Social Media: Going Beyond the Basics

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It took you a while, but you’ve embraced social media. You’ve taken the plunge and established yourself on Twitter, Facebook and maybe even Instagram. You’re enjoying the feedback and extra exposure it’s giving you, and you’re seeing the value of the online interactions your work is receiving. But now you’re stuck. How do you take it to the next level? Now you’re back to feeling intimidated again. Never fear, we are here to help! Here’s a quick primer on the writer’s Big Three: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It doesn’t have to be as intimidating as you think.

Tweet Like a Pro

Twitter is mostly comprised of strangers having conversations. Weird, right? It’s true. So keep that in mind with your posts. Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes (a book we highly recommend), says,

Tweets work best as dialogue, because dialogue establishes rapport and encourages interaction. [However,] even though you might be talking to strangers on Twitter, you’re still talking to people. So write every tweet as you would speak it… to your girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other, dog, cat… or whoever…

Key Strategies for Twitter

Don’t just pitch your wares. Instead, provide help, information and problem-solving.
Put a face on your business by giving your followers a glimpse into your personality and perspective. But be careful of being too personal.
Show that your story is apart of a larger movement. Maybe you write books about how you overcame addiction. Use Twitter to champion causes and groups that work in this area.
Make your English teacher proud. Just because Twitter is a brief platform doesn’t mean you should sacrifice spelling and grammar. It matters, no matter the platform.

Get the Most Out of Facebook

Photos are essential for Facebook. There are lots of great sources of images: your personal photos that relate to the topic, images you’ve used in your blog, your headshot and your book cover. Great images can also be found online, either through paid sites like BigStockPhoto.com or through several high-quality free stock photo sites like those listed here.
Facebook is free, but it isn’t. Thanks to a change in their algorithms, Facebook has made it difficult to reach your audience without paying to “boost” your ad. However, just a few dollars can go a long way. And then you can take advantage of Facebook’s massive amount of user data, which allows you to target your post to a specific audience (i.e. women ages 30-60 who are interested in Bible studies and attend a Christian church).

The key to sucess, then, is being very clear about who your potential customer is – to think niche, not number of likes. – Ann Handley
Post less but post more. In other words, keep your posts brief, but write them often. In order to begin engaging with you, your Facebook friends want to know that you will be there often and will respond quickly. Here’s the reaction you don’t want when you post on Facebook: “Oh, wow, I forgot about him!” Instead, you want this reaction: “Oh, wow, I love when he posts… let’s see what he wrote today.”

Be an Insta Expert

As you likely know, Instagram is completely image-based. You simply snap a photo, pick a filter, write a caption and post. While there are many creative ways that writers can use Instagram, we suggest that you use consistency of style in your posts. Here are some ideas:

Offer a behind-the-scenes look at the writer life. Photos of your favorite coffee mug, writing spot or cat sprawled across your keyboard are perfect.
Post selfies with fans and colleagues at book signings, speaking engagements, etc. Be sure to tag the people in the photo to gain more exposure.
Use an app like Studio (iPhone or Android) to add quotes from your writing onto beautiful images, like the stock images we mentioned above.

Be sure to set up your account to automatically post your Instagram images to Facebook.

For more great ideas, head over to The Creative Penn’s post How to Use Instagram As An Author Plus 10 Ways to Grow Your Account Organically.

Using social media can be intimidating, but with a little experimenting, we know that you can not only become comfortable with it, but really begin to enjoy the interactions and exposure it brings.

At Certa, we believe our authors have incredibly important stories to tell and we are here to help you tell them, whether in a published book or a quick tweet. Let us know how we can help you today!