Here’s the reality: social media is not a fad and isn’t going away. If you’ve been avoiding social media, consider this a gentle nudge to help you get serious.
The good news is that social media is ideal for nonfiction authors—we write! And our readers want to hear from us! You also don’t have to do it all. You can pick one or two networks and leverage those well.
General Social Media Strategy
- If you’re just getting started, pick one network. Facebook is a good place to start for many because it’s user-friendly.
- Study how others are leveraging social media and see what you like and don’t like.
- Social media should take less than 30 minutes per day. It really comes down to scheduling, sharing content and engaging with your audience.
- Use a scheduling tool like Hootsuite to help plan some of your posts in advance.
- Track results with Google Analytics—a free tool that can be installed on your website. Tracking your traffic is essential because you can’t know if your efforts are working unless you monitor them!
Content Curation
- Content is king in social media land—you need something to talk about, and need to provide value for your audience. Always be on the lookout for share-worthy content and ideas.
- Your blog should be the heart of your strategy. It gives you something to share and drives traffic to your site. More blogging = more traffic!
- Blog content and social media posts should always have captivating headlines. In today’s world of short attention spans, people scan content and make ultra-quick decisions about what to click for more information.
- For title/headline ideas, think about how big magazines get it done: 10 ways to overcome insomnia, 15 reasons to eat more fiber, How to empty your inbox in 15 minutes or less. TITLES MATTER!
- You don’t have to be the sole creator of your content. Invite others to contribute guest content to your blog.
- Curate content from other sources. If you’re the expert on food allergies, share all articles you find related to food allergies. If you’re an advocate for surviving breast cancer, share those types of articles. Yes, even posts from your competitors. Especially posts from your competitors! Isn’t it better to build alliances?
- Create photo memes. Social media users love images. They also love inspirational quotes, funny pictures and jokes, infographics and statistics, and other types of visual content. You will need to acquire royalty-free images from a site that allows for modification and sharing on social media. Sites to consider: http://istockphoto.com and http://123rf.com.
- Share video clips. Videos ranging from just a few seconds to 20 minutes or more (like a tutorial) are always popular, which is why YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google.
- Share each new blog post, plus additional content, across all of your social networks.
If you like this blog post, you’ll love our Social Media for Authors Course! Learn more about our courses for authors here.
