3 Key social media mistakes authors make
When authors look for ways to promote their books on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Youtube, for example, it is easy to make social media mistakes.
These platforms are easy to navigate. You can start a Twitter account and boom, we can use it immediately. Facebook? It takes a few minutes and you have a page that belongs to you and only you. It can be a personal page, an author page, fan page or business page.
You can also use Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and TikTok this way. Soon your social media presence is everywhere.
But what does this mean to you as an author starting out on these platform? Well, it’s simple, nothing if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Most of us don’t use them to their full potential, and our promotions are inappropriate, making our time and effort useless with these common social media mistakes.
AVOID THESE COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKES AUTHORS MAKE
1. Using other peoples’ Facebook timeless as promotional pages. Just don’t.
Don’t friend someone and paste a link on their timeline by posting links of your book’s website on their Facebook site.
First, you don’t have the right to do that. It’s just wrong on all levels.
Second, who is your target audience here? Remember your niche! You can’t just throw a link out there and hope to catch someone who might like the link. You need to target the right audience.
2. Twitter faux pas. Stop tweeting “buy my book” over and over again.
People don’t want to see your whole feed full of the same message. They need variety.
I get it. You want to promote your book on Twitter, so yes, do that, but first learn how to use the platform to its full capabilities. So, get twitter street smarts.
Be creative. Tweet something like, “see my cookbook with mind-blowing recipes,” or “Be the first to read a sample of my first chapter of my urban fantasy.”
It is suggested that you limit your content to 20 percent book promotion. The rest should be helpful, and interesting messages that’s not all about your book.
Don’t expect results too quickly. It will come in time. Just remember to keep a healthy balance between book promotion and interesting, entertaining messages.
3. Putting people on email lists without their permission.
This can cause you to lose your email account. Just like that. Remember, people report spam messages. Don’t do it! No one wants unsolicited emails. Always get permission.
There are multiple service providers you can utilise to create email list, such as MailChimp, Mad Mimi, Constant Contact, ConvertKit.
Learn to use social media
To avoid making these mistakes, make sure you understand how to use these tools first. Social networking accounts are simple to create, but to use as promotional platforms is a whole other thing. There is a lot of information, and courses on the internet that can help you out, and teach you how to use them.
What types of social media mistakes have you made? Leave us a comment below.
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