action often. When Facebook sees a post is getting lots of activity, they will push it out to more of the page’s followers.
  • Promote/link to those who promote/link to your content.
  • Instigate conversations with and get to know your top/loudest 10% fans and engage, respond, like, message, repost them.
  • Investigate what other thought leaders are in your circles; become friends.

Twitter

  • Make sure your profile picture is a professional author headshot for easy recognition. The bio information should have a branded tagline from your website and mention your forthcoming book. Update the URL to your author site or to the book landing page in anticipation of release.
  • Provide original content to engage your audience and generate conversation on the account. We recommend aiming for 1-2 tweets per week using a content plan from your book, blog posts, and other content to tweet throughout the year. Your community will respond well to your content, and this will generate discussion.
  • Consider tweeting about your forthcoming book and pinning that tweet so that new followers see the book announcement and can start engaging in conversations about the new book right away.
  • Study Twitter Analytics on the account to learn about the community and target messaging to followers. Study tweet activity and reach analytics to tweet engaging messaging.
  • Use Canva.com or another similar service to design social media images with content. Be sure to always include an image, quote, website URL, and hashtag if applicable.
  • Follow and retweet more Twitter users in your space—interact with the community. Promote/link/retweet to those who promote/link to you.
  • Continue to seek out hashtags relevant to conversations related to your books or writing content and incorporate those tags into tweets.
  • Instigate conversations and get to know your top/loudest 10% fans and engage, respond, retweet them.
  • Investigate what other thought leaders are in your circles; follow them.
  • Consider paid Twitter ads to promote the account and books.

Instagram

  • To gather insights on the account, make sure you have a public creator profile.
  • Instagram is a community space that values quality over frequency. If not using original photography, consider using templates from Canva.com with a variety of background images for posting quotes and/or book content. Also consider using free stock imagery on Unsplash.com for background images.
  • Instagram users love to get a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of authors and speakers—what they’re up to, what they’re reading, what their real lives look like, etc. Mentioning the forthcoming book more during the book launch phase and as the release date nears.
  • Develop a hashtag strategy of both tags relevant to the post itself as well as tags that span the overarching themes of your content and books. Make sure they are established hashtags to draw in others having conversations connected to these tags. Autogramtags.com is a great resource for generating hashtag suggestions. Utilize branded hashtags. Encourage followers to use these hashtags on their own posts to draw their friends and followers into the conversations that you are hosting on the platform.

Email List

  • Establish an email list using MailChimp or Constant Contact. Have a signup form and/or popup on your website (ideally on the homepage) so you can begin to collect addresses. Having a place to signup on the homepage will be a great resource in building an email strategy.
  • It is also common practice to have an email signup pop up as soon as a new visitor is on the homepage—offer an incentive (an excerpt of your latest book, etc.) to encourage subscriptions. Develop an email strategy to communicate with subscribers periodically. 
  • Consistently invite readers to subscribe to the author newsletter. Speak about each newsletter multiple times on social media, sharing content, with a clear call to action encouraging subscribers.
  • Brainstorm new ideas and content for 2020-2021 newsletters – make a goal to send one per month on a specific day. Column ideas: review of what you are currently reading, share an excerpt from your books (current or backlist), sale on book or special promotion, highlight current speaking event, etc.

Goodreads Recommendations

  • Join the Goodreads author program. 
  • Consider using Goodreads to do some book giveaways. Promote on your website, social media, newsletter, etc.
  • Invite people to be friends with your on Goodreads—mention on social media, put a link in the email newsletter.
  • Continue to encourage reviews on your book(s). Ask readers frequently to review. Share some reviews on social media throughout the year, and thank some past reviewers.

Amazon Recommendations

  • Join the Amazon author central program.
  • Develop the author page on Amazon with bio, photo, link to website and social media, etc.
  • Encourage people to follow your author page – mention on social media, put a link in the email newsletter.
  • Encourage reviews on your book(s). Ask readers frequently to review. Share some reviews on social media throughout the year, and thank past reviewers.
  • Review the keywords that are tagged on your book(s). There can be up to 100 words listed as keywords. Keeping on top of this helps SEO and metadata which is key for success on Amazon.

General Marketing & Continuing Education Recommendations

  • Read Platform by Michael Hyatt.
  • Read Tribes by Seth Godin.
  • Watch Simon Sinek’s TED Talk called Start With Why to consider how to continue to develop your brand. StartWithWhy.com.
  • Subscribe to Lynda.com for a limited time and take a few marketing classes that align with your branding needs.
  • Read ChadRAllen.com backlist of very helpful marketing blog posts.