5 Social Media Tips for Authors

Social media doesn't sell books directly. That's good news if you hate it. Here's the bad news. Being active on social media is still important, but you can keep it super simple. Stay tuned and I'll explain five things you need to know about social media for selling your books. Hey, it's Julie the Book broad with Book Launchers, a fantastic company that helps nonfiction authors write, publish and sell a book that boosts your business and and builds your brand. My team of writing coaches, writers, editors, designers and marketers rally behind you to create a book that is extremely high quality and that you'll be proud to hand to anyone. I love my team and I love my Book Launchers community. You guys make my day with your thumbs up and your comments. And of course, when you subscribe and turn those notifications on. Hint, hint. Seriously. Thank you so much to Aubrey T. Copeland, Stop complaining and get rich. Lucille Cullerton, John boyler, and Kevin McGuire. Thank you so much for your latest comments and being part of the Book launchers community on YouTube. Here are the five things you need to know about social media and selling books. Number one, social media does not really sell books. I already did a whole video on that subject right here. If you have a friend with a big social media following, or maybe you've built a big fan base on Instagram or Twitter. I'm just guessing, but you're going to find that less than 1% of your links are getting clicks. Even if 100% of those people convert to book buyers. How many people is that? Not that many. And by the way, you're probably looking at 20% of those clickers converting at best. So yeah, math time. I love math. Just for Fun, you have 10,000 followers. That means 100 people will click and that means at best, 20 people will buy. That's not a lot of books. Number two, it doesn't sell books, but it does sell you when you contact the media to get exposure for your book or if you have a team doing it for you. Like Book Launchers, the media will check your social media presence to see if anybody cares what you're saying and to see if your social media is interesting or on message. So make sure the social media you're on is up to date and on message number three. Or actually, no, that's part three of that same point. This is a really long point. It gives you something to offer in exchange. When you try to get on podcasts, for example, many are looking at whether you can grow their audience. If you don't have an email list and you don't have a social media following, they're going to struggle to see the real benefit of having you on their podcast. Social media presence gives you some opportunity to trade exposure to your audience for a place on their media platform. Okay, so the real Number three Number three, there is no secret magic formula you haven't found to creating a social media following. It's just consistency. So don't bother buying another course. Save all your money for creating an amazing book that you'll be proud of and and spend time developing a consistent presence and interacting with the community you're building. Try thinking about it as a place to chat with your audience one on one, instead of a place where you stand on a stage preaching your views at them. Number four Social media is a great way to leverage and amplify. Your friends probably don't have email lists, but they probably are on social media in many cases and many of them will want to feel like they're supporting you. While it won't sell a lot of books, it does help for people to see your book multiple times. So getting folks with all sizes and all kinds of social media to share your book when it comes out is a good thing. The mistake that many authors make is thinking that when their friend with 50,000 Facebook fans shares their book that a bunch of people are going to buy it again. We already did the math so it's not going to sell a lot of books, but it does amplify your message. Number five do social media you enjoy and limit your time there. Focus your efforts on building an email list, which is what matters. The single most important marketing tool you have today and tomorrow for selling books and growing your business is an email newsletter. If you only have an hour a day for the next month, I would spend 45 minutes of it building an email list. I have a series of videos on this subject you can find as a playlist on book launchers tv. Check those out if you don't know how or why to start an email newsletter for your author business. So find a social media platform or two that you like split. Spend 10 to 20 minutes a day, a few times a week on that site, interacting, posting value, added content and seeing what people are talking about. Any other time you have should be spent on growing that email list because that actually sells books. I'm curious what's your favorite social media platform and your best strategy for attracting book readers to it? Share that in the comments below and remember to smash that thumbs up button. Tells YouTube you like videos like this and it makes me happy. Happy. So if you want to make me happy, make sure you turn those notifications on and subscribe to this channel. See you on the next video. Ooh, you're still here. I love it when people stay till the end. I have one last tip just for you. Everything online is going video. Facebook and Instagram are both prioritizing video. It's not just video, it's live video. Even YouTube is giving preference to live video. So if you want to build your following fast, bust out that iPhone, get comfortable with video, and watch for my series on video marketing for authors. It's coming soon. Make sure you're subscribed to this channel. Or even better, subscribe to the launch letter so that you aren't missing any of my fantastic book marketing and book writing tips. You can get your copy@booklaunchers.com gameplan you're welcome.