Harnessing the Power of Social Media for Book Marketing Success

By now it’s a no-brainer that social media book marketing should be a fixture in any author’s brand building and sales strategy Social media has been a game changer in the publishing industry. It has redefined the way authors reach their target audience and allowed them to be more accessible in turn, which increases engagement. Obviously, successful social media book marketing has to be done right, and that’s what we will be delving into in this article. 

Social Media and Book Marketing

As of 2024, 62.6 percent of the world’s population use social media. Out of the 5.07 billion social media users, there should be a healthy number of book lovers looking for the next book to read—for reasons ranging from inspiration to self-improvement to entertainment, among many others. Why, even you, an author, are likely to have used social media for exactly those reasons. And you have probably scrolled through a number of author social media accounts to see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. 

Now it’s your turn to make your presence felt and attract the attention of your target audience by employing the best social media book marketing strategies.

How Do You Achieve Book Marketing Success Through Social Media?

Successful social media book marketing involves a number of interrelated strategies that range from ensuring that you reach a wider audience, getting the technical details of your social media posts right, giving your audience something of value, and assessing the effectiveness of everything you’re doing.

1. Expand your reach to a global audience.

One of the best things social media can offer authors is the world as their audience. With platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and, yes, YouTube (depending on whether or not you see it as a social media platform), geographical boundaries become a nonfactor. All it takes is a healthy amount of social media savvy, and independent authors like you can reach potential readers around the world who might otherwise never know about your work. And with the right post, especially a post that goes viral (for the right reasons, of course), you can expect a considerable boost in engagement, not to mention number of followers. Also, let’s not forget: social media is free—or at least you can get so much out of the free versions of your preferred platforms. So go ahead, hone your social media game and start growing your global readership and community.

Here’s something you can try: If your book features references to specific people, places, events, and cultural elements or phenomena from a specific country or region in the world (e.g., Scandinavia, the Andes), you can create social media posts that highlight them. If you have traveled to the places featured prominently in your book, you can post pictures, whether it’s a Throwback Thursday post of, say, a series of pictures from a family trip to Istanbul the summer before your freshman year in high school or a reel from your latest visit. Then add an appropriate hashtag or two (more on hashtags later).

2. Generate a buzz around book releases and author events.

Social media posts are a cost-effective way to build up excitement around your book release and all related author events. Pique your audience’s curiosity about your new book with teasers, book cover reveals, book trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and the like. Make sure that these posts always include a book or event tickets pre-order CTA. Boost engagement and build sales momentum with a countdown to the release day and polls (e.g., preferred day and/or place for the book launch party), as well as contests, quizzes, and raffles and reward engagement with memorable, top-value giveaways and access to exclusive promotions. 

Teasers, contests and giveaways, and quizzes are also great for any events you may be involved in, long after your book has hit the shelves—that is, events that are an opportunity for you to build your author platform, like conferences, speaking engagements, guest appearances on podcasts and local TV and radio stations.

3. Establish your author brand/identity.

Create a distinct identity for yourself on social media to improve your visibility. Branding strategies include creating a tone that’s uniquely you, creating graphics elements that are consistent across certain posts (e.g., consistent font style, consistent colors, consistent design elements, etc.), tackling specific topics, supporting certain movements, and so on. 

4. Build and nurture your community.

You’ll want to hold on to your audience by forging a meaningful connection with them. It’s an attitude of “Connect with your target audience; the sales will follow.” Today’s consumers, book readers among them, are keen on value. They want to get value out of the brands, the products, and the creators they support. This is why you want to devote time and effort to giving value to your audience.

The next five tips in this list all further relate with establishing a brand/identity and building a community. 

5. Share valuable content.

Valuable content is any content that educates, enlightens, inspires, entertains, and/or challenges your audience, among other things. It’s the best way to attract and engage today’s value-oriented audience and gain their 

Options abound when it comes to valuable content. 

Here are a few examples:

• Quick tips and pointers on writing, book design, cover design, etc. 
• Links to and excerpts from your own long-form content, whether it’s videos or blog articles
• Links to and excerpts from other content creators 
• Your current reading list
• List of books you recommend your followers should read at least once in their lifetime
• News of great books that have just been released 

If you favor creating long-form video content (and you really should not slack off on your video content since video is king), you should have a YouTube channel.

Long-form content (video, audio, articles, essays, stories, etc.) is best dedicated to how-to and tutorial material, inspiring personal, behind-the-scenes stories, thought-provoking articles/essays and video essays focused on your subject matter (ideal for nonfiction), and the like. 

Here are just a few of many excellent long-form content topics you can cover: 

• The importance of a having an extensive vocabulary and choosing the right words for a given context 
• How to effectively flesh out your characters
• How you battled and defeated a nasty bout of writer’s block
• The importance of journaling for writers
• Why writers need to be business savvy
• Finding the right self-publishing company
• Planning a successful book launch (including a launch party)

And of course, if you write nonfiction, you can tackle so many more topics related to your book’s subject matter. 

