Social Media Productivity Tips for Authors

Every writer’s dream is to publish a book that sells millions of copies and succeeds beyond expectations. The issue becomes when authors don’t realize that their book success is directly related to how many hours they spend promoting it on social media.

In this post, Social Media Productivity Tips for Authors, we would like to focus on some tactics that you can implement to maximize your productivity as a published author. Before your book is finished, first start by announcing its arrival on social media. Generate some excitement and listen to your audience. Let them know the reasons why you wrote the book, what’s the idea behind it and go soft on this marketing push.

Whew! Is that a groan I hear?

If all you enjoy is the writing, then that’s ok. But remember to share your excitement. As I like to say: ‘writing is a passion, publishing is a business.’ So, dedicate yourself to learning how to advertise your book.

Here are some productivity tips.

You need to learn all those platforms and check your Google Analytics to determine your audience’s demographics. On Facebook, where women predominate, the ages are spread between 18 and 64 years old. Once you have determined where your online reader demographics is, you can then target by advertising to them.

Curate Your articles

Your websites posts should comprised of a mix of 80% articles and 20% blog posts with additional content (Images, videos, charts, etc.) Keep it all focused on your the topic of your book.

To locate content that is new and related to your book, you’ll need to research external sources. One source that I enjoy is Alltop.com. From composing, to science fiction, to philosophy, aggregator sites like AllTop.com represent a great first place to find related topics to your niche.

Schedule

You have generated or discovered the articles you wish to post. Now, it is time to decide on a scheduling program to help you stay on-task. Schedule your curated content weekly or daily. Programs like, Hootsuite or Buffer, can help you schedule your articles and images to go out on a timely manner. Use common sense. Friday night is probably not the best time to promote your book on social media. Think about your audience and when they tend to be online. Schedule your posts to meet your audience where and when they are ready to consume.

There is a caveat:

Do not schedule status updates using these types of programs. Facebook will downgrade your article as they do not like programs pushing status updates. Instead, use the native scheduling feature on Facebook for status updates.

Be Social

Socialize with your audience, readers and potential book buyers. Ask and answer questions. Comment on messages, participate and enjoy social media as you built your brand. Avoid controversial discussions and stay focused on building your audience.

Other ways to share:

Start a Google hangout or Facebook live. Push, your articles, books, and videos.
Join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn
Join a chat on Twitter
Have fun.

If this sounds too much to learn and do or if you wish to outsource your marketing, we are here to help.

Briggs & Schuster