Social Media for Authors

How should authors use social media? Which platforms are the best ROI for time spent? Today I’ll focus specifically on Facebook for authors and my personal favorite, Pinterest for authors. Then I’ll briefly cover the role of Twitter and Instagram. Here we go!

How should authors use social media?

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Here’s the scenario. We ask the above question, Google, and are presented with authors who love social media. And apparently have a lot of free time.

Like, live-tweeting their breakfast.

Or we see the authors doing social media badly—silent except for a constant refrain of “Buy my Book!”

For writers who are also introverts, those things sound mega-unappealing—as well as unhelpful. But what exactly should we be doing instead?

My goal is to keep advice simple, actionable, and updated.

If you want to more in-depth discussion—and don’t have time to read the latest social media for biz book—then grab my free email course which covers these topics in more depth.

Now let’s get down to the social media platforms!

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Facebook for Authors

Although facebook is much maligned—engagement is down, and everyone complains about reduced reach, much of the world spends time on Facebook. An I’d argue authors need a facebook page [in addition to a personal profile] as a social media platform. Let’s discuss the differences between an author page and an author Facebook group and why you should consider both.

What is a facebook page?

From Facebook:

Like a friend’s profile, Facebook Pages enable public figures, businesses, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook.

Unlike your profile, Facebook Pages are visible to everyone on the internet by default. You, and every person on Facebook, can connect with these Pages by becoming a fan and then receive their updates in your News Feed and interact with them.

Why do authors need a facebook page?

Why? It’s kind of like having an author website. It adds credibility and acts as a “hub” where readers, agents, publishers find out more about your work. It helps legitimize you and shows credibility.

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Read: What should be on your author website

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Because of that, I’d focus on setting up a simple and professional author page and not worrying about it all that much.

What is a facebook group?

I should also mention facebook groups. If you have an established audience of fans, you can get tons of engagement using these.

From Facebook:

While Pages were designed to be the official profiles for entities, such as celebrities, brands or businesses, Facebook Groups are the place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion. Groups allow people to come together around a common cause, issue or activity to organize, express objectives, discuss issues, post photos and share related content.

When you create a group, you can decide whether to make it publicly available for anyone to join, require administrator approval for members to join or keep it private and by invitation only. Like with Pages, new posts by a group are included in the News Feeds of its members and members can interact and share with one another from the group.

Facebook page or group which is better?

I often see authors asking should I have a page OR a group? It’s not an either/or thing. Also, if you’re a new author without fans, no one wants to be in your group. I’d recommend growing your online presence through other means, then starting your group.

The above advice applies only if your group is going called “Nora Roberts Fans” and you are the actual Nora Roberts. As a new author, you can think of a genre or topic based group instead.

For example, let’s say you write wearbear fiction. You could make a topic based group called “We love wearbears” and post about things beyond your own books.

Whether you create a profile, page, and group or some combo of the three, here’s a cheat sheet of the rules and visibility of each option.

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Facebook for Authors Basics

Facebook Personal Profile

A personal profile is where you post your cat pictures and daily life stuff. You shouldn’t constantly post book updates because your friends and family probably aren’t your readers. It’s okay to occasionally post book-related stuff.

• Rules—one personal profile per person
• Audience—Friends and family
• Content Tips—Occasional book updates shared to personal profile from page. Personal content.
• Visibility—You set privacy settings
• Bottom Line—Must have for other stuff. Don’t use to spam loved ones with all book, all the time.

Facebook Page

• Rules—Must have personal profile to make page. Must have to run paid ads.
• Audience—Public Facing
• Scope—Author page or book page.Think longevity–topic or genre versus individual book
• Content Tips—Reviews, excerpts, release news
• Visibility—Limited reach. Best as a hub for author book information. Create but don’t spend a ton of time trying to grow.

Facebook Group

• Rules—Personal profile required
• Audience—Join or invite. Can screen with questions or email.
• Content Tips—Insider previews, topic based discussions
• Visibility—Internal (can’t share from group to page). Group privacy public, private, or secret
• Bottom Line—Public attracts spammers. Private can see in search but not join without permission. Private can’t search or join without invite. Do not add people without permission. Topic based until you have “fans.”

Pinterest for Authors

Have you wondered if it’s possible for you to successfully leverage Pinterest to share your writing? I did! 

In my last post, I shared the process of waking up a dead Pinterest account and doing all the things to drive traffic. Today I’ll share how my efforts are going today and what I’ve learned about the best uses for Pinterest and content creators.

Pinterest is my favorite social network-slash-visual search engine. I enjoy it because people show up looking for specific answers, and if you can provide them then there’s a match.

It seems to lack a certain fakeness that propogates the other platforms.

For example, if you’re an author and search “online tools for writers” my article pops up and supplies what you need!

I recently had the opportunity to discuss Pinterest for authors on the Get Published Podcast. The platform is particularly awesome for non-fiction authors.

Sharing my work with Pinterest

Here’s how it works for me. My book, Courage to Tri, is a how-to for women interested in crossing their first finish line.

My ideal reader is searching topics like these:

• Ultimate Guide: How to start cycling
• Find your runner personality [ to go faster]
• Top 4 worst new runner mistakes
• How does Garmin race predictor work?
• The real deal on getting back in shape after baby

Since I’m answering the direct question, Pinterest helps me and my ideal reader find each other.

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Is Pinterest for Authors Worth It?

