Our 7 Best Social Media Marketing Tips for Writers

Social media marketing is one of the most powerful tools for gaining attention in today's oversaturated information economy. It can boost your profile as a writer and help power your book sales as an author.

If you're new to the world of social media marketing for writers, you may not know where to start. In this article, we'll give you our top tips for social media marketing for writers so you can grow your audience for your writing.

Why do I need social media to market my writing?

Many people follow writers and authors on social media, which makes it a great way to engage an audience, develop a following for your work and create a sales channel for books, courses, and newsletters.

Your social media accounts give you a chance to interact directly with your target audience, which gives them a chance to get to know you and to develop a sense of connection with you and your work. Done well, it's a place to build your audience and reach a broader demographic than you would be able to in any other way.

Social media also helps you to define your brand. Brand recognition for authors and writers can help support sales and increase traffic to your articles, portfolio site, and other marketing outlets.

In addition, many agents and publishers and editors look for writers that have a preexisting following. If you're an author sending out queries to agents, they'll often ask for the number of followers you have on social media. Your book proposal to publishers will also often include this information.

No matter where you are in your writing career, a strong social media presence is a must. It's also never too early to start developing your social media, since it can take time to organically grow your accounts and refine your strategy.

Top 7 Tips for Social Media Marketing for Writers

Now that you know the benefits to developing a social media strategy for your writing, we'll teach you our top social media tips for writers so that your social media can soar and your audience can grow.

1. Define Your Target Audience

The first step in developing a social media marketing plan is to figure out your ideal reader. Who is it that you want to buy your book, subscribe to your newsletter, or be a part of your growing audience?

It can help to do some research into the demographics of people who read the type of writing you do. If you are a genre author, for instance, you can find out the age and gender that reads that genre the most. If you're a journalist, you can look into the demographics behind the publications you have been or would like to be published in.

If you already have an audience that you're looking to expand, data analytics can help you analyze who your followers already are and who is visiting your website (find out more information about Journo Portfolio's free analytics for your writing portfolio here).

It's also important to consider your own goals in regards to your target audience. Do you want to increase book sales? Are you looking for an online following that reads and shares your articles? Do you want more subscribers for your paid newsletter? Taking the time to understand who your social media is for and what you'd like their takeaways to be will give you a solid blueprint for your social media marketing strategy.

2. Create Your Brand

Once you know who your target audience is, you can develop a brand that aligns with their interests.

Brand development includes creating a brand voice, an aesthetic and consistent messaging. For instance, if you are a romance writer, a brand aesthetic that includes a color schema that evokes love and passion helps your brand to be emotionally identifiable. If you're a political journalist, making sure your posts use a brand voice that is authoritative and verifiable will create trust in your brand.

Brand voice refers to how you speak and write in your marketing and PR. It should match up with the type of writing that you do.

Brand aesthetic refers to the colors, fonts, and design elements you use on your website, social media posts, and advertising. If you work with a designer, they will help you develop a branding package that includes all of this, but you can also develop one on your own. Remember, it's not just what you like, but what your target audience will respond to.

Brand messaging is about staying on point with your posts, advertising, and interviews. Your social media followers should feel like they're getting to know a single person and a definable brand. You don't want your messaging to jump all over the place or to post content that is off-topic for your brand.

Creating your brand means you have a template to work from for every social post and on each of your marketing channels, so that everything you do increases brand recognition and trust.

3. Post High-Value Content

Part of developing trust with your social media following is to offer high-value content on a regular basis.

Content that is always trying to sell to your audience quickly gets tuned out. While you can absolutely use your social platforms to encourage sales, follows, and subscriptions, you need to 

limit the number of posts that do so. Instead, focus on content that your target audience will enjoy or learn from, and that they are more likely to share with others.

Examples of high-value content for writers

• Interviews with other writers or influencers

• Behind-the-scenes looks at events

• Cover shots

• Article links

• Video reels of your thoughts on related trends

• High-quality photos of you in the real world

Keep your content authentic, on brand and engaging. The point is to allow your followers to get to know you as a writer and a human being.

4. Engage Your Followers

Engagement is valued by social media algorithms almost as much as consistent posting. It's also an important way to develop a relationship with your audience.