For novel and fiction writers, as well as poets, you can write about the constant themes in your books, as well as about topics related to the prominent elements in your work. For example, if you’re writing a series of historical suspense novels set in the 1940s, you can create content explores the decade—the culture, the politics, the crimes, and so on (that’s already at least ten specific topics to focus on out of the three broader topics). 

Creating and/or sharing impactful content will help establish your reputation as an author.

6. Post regularly.

Regular posts help drive engagement. You don’t have to post every day, but do set a consistent schedule. If you post only to promote your book or an author event and then stay silent the rest of the time, your audience could interpret this as a lack of interest in establishing a connection with them and see you as someone who communicates with your audience only when you need them to buy your book and meet the required headcount at your events. This can discourage trust, which is the last thing you want. Consistency plus quality plus engagement equals commitment to your brand as an author and to your readers and the community that you’re building. These inspire trust and respect; and as long as you continue to produce quality books, they translate into robust sales and a dedicated readership.

7. Aim for variety.

Monotony discourages engagement. It’s all right to frequently discuss a topic that you’re passionate about, especially if it’s the subject matter or theme of your book, but make sure you mix things up. If never hurts to post funny memes for levity at least twice a month, especially if the memes are related to writing, self-publishing, and your book’s themes and subject matter. Poll, quiz, or even prank (i.e., April Fools’ Day post) your audience once in a while. Post interesting pictures, share funny, weird, or poignant moments from your day and start a discussion. Ask a question and start a discussion. You get the idea. It’s great to be spontaneous every now and then, but overall, aim for a degree of organization that works for you. Ideally, create a posting calendar so you can prepare your posts and see at a glance what you have already posted so you can plan better regarding what to post next.

8. Use hashtags effectively.

Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the pound symbol (#) that function as metadata tags for social media content. Hashtags also make you visible on search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and encourage potential readers to engage with you.

Here’s how to use hashtags effectively:

Choose the right hashtags.

Almost always, your hashtags will include your name and the title of your book. But if your post is about a specific topic, event, person, etc., then be sure to use the appropriate hashtags. Note as well that some hashtags are time-specific, so use them only at the right time (e.g., #LATFOB2024 [Los Angeles Times Festival of Books], #LaborDayWeekend2024).

Use the right number of hashtags.

For essential posts that require as much widespread attention as possible, you can use all the pertinent hashtags, as long as you prioritize the most vital ones. Otherwise, if your goal is to engage your audience on more personal level, three hashtags should do it. Using a lot of hashtags for posts where you share what it was like writing the most difficult and emotional chapter of your memoir can make the post feel spammy and counteract the intended effect of the content by distracting your audience from the experience you’re sharing with them.

Avoid using hashtags for marketing. 

Reserve hashtags for conversation. They are best left out of any outright promotional posts. Avoid using them for marketing purposes when sharing content online!

Mind the style exceptions. 

Such style conventions as hyphenation and the use of apostrophe to signal the possessive forms or to form the plural of letters, numbers, and other nonstandard terms don’t apply to hashtags.

Mind your use of lowercase and uppercase letters. 

Although most hashtags are in lowercase, when it comes to your book title and author name, it’s best to use headline-style capitalization to prevent any confusion and misreading. Capitalize the first letter in each word, including articles and the words to and as (e.g., #FriendsOfTheFriendlies, #IanBradfield).

9. Reply to comments.

Remember that you’re running social media accounts to expand your reach to a wider audience and to facilitate engagement with your audience. So you post valuable content, you post regularly, you use hashtags appropriately, and you engage those who comment on your posts. When replying to comments, avoid coming across as merely going through the motions, especially with Copy + Paste replies. Sincerity, promptness, and personalization are key here, and a splash of wit and humor here and there can’t hurt either. People will appreciate replies that make them feel you’re talking specifically to them amid a crowd. 

Obviously if your posts elicit a huge number of comments, then you can’t reply to everyone. Instead, address the comments in a separate post. Thank everyone for taking the time out to engage with your post. Then single out the most salient points raised in the comment section and reply to them. 

10. Measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Now that you have expended considerable effort to establish your author brand and build and nurture your community of readers, fellow authors, and other industry influencers, you’ll want to know whether your strategy has worked. What has been the most effective parts? What do you need to improve on? What posts are generating the most number of responses? Who are engaging with you the most? What do you need to avoid moving forward?  

The Takeaway

Social media book marketing calls for strategies that prioritize personalization, consistent engagement, community building, and paying attention to seemingly small details as style convention exceptions in hashtags, as well as the appropriate number of hashtags to use for certain posts. Employ the right, sustainable strategies and then capitalize on the attention you attract by consistently providing value through impactful social media content and nurturing a meaningful connection with your audience. The sales will follow.