Okay yeah but is it worth it? It really depends on your audience. If you’re already doing the work creating the content, then adding Pinterest to your sharing arsenal isn’t a lot of extra work.

Now if you’re a fiction author, only you can answer that question. I’ve seen authors create mood boards, etc for their books. If you’re Stephen King it would be cool to check out your mood board. But if you’re an anonymous unpublished fiction author, I’m not sure anyone is going to come to care about your characters through Pinterest.

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My Pinterest for Authors Story

I used to think Pinterest was all recipes and DIY tiny-houses made from popsicle sticks. I didn’t realize how much great information and potential there was! When I started playing with Pinterest in early January, I had about eleven followers and no engagement. My boards were called “bikes” and “best doggies.” So yeah, I knew nothing.

In the first quarter of 2019, I followed content creators in my niche, joined more group boards, and consistently pinned and shared using an automation tool called Tailwind.

And it worked! My traffic went nuts…from 124 – 171,xxx viewers in just over a month! Since, it’s taken another quarter for me to double that engagement to a consistent 340,000 per month.

When it comes down to it, views are a vanity metric anyway. What really matters is how many clicks and saves your pins are generating.

Today I’ll talk about lessons learned from my Pinterest experiment and what they mean for you, an author or content creator.

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Pinterest for Authors Best Practices

Here are the basics if you want to leverage Pinterest to drive content to your writing.

1. Get a course – I’m sure there are a ton of good courses out there, but I chose Elna Cain’s Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic. I’d read tons of her articles and what she said made sense to me. Plus, she’s a fellow twin mom and freelance writer. Overall, I would definitely recommend the course!
2. Upgrade to business account
3. Enabled rich pins – Because I used to associate Pinterest with dessert, “rich pins” makes me imagine a decadent chocolate cake. Anyone else?
4. Verify website
5. Do something with your profile – Use a real photo [versus a logo] and keywords. I repeat, do not use a logo. You will look spammy and people will be wary of sharing your content.
6. Keyword Tool – use a tool to add Pinterest keywords to your alt text and description. I grabbed Ike Paz’s keyword finder.
7. Make pretty pins – Duh, right? Seriously though, even if you aren’t a visual person, there’s no reason in the age of Canva you can’t make a decent looking pin When in doubt, use a template and don’t stray too far. Check out all these options.
8. Write about pain points – This is another “duh” but easy to get wrong. Also, the title of your article should convey your intent to assist the reader. Sample of an article that does not help: “My Shopping Trip to Buy Buy Baby.” Sample that does help: “5 essentials every new mom needs for her nursery.”
9. Join group boards – Apparently Pinterest is deprioritizing the impact of group boards, but they’re still worth pursuing. Especially as a new pinner.
10. Join Tailwind and get active in tribes- This definitely increased my pin circulation and visibility. [Don’t know what all that is? Here’s a great primer to get started.] When I look at my traffic so much comes from Smartloop, Tribes, and pins and saves while I’m sleeping!
11. Join facebook groups – There are a ton of groups out there for support i.e. share for share friends. Start by researching favorite pinners in your niche.
12. Pin whenever you can- I like to scroll while waiting in line or trying to go to sleep after middle-of-the-night baby feedings.
13. Make multiple images for each pin – This was a great tip from Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic. Right now I only have two or so images from my more popular posts, but I’m planning to make more. As a best practice, when I add the image I give the post a perusal to add detail and fix any mistakes I see.
14. Submit lots of content – Content is why we’re here. Don’t wait for it to be perfect. Shoot for good enough and move onto the next one.
15. Keep things circulating – Don’t just share something once and then stop.

I hope these tips help you get started Pinning!

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Does using Pinterest to share your writing work?

Now the big question. Is Pinterest for authors worth the time spend?

Only you can answer that question. At the very least, if you’re already creating the content you should consider adding Pinterest to your arsenal.

How well it works will depend on your efforts, and on the kind of writer you are.

Pinterest users come seeking specific solutions to a problem, so if your writing solves problems rather than entertains (ie non-fiction vs. fiction) then you should definitely be using it.

Okay you’ve decided what to share, addressed pain points, made beautiful images, keyworded your boards, and all those details.

That brings me to reiterate my most important Pinterest tip for growth:

Use a social scheduler like Tailwind

Whichever social media platforms you use to share you writing, use a social scheduler to keep everything organized.

Personally, I use Tailwind to schedule Pinterest, Instagram, and my Facebook Business Page. It’s convenient for facebook and IG, but Pinterest is where Tailwind really shines, and makes it possible to go from 24–170,000+ views in only a month.

As much as I love Pinterest and use Facebook, I would be remiss not to at least mention Twitter and Instagram for authors.

Twitter for Authors

Twitter has a great writing community that I’ve only recently gotten more involved in. In my opinion, writing twitter is much better for connecting with fellow writers than readers.

You can commiserate, get support, and ask for feedback on your writing. There are also the very popular pitchfests happening several times per year that may help you connect with a literary agent or publisher.

Instagram for Authors

I should head up this section by admitting I’m not a huge fan of Insta. Why? Well, I’m not visual and also have propopagnosia, so looking at a bunch of selfies is like my personal hell.

That said I’ve recently become a touch more active on IG. They have a great bookstagram community, and it seems possible to effectively connect with potential readers.

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What are your favorite online tools for writers whether they’re online editing tools for writers, social media tools for authors, or other? Let me know in the comments!