How Social Media Became the Most Important Marketing Tool in Publishing
Just about everyone uses social media, according to the Pew Research Center. It is inescapable in today’s digital world. The billions of social media users around the world are potential readers or listeners for your new book or audiobook. Therefore, you need to fully understand the nuances of social media to maximize your book’s marketing.
Social media has been gaining in prominence since they were introduced more than 20 years ago. As such, there are billions of users ready to be introduced to your book. However, they cannot learn about your book if you do not successfully market it. This is an important extension of the publishing process.
This article will review today’s most popular social media platforms and how to use them to market your book. Even long-time social media users can advance their skills to more efficiently get their book in front of more readers.
Today’s Social Media Platforms
Pew Research Center conducted research on Americans’ social media habits. They found a significant amount of Americans use at least one social media platform daily. The eleven most popular platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, Snapchat, X, and Threads, Bluesky, and Truth Social. The first eight here are used by at least 20% of all Americans, but all eleven are influential platforms.
Each platform has its unique purpose and style to engage its users. Some social media platforms are defunct (like Google+) or fell in popularity (like Myspace). Others have increased in popultarity over the last two decades, some more than others. Each platforms incorporates a unique blend of text, photo, and video content.
Social Media Based on Text
Text-based social media platforms are the clearest types of social media meant for people to share thoughts with others. Some of the oldest platforms use text at the core of their services. These include Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Truth Social, which all incorporate visuals too. Features of each have evolved over time to adapt to new technology.
The purpose of text-based platforms is to directly speak to those in one’s network. This can be done through posting status updates, captioning photos, commenting on other’s content, or sending private messages. This can be done as standalone feature or combined with visuals.
Social Media Based on Visuals
All social media platforms include some visual component, usually in combination with writing. Visuals on social media have become even more important in recent years. Content produced by artificial intelligence has increasingly saturated the market, making it harder to tell fact from fiction.
Instagram was something of a pioneer for image-based social media. It originally allowed people to post photos on their profile to share with their network. Users can also post videos, and it has evolved even more since then. Facebook was also an early pioneer in sharing photos in public photo albums.
Snapchat further revolutionalized the social media industry. Instead of posting pictures for everyone to see, Snapchat allowed users to send pictures directly to others. These pictures were only viewable for one or two views. They also created the concept of “stories” where people can share content with their network for just 24 hours. Nearly every platform since has included stories in their interface.
A recent social media pioneer is TikTok, a platform that shares videos with users. Users scroll through their feed to go through videos that appear on their algorithm-based “For You Page.” BookTok is a community on TikTok that focus on reading and sharing book recommendations with others.
Short video content has spread to other social media platforms in response to TikTok’s success. Notably, Facebook and Instragram have “Reels” that evoke TikTok.
Creating Personal and Professional Accounts
As Pew found, nearly everyone has at least one social media account. For most people, this is their private account to share updates with their friends and family. This is a great place to start marketing your book or audiobook. Your friends and family will want to support your literary efforts.
Beyond that, you can also create a separate account with a more professional leaning. On this account, you can mostly limit your content to marketing and promotional material. This will allow your writing to spread past your personal circle and grow an ever-expanding fan base.
What to Post on Social Media
How you decide to promote your book on social media is up to you. There is no one-size-fits-all type of content to post, just make sure it fits the book you are promoting. You always want to reach your intended audience.
Standard content to post include video teasers, any media appearances you make, art work, and retailer links. For audiobook, you can post snippets of the audiobook recording to give listeners a hint of what’s to come. Post whatever you think you target audience needs to become interested in your book.
