Having a strong author social media presence is vital.
But don’t confuse your online platform with incessant posts about how to buy your book.
That message is the most annoying type of update you can post on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere.
Instead, post information that will engage your readers and prospective readers.
How to Grow Your Author Social Media
Hold Contests
One of the best ways to attract an audience on social media is to create contests.
You can also attract new readers when you give away exciting prizes, such as a free Kindle.
Incentivizing your contests can bring a broad audience to your social media accounts. Here are a few ideas for contests.
Caption the Photo
Create an image that depicts a scene in one of your books and ask your followers to create a caption for it.
Monthly Lucky Draws
Lucky draws are a popular way to give back to your followers. Followers could like or share your profile and posts to enter the lucky draw. At the end of the week or month, you could pick an entry at random and give them the prize.
Use Visuals to Increase Your Author Social Media Engagement
Always post pictures along with text on your social media accounts.
The best way to catch your readers’ or prospective readers’ eyes is by posting fun and attractive visuals on your social media accounts.
You can post a picture related to your books or your blog posts.
Can’t find free photos? Try these sites:
How to Find Awesome Images
Check out Unsplash (the best free photo source ever) and Pixabay. Those are my two favorite options.
I also use Freepik.com, which isn’t free but is relatively inexpensive.
Shutterstock.com is another option, but it’s expensive.
Apps to Improve Your Pictures
Looking for apps to improve the photos you take with your phone? Try these:
AColorStory – I love this app. I use the free version, and it’s all I need. You can create filters and effects to improve your images. You can also crop out unintended distractions. Of course, I use this on my iPhone.
Photo Lab PROHD picture editor – You can create all kinds of crazy and cool effects with this app. You can use it for free or buy it to get rid of the annoy ads for just $10.99. A deal.
Apollo – Apollo enables you to add light sources to your portrait photos. Apollo reconstructs a 3D map of your photo, which you can augment with new light sources in real-time. It’s super cool.
Focos – Here’s what The Verge said about Focos: “Focos has long been one of the most ambitious photo-editing apps on iOS, turning any photo into a ‘portrait mode’-style image with fully adjustable depth of field, no matter what kind of camera you took it with.” Check it out for free. It costs $.99/month.
AfterLight – Now, this is a truly great app. It has 130+ unique filters, 20+ additional advanced tools, 60+ textures and overlays, and frames and borders. After a 7-day free trial, you can pay for it monthly ($2.99) or yearly ($17.99).
Enlight Pixaloop – You Android users will appreciate this app. Bring your photos to life in just a few taps. Create animated pictures, from a flicker of flame to cascading waterfalls – the creative possibilities are endless. Yes, you can upload a still image and convert it into a video with this app.
Share video
Posting videos is a fun and engaging way to attract a new audience.
Respond to your readers
The key to keeping your audience hooked to your content is to engage with them. It’s best if you communicate with your audience regularly.
A study suggests that brands that publicize products – in your case, books – on social media have more loyal customers. It also indicates that the maximum amount of engagement on your posts with your audience occurs in the first five hours.
This implies that you must communicate with your audience online actively in the first few hours of posting content. This engagement rate decreases with time, and so does the interest of your material.
These statistics imply that you need to stay on top of your game. Communicate with your readers quickly and keep them interested in your content.
Create great content that your reading audience will crave
Apart from visual content, you also need content that your audience will enjoy reading. You cannot rely on just the pictures to get you a larger audience.
The text content must be related to your profile and must engage your audience. Try to incorporate humor into your content too. Avoid errors by proof-reading your text before posting.
Use the right hashtags – these are critical on Instagram and Twitter.
Studies indicated that hashtags are the most important tool for your posts online. Your account will be more visible to the audience if you use the correct hashtags.
This data, courtesy of Buddy Media, is one of the most-cited examples of the effectiveness of hashtags: Doubling your online engagement is a big deal! Imagine going from four retweets to eight or 10 retweets to 20. And all it takes is a simple # or two?
Use Hashtags
The algorithm on these apps supports popular and trending hashtags. So, if you want to increase your audience and the number of eyes on your posts, then get your hashtags right. If you use the correct hashtags, you will successfully gain more followers.
Use humor because people like to be entertained, especially on Facebook.
People are looking for fun and entertaining content on Facebook. It is normal for users to only follow accounts that can give them a good laugh from time to time. So, be sure to publish content that engages your audience and makes them laugh too.
Never Buy Fans or Followers
Buying followers and fans is a strict NO. Apart from this, it is also not beneficial for you to buy robot profiles to follow your account. This practice messes up the algorithm on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
You will be hampering with the authenticity of your profile if you choose to buy followers. It would be best if you let your account grow organically. This way, your growth will be sustainable, and you will have an authentic audience.
The growth of followers on social media is a rocky road. The key to having permanent followers is keeping them interested in your content.
You need to keep up with the times and post trendy content to keep increasing your audience base. One of the best ways to do so is by following the tip mentioned above.
Grow a permanent and authentic audience on your social media by using these strategies.
Frances Caballo is an author and social media consultant. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online and building their platform. She also provides content writing and email marketing services. Find out how you’re doing on social media.