Julie Broad (havemoreinfluence.com) explains how authors—especially nonfiction writers—can build a social media profile and following. She advises identifying target readers and choosing 1–2 platforms where they already gather (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Goodreads). She then gives five practical tips: 1) create curiosity and engage beyond posting good content; 2) demonstrate expertise through useful insights and teasers rather than self-claims; 3) prioritize quality engagement over follower counts; 4) avoid constant selling—share others' work and varied content; 5) choose a distinctive, professional profile picture. Includes calls to subscribe and join her community.
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What should you do to build a profile and following on social media as an author? A question that came in from one of my YouTube followers that we're going to tackle right now. Hey there. I'm Julie Broad of havemoreinfluence.com if you're thinking about writing a book, it's a great time to start building a profile on social media. If you've already written one, well, there's no time like the present. So now I'm going to come at this from the perspective of a nonfiction book because that's where my experience has been when it comes to writing and publishing a book. But I think a lot of these tips will apply to anybody when it comes to social media. So number one, before you do anything, you want to think about who is your audience? So this is the answer to the question that you will hear a lot. Who did you write the book for? Or who are you writing the book for? So depending on who you're writing the book for, that will impact where you probably want to be online in terms of the social media channels because there are so many you can pick from. Plus you can even get down to things like Goodreads, which has book specific profiles. So where do you want to find your or where are you going to find your ideal readers for your book? LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, they're so many to choose from. So first of all, you want to know who you're looking for and where they're already hanging out. Once you've got that figured out, pick a couple. No more than two right now, social media channels to focus on. Okay, eventually you can add more, but you're diluting your efforts if you spread yourself over too many different profiles, because how many profiles do you want to manage? And yes, you can get tools like hootsuite to manage integrations, but it looks weird, right? If you post something in LinkedIn that goes to Twitter, that goes to Facebook, it actually has slightly different formats in all of the different places. It doesn't work that great. So just start with two profiles and manage them, or even one and manage it exceptionally well. Okay? So that's the foundation. From there. I've got five tips for you to help you grow a following. And by the way, if you're in YouTube once, one of the things that I would love your help with is growing mine. And all you have to do is subscribe to my videos. Okay? So that's one thing, right? You want to be growing your community, which in YouTube it's subscribers, Facebook, it's likes on your page or friends on Twitter, of course, it's followers, and so on. Okay, now tip number one, good content is not enough. You're going to have to work really hard to create curiosity and engage with the people who are following you and tweeting to you or talking to you or commenting on your posts. Right? Seeing that you're involved will help build that community. And again, good content is not enough. Be fun, be engaging, create curiosity, create interest. That'll go a long way. Number two, saying you're the expert doesn't make it stop. So ideally in social media, because you're creating curiosity, because you're creating great content, you will hopefully create engaged followers who talk about how awesome you are. But in the event that that's not starting out that way, showcase some of your finest points on social media. Give insights into current events that are applicable to your topic, or share some little teasers of some of the cool advice and tips and that are going to come out in your book so that other people are seeing your expertise versus having to just hear you say how much you know about a certain subject or have to read it in your profile about how awesome you are. Number three, and I think this one's a really big one. Focus on quality, not quantity. Okay, yeah, you know what? There's a lot of people who have 50,000 followers, but do they really? Because there's an awful lot of bots out there. There's an awful lot of fake people, fake accounts, fake things where somebody might have paid to have all these followers, all these friends, all these whatevers. Right? So are they real? So engagement is more important. Quality. People who are engaging who like your content, way more important than a bunch of fake followers. Number four, once your book is published, resist the urge to sell it and talk about it all the time. Promote other authors, promote some things that are cool that you see out there. Share little tidbits, share pictures. There's nothing that makes me unfollow, unsubscribe, unfriend, dislike you more than constantly selling whatever it is that you have to sell. And that's all you're saying. You're going to get bored, boring fast and people are going to stop paying attention to you. Number five, when you choose your social media profile picture, choose carefully. Create something that has intrigue. It's not just about the beauty shot. I mean, you want to look professional, you want to look friendly and approachable in most situations. But think about the color. Think about what people see when all they see is these little tiny, little tiny itty bitty profile pictures, right? How can you stand out in the sea of little itty bitty tiny pictures? You know, bright colored shirts, a nice picture, a unique angle, something cool in the background. So think about these things carefully when you choose your profile pictures. Now, you might have been looking for the magic solution, but growing a social media profile takes a bit of time, takes a bit of effort. Add absolutely takes consistency. Yes, some people blow up and get 100,000 views or 100,000 friends overnight, but most of those people were on TV or had something that made them go viral. That can happen, but it might not. So in the event that it doesn't, you're going to need to have great content, create curiosity, and just focus on building a fantastic community of quality, real people. People Cool. All right, join my community@havemoreinfluence.com where we have awesome monthly training sessions via webinar. Plus you'll get these video trainings sent straight to your inbox, along with a few cool other insights and stories that I only share with my community of subscribers. Come back again soon. I can't wait to see you then. Bye. Remember, subscribe wherever. Subscribe button's probably up. Subscribe button's probably over here. So subscribe and then thumbs up and come back.