The most obvious form of engagement is to make sure you reply to as many of the comments on your posts as you can. Engaging in the conversation makes you more real to your audience and also helps boost your posts in the algorithm.

Another important form of engagement is to like, post and join other accounts, pages and groups that are aligned with your brand and your target audience. Having a presence elsewhere on a platform can help you gain followers and create a larger presence than you would if you just relied on your own posts.

You can also come up with interesting ways to involve your audience with contests, polls, and sharing opportunities. For example, you can have people who've bought your book share their most interesting place they've traveled with it, then tag you in the photo. Or you can take advantage of livestreaming for a Q&A with your readers.

Remember that social media marketing gives you the unique opportunity to create a deeper connection with potential readers. Engaging with them makes that much more likely to happen.

5. Leverage Trends

Trends can help you boost your algorithm by focusing on a topic or hashtag that's getting a lot of attention on social media at the moment.

To use trends effectively in your social media marketing, make sure you cover trends that are of interest to your target audience and have a relevant connection to your writing and your brand.

You'll also want to do some research into how other influencers are covering the trend. Find out what hashtags are being used and be sure to use them on your posts. Spend some time brainstorming unique ways to talk or post about it that is relevant to your specific following. And make sure to engage with your followers when they respond.

Video content can be especially well-suited for response to trends, or for sharing your thoughts and opinions on current events and newsworthy topics. This type of video content also helps your audience get to know you and begin to develop a deeper connection to you.

Keeping on top of the latest social media trends can be a great way to ensure fresh, timely and interesting content. It can also garner more shares and a higher rating in the algorithm. However, it's important to remember to go beyond trends to consistently create high-quality, unique content for your target audience. Popular hashtags can't save you from uninteresting content.

6. Use a Social Media Calendar

Generating content on a regular basis can be challenging if you don't have a system for organizing your posts. Fortunately, there are multiple options for planning out your content.

First, decide how often you are going to post on each platform per week (we recommend 3x per week to start). Then, dedicate a period of time each week to develop your posts. You can also set aside separate work time to brainstorm content ideas (once per month or once every 3 months works for many people).

You may need to adjust your content work schedule as you refine your content strategy. For example, if you rely on a lot of video content, you'll need to schedule in editing time. Or you may find it works better for you to create content 2 weeks ahead of time. The key is to find a schedule you can stick to and to leave time for daily engagement.

Once you've figured out your work schedule, you can use databases like Airtable or Google Sheets to organize your topics and create a calendar system that works for you. You can also add performance analytics information to keep track of which posts have done the best, so you can refine your strategy moving forward.

You can also pay for software solutions such as HootSuite, Loomly or Sprout Social to automate your social media strategy. They allow you to schedule posts, track performance, and post to multiple channels at once. If you have the budget, a social media SAAS platform can save time and hassle and increase your posts' performance.

7. Hire an Expert

Sometimes the best way to succeed at social media is to delegate it to an expert.

Social media managers develop content, post on your accounts on a predetermined schedule, and can even take over engaging with your audience. They're paid to follow trends and to know what works, so you don't have to. Most social media managers also track engagement and analytics so they can help you create a social media presence that really works.

Most social media managers charge by post or by a monthly retainer fee that covers developing content and posting it. Ask to see other accounts they manage to be sure their style works for you. Rates vary, so you may have to do some research to find someone within  your budget.

Many social media managers offer social media coaching. If you don't want to pay to have someone else post for you, but you still want the benefits of expertise, you can pay for limited-time coaching until you get the hang of content creation yourself.

Is social media worth it for writers?

Social media can be a game changer for writers, especially if influencers pick up on your work or you are able to maximize book sales through social media channels. However, for most writers, social media is a support for their work and not necessarily the primary way they become known.

That being said, having a strong social media presence is a huge selling point for agents and publishers. It can help you land subscribers and build a rapport with your audience. For this reason, it's important for authors and writers to incorporate an effective social media strategy into their marketing plan.

Journo Portfolio lets you connect your social media accounts to your writing portfolio site, so you can build an audience and expand your reach. Learn more about our features here.