Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Kindlepreneur’s “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Writers 2022.” Read on to also learn about which hashtags to use to increase discoverability on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
By Dave Chesson
Using social media to get our writing out into the world can be an amazing opportunity. It helps market our works and hopefully, gain a following that will continue to benefit from our writing.
But it can also be a curse. Because of so many social media platforms, most writers languish in obscurity and end up spending more time marketing their writing than just…writing.
Therefore, I’ve constructed this guide to help authors understand the erratic world of social media for writers and authors. I’ll show some of the better social media platforms for writers, how to best approach them, and which writers are doing it right –so you can see what it looks like when done to a level that will bring real success.
That way, if you choose to use social media to promote your writing, you’ll know what tactics to use and who to follow so that your efforts will not go in vain.
Organic vs Paid Social Media
Before we start discussing the different social media platforms for authors and writers, I want to discuss an important part of all platforms: Free versus Paid traffic. This is otherwise known as Organic vs Advertisement. Back when social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were first around, you could easily gain followers quickly. And when you posted, a majority of them would see it. But this was before the Age of Advertisement.
With its advent, social media morphed into a pay-to-play model. For instance, Facebook natural reach declined quickly and posts are rarely seen organically. HOWEVER…
This doesn’t mean that you can’t reach your followers organically. If reaching followers more effectively and efficiently is your concern, then advertising is the best way forward. This way you can spend more time writing and less time pampering your social media accounts for organic traffic. The truth is that gaining a following on social media organically takes a lot of time. Time that you’d rather spend writing.
On the flip side, putting money out there for ads can be scary. Especially when you’re not making a lot of money yet, or you’re not sure what you’re doing. So, if you decide you want to build your social presence in an efficient manner, then be sure to take a course to help you.
Read the full article on social media for writers here.
Editor’s note: Want to use hashtags to increase your content’s discoverability? Kindlepreneur has a free generator tool, Hashtags For Writers. All you need to do is select the social media platform where you want to post, enter your hashtag goals, and see which potential hashtags you can use. Then the tool will pop out a list of potential hashtags you can use, and you can choose which ones are the most relevant for you.
Dave Chesson is the found of Kindlepreneur. When he’s not fighting dragons or chasing the bogey man out of his kids’ closet, he likes using his previous Online Optimization skills to help other authors with the “technical” stuff and get the right authors to the top of Amazon and any other ebook service out there.
