When I started my Kate Valent brand, I had to start over from zero with social media to start building my author platform. I used to have a Twitter account for my traditional publishing job and I advised clients on social media. Now I only run an Instagram account, but I’m up to over 2000 followers and growing. I follow many bookstagrammers, tea people, but also other writers. I’ve even been sent free tea! I also get a lot of advertisement accounts for indie authors following me and it has made me realize a lot of authors don’t know good social media practices. Here are my tips for running a social media platform that will make readers (and maybe even other writers) want to follow you.
First, you don’t need to be on every platform. Pick a platform or two that works best for you. For me that’s Instagram because of all my book and tea photos. In my experience twitter is a good platform to connect to other writers, but readers seem to be tuned more into Instagram and booktok these days. Instagram is especially good at reaching YA and romance readers. So which media is best for you, text (Twitter), photos (Instagram), or short videos (TikTok)? Pick your platform accordingly.
A lot of indie authors who follow me stand out in a bad way because their feed is literally nothing but advertisements for their book. If your book isn’t for me, I won’t be interested in following. If I’ve already read your book, I don’t want to get bombarded by it every day either. That annoys me instead of making me want more. This is why those accounts get low follow backs. It makes me feel like you are only following me to advertise at me. I’m a sale to you, not a reader you want to interact with and to that I say no thanks.
Similarly, pick a name based on your author name instead of naming your account after a single book or series. Whenever I see an account named after a book I immediately know it’s going to be full of nothing but ads about that book. Often times these ads are all photos made in Canva instead of actual photo content, making their feed look spammy. I don’t even click on these accounts anymore when they follow me. As soon as you move on to the next book or series, that account is now outdated. Making a new account for each book is a huge waste of time.
You can fix this advertisement problem by filling your feed with a variety of content. Stick to one or two advertisement posts a week to give me something I want to follow and interact with in between your advertisements. If you are a writer you should be reading. Show us what you are reading and talk about it. Share any other hobbies or pets. Talk about your research or writing inspiration. Give us behind the scene looks. This will help you feel more authentic while still letting us know about your books.
Interact back! Follow some of your favorite authors or reviewers who review genres you like. You will earn more goodwill by being active and interacting with your feed rather than only popping on to advertise. And if you are reaching out to people about reviews, be polite. If someone’s profile says they aren’t taking review requests, accept that and move on. Even when I only had 200 followers I got bombarded by desperate writers begging me to review their books. They were rude when I said no, kept pushing, and some insulted me for saying no. This is why I have “not accepting review requests” in my bio because I was getting spammed with them. This is why some reviewers never get back to you.
You need to be patient with your social media. Building it takes time. It’s better to start now rather than later. It’s taken me over a year to get over 2000 followers. You don’t need to wait until your published to get started. You can also review books in your genre and connect with other writers to create a support group. And then if all goes well you will already have an audience you can reach once you are published. If you’ve been interacting politely with them, they may already be warm to you and recognize your name and that is always a plus.
If you struggle to make time or find you spend too much time on social media, make yourself a schedule and stick to it. If you can’t post often, make sure you are posting quality content when you do post. Still not sure of what to post? Check out the social media of your favorite authors for ideas. See how they use social media and study the posts that grab your attention.
Have a tip you’d like to add? Leave it in the comments!