Indie Authors: Social Media Marketing Tips

Jane Friedman recommends joining all social media platforms, even if you don’t intend on using it right away (hint: you want to have a good username for if you do decide to use that platform).

It’s one thing to join a social media network, and it’s another thing to maintain and grow your presence on it. Here are some news updates and ideas for how to use different platforms and increase your followers and fans.

General Social Media

• “30 Ways to Build the “Know, Like, and Trust” Factor that Grows an Audience” on CopyBlogger
• “40 Ideas for Writers to Post on Social Media” on Writers Unplugged
• “Familiarity” on Marketing Christian Books
• “How to Get Fans and Influence People” on Behind the Words
• “Search and Social — Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?” on Social Times
• “5 Advanced Forms of Content That Will Ensure You Stand Out” on Quick Sprout
• “5 Ideas for Promoting Your Ebook Price Promo on Social Media” on BookBub
• The Readers Gazette

Twitter

• “Engaging Audiences through Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day” on Jane Friedman
• “Twitter unveils its own news digests, and some news orgs are participating” on Nieman Lab
• “Twitter Will Now Put Recommended (Not Newest) Tweets At the Top Of Your Timeline” on TechCrunch
• “How to Make Your Tweets Mobile-Friendly” on Social Times
• “Twitter’s Next Hail Mary, Project Lightning, Has Arrived” on Recode
• “The Number One Mistake Everyone Makes on Twitter” on Slideshare

Pinterest

• “Pinterest for Authors: A Beginner’s Guide” on Jane Friedman
• “23 Authors Using Pinterest for Book Marketing & Inspiration” on BookBub

Instagram

• “Half a Million Real Instagram Followers in 1 Year” on Foundrmag
• “5 Ways to Use Instagram as an Author” on Jane Friedman

Other Platforms

• “Snapchat for publishers” on Book Machine
• “Getting to LinkedIn’s Top 1%: The Why and How” on LinkedIn

This post was originally published on March 21, 2016.