Knowing how to promote a book on social media is necessary, especially when you’re a self-published author. One of the best social media platforms that you can use to market your book is Facebook. It’s smart, user-friendly, and affordable. Other platforms have the same characteristics, however, what sets Facebook apart from the others is that it allows you to interact with people (readers, reviewers, and bloggers) on a more personal level. Especially when you join groups, you get to see what these people are really interested in and what you can give them that will feed their interest.
According to Facebook statistics, there are over 1.49 billion active Facebook users every month. Over the years, usage has been increasing by 13% yearly. And as of last year, Facebook by far remains the most popular social media site. Here’s a data according to Pew Research Center:
Almost everyone uses Facebook, so you’ll definitely find an audience there. It is basically filled with tons of marketing opportunities!
Pre-Launching
Before your book even hits the shelves, you must start marketing it to your target audience. Let your audience know that you are about to publish a book that they’ll surely want to read. Get them excited about it and start building your army of followers and potential readers.
Create a Facebook page.
Using your personal Facebook account, simply click on the ‘Create a Page’ link. The page you will be creating is your author page. It is where you will be promoting your book(s) with the use of photos, videos, and whatever methods you can think of. Once you’ve created a page, invite all of your Facebook friends to like it.
Take note that you must create a page if you intend to use Facebook as a way to promote your book(s). Using your personal account for promotional purposes may lead to Facebook shutting it down.
Customize your page.
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Profile picture
Upload a nice photo of yourself and set it as your profile picture. Choose a photo that looks professional and credible in your niche. Selfies are highly discouraged.
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Cover photo
One of the keys to getting page likes is by making your page visually appealing. Upload a cover photo. It can feature your book cover or a compelling quote from your book. Be creative!
Also, when creating your photo using Photoshop, or any other graphic making tool, set the size to 851px by 315px. Uploading a cover photo that is bigger or smaller than the preferred size will result to auto-resizing. The image can be damaged and any text that you’ve inserted in the image may be cropped out.
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About section
The ‘About’ section of your page appears below your profile picture. This is where you are going to write your author bio. Make it interesting!
Know what to post.
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What should you post?
- Teasers
Book advertisements can come in many forms, including video teasers and book excerpts. By posting these on Facebook, you’ll be getting your followers excited for the launching of your book.
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Questions
Did you know that people are more likely to respond to posts that contain questions? Everyone has their own opinion, which is why asking questions is an effective way to catch people’s attention. Include the keywords, ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘which,’ and ‘would’ in your questions as people are likely to engage in such types of questions.
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Tips
A lot of people go online to get information. Most of the time, they look for tips on how to do certain things. So, give them a reason to like your Facebook page. Since you’re an author, you can share writing and publishing tips, as well as effective marketing strategies.
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Visual Quotes
Images get more attention, compared to plain text. This is why posting visuals on Facebook tends to get more likes, responses, and shares. Since you’re using Facebook for book marketing, one great way to get your followers excited about your upcoming book is to post quotes and excerpts from your book through images/graphics.
Some of the best website that’ll help you create graphics are the following:
- Canva.com
- Pinstamatic.com
- Quozio.com
- ReciteThis.com
- When should you post?
According to the Infographic posted on Hubspot’s blog, the best days to post on Facebook are on Thursdays and Fridays during early afternoons. You can also use Fanpage Karma, which will check your target audience, to find out when is the best time to post on Facebook.
Book Launching
Since you’ve already started to build your army, it’s time to let them know that your book is finally out and that they can now get their copies!
Make an announcement.
Tell your followers that your book has been published. Announce it in a creative way! You can even post a picture or a video of yourself talking about it. Also, don’t forget to include a link to where they can buy your book. Ask your friends to share your announcement too, so that more people would know that you have published a book.
Create a book launching event.
Your book launching event can come in a form of an actual party or a virtual party. It means that you can hold a gathering in your local library, coffee shop, or restaurant. Or you can simply have an online party wherein you’ll participate in live chat discussions with your followers and give away freebies!
What’s great about using Facebook for book advertising is that it allows you to create events in which you can invite people to attend. The Facebook event is just like a digital invitation. The people you invite can then choose to accept or decline your invitation. They will also be notified when the event is about to take place.
Hold contests/giveaways.
Everybody likes freebies! So, why not hold a contest and give away free copies of your book to the winners? This marketing method has already been proven to be effective by many brands and bloggers. You can ask people to like your Facebook page or share your giveaway post as a requirement to join your contest. It’s a win-win situation. They get to have the chance to win prizes and you get more exposure!
Post-Launching
If you’ve done everything, but you haven’t amassed a huge number of readers and followers yet, you might want to consider spending some money on Facebook advertisements. Paid advertisements are one of the marketing solutions that Facebook offers. You can advertise your page and your posts. However, if you are going to advertise your posts, be sure to pick out the most important ones, such as giveaways, book launching events, book signings, author interviews, etc.
For more tips on book marketing methods using social media, check out these articles:
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