It can be overwhelming for authors to manage all that’s involved in marketing our books. In this article, Eevi Jones shares five easy ways to make the most of your social media branding so that those accounts are doing some of the work for you.
Promoting and marketing ourselves is quite a challenge for most of us authors.
And although it’s so very important, we often don’t have the time, or we simply don’t want to seem too pushy.
That’s why it’s all the more important to take advantage of all the opportunities that present themselves in our everyday lives, but are so often overlooked by most.
In this article, I will show you 5 simple changes you can make today, that can have such a huge impact for you and is such a quick and amazing win. Everyone here can do this within minutes. This is how so many of my clients have found me, my books, and my programs!
1. Your Profile Picture
Try using the same profile image throughout each media channel. That way, potential readers will recognize you more easily, be it on your Amazon author page, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
BONUS TIP: wear something bright or have a bright background. For example, I wear something red in my profile image, while the woman’s profile image on the right shows a bright and bold background. This will allow others to quickly recognize you, even if it’s just a thumbnail-sized image.
Many authors treat their profile image as an afterthought. From now on, try making more conscious decisions when it comes to color choices and images. And once you’ve decided on an image, try to stick with it.
The same holds true for your displayed author name. Be consistent with it throughout all social media channels.
Make it as easy as you possibly can for your followers to find and recognize you.
2. Brand Your Facebook Profile
Now, you may have heard this before, but this one will add a whole new layer to your online presence.
How often have you hovered over someone’s profile picture within Facebook groups to see who they were or to find out more about them? This provides you with an incredible opportunity to show as much information about yourself as you possibly can.
Here are 5 things you can share about yourself and your work on Facebook’s profile:
1. Profile Image:
As already mentioned, try to be as consistent as you possibly can by using the same name and profile image. That will help readers recognize us more easily.
2. Cover Image:
Facebook’s cover image is prime real estate. Use it to your advantage and display things such as your latest book. Also, pay attention that the main content of your cover image displays properly on mobile devices as well, and doesn’t cut off important parts of your image or message.
And don’t forget to add your website’s url, if you have one. Remember, we want to make it as easy as possible for others to learn more about us.
3. Mini Bio:
This one is amazing as this text will show up even if someone looks at your profile on a mobile device, so be sure to make this short snippet of 101 characters count.
Joanna’s mini-bio, for example, currently reads: Author. Entrepreneur. Speaker.
As a well-known influencer, this is perfectly sufficient. Less known authors, on the other hand, may want to consider adding additional information such as the genre they’re writing in, or the title of their latest book.
My mini-bio currently reads: I help aspiring children’s book authors with the entire book creation process.
I also added my website URL, for good measure.
4. Featured Image:
This is the featured image of your profile page.
You can set this up by either clicking the little pencil icon located at the top right of this area to “Edit” your featured photos, or by clicking on OPTIONS for an already existing photo, and then selecting MAKE FEATURED PHOTO.
Facebook displays up to 5 featured images. I chose to just show 1, which makes it big and prominent. That’s how many children’s book authors from various Facebook groups have discovered my book. This is so powerful, as it will show up on desktop screens as well as on mobile devices.
5. Clickable Link:
The clickable link can either be to your website, your Amazon author page, your book page (be sure to use a clean link), or your Linktr.ee address, an amazing free tool for optimizing your traffic, which I will cover next.
BONUS TIP: We rarely self-promote ourselves on our private Facebook page, so you may still have a number of friends and family members that don’t know what you’ve been up to of late. So as you’re making these updates, they will automatically show up in your friends’ feed. You might even win a new fan among those that already know you.
3. Linktr.ee Is Your Friend
This is an incredible and absolutely free tool, that comes in very handy, as social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram only display one clickable link.
Linktr.ee allows your one link to house all the content you want to share with followers everywhere you can share a link. And while it was originally created for Instagram use only, it can be shared and used everywhere.
When clicking on my linktree link, you will see this, giving visitors access to 6 different links that I want to share:
So by clicking on my linktr.ee link, people can access my courses, my most recent article features, and other fun things like my quiz. It’s a great tool and absolutely free.
NOTE how my profile picture and my name are the same on every single platform. That will help readers recognize me more easily.
4. Your Instagram Profile
Just like on Facebook, people can see right away who I am and what I do by looking at my Instagram profile.
Instagram allows for fun emojis, so you can show a bit more personality, and showcase what else is important to you.
Remember that Instagram only allows for one clickable link, so this would be the perfect opportunity to make use of your Linktr.ee link.
I also make use of Instagram’s Highlights, and added red highlight covers below my profile. This is something not many make use of, but that is so very effective.
Each highlight holds relevant information to me as both an author and as a publishing strategist. My program highlights, for example, hold information regarding my programs, and the shoutouts highlights showcase a number of testimonials. This would be the perfect place to display some amazing reviews your book has already received.
5. Your Good Old Hashtags
The power of Instagram is in the hashtags. Now, we can go over similar authors’ feeds and see what hashtags they are using, or we can let free online tools do the work for us.
Best-Hashtags.com’s algorithm, for example, calculates the best hashtags for us based on historical data.
Entering #childrensbooks in the search bar, for example, generates these two separate sets, each holding 30 hashtags, the maximum number of hashtags allowed by Instagram.
We can now simply click the copy button, paste the entire set of hashtags into Instagram, and see your engagement rise.
Using the correct hashtags, your posts will get more likes and more views. Just be sure to update your lists every so often by searching for topics and terms relevant to your writings.
Conclusion
You can apply many of these simple changes to other social media platforms that you’re planning to use in your marketing strategy.
Make the most of the virtual real estate you’ve been provided with and make it as easy as possible for people to:
- See what you do; and
- See where they can get what you have to offer
Now, of course, you don’t have to be present on every single social media platform out there. But it is my hope that after having read this article, you’re more conscious about your choices and realize that there are so many daily opportunities where we can share our work.
I would love to hear any other little ninja hacks you may know of to make the most out of your social media presence. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Happy optimizing!
Do your social media accounts reflect a consistent author brand? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.
Eevi Jones is the author of the multi-award winning and bestselling book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book, and the founder of Children’s Book University, where she teaches loving moms, dads, grandparents, and teachers how to write and publish their own magical story.
She’s been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, Scary Mommy, EOFire, Kindlepreneur, Your First 10K Readers, and many more. She can be found online at EeviJones.com.
(All images in the body of the post are owned by Eevi Jones and can be used for this article.)