Social media platforms (and online platforms in general) are constantly changing. Here are a few new features and tips:
Pinterest now has a more ways of shopping via the platform. Pins now have pricing and stock information, and have links that go directly to the retailer’s site. These Product Pins are also more discoverable on the home feed and other parts of the platform. For now, the focus seems to be on fashion and decor.
Social Media Just For Writers has some tips for authors on Pinterest, which includes having a board of visual writing prompts, finding images of clothing your characters wear, creating a board of your favorite books, and sharing quotes from your favorite writers.
Facebook now has Premieres, according to TechCrunch, where people can pre-record videos and release them during a viewing window, so it’s more like a live event. This is similar to Twitch and YouTube, and the idea is to give creators more tools to engage with their viewers. With Premieres, as a creator, you can build up hype for a new video.
Additionally, Facebook plans to roll out Top Fans to everyone soon (to pages with more than 10k fans), which will display a badge next to loyal fans’ names. Facebook is also rolling out video polls.
Instagram has a couple new features to increase engagement. The first one is Nametag, which allows people to find your Instagram profile when they scan it. You can personalize your nametag. Here’s an example of the one I created for I Know Dino:
Instagram also has school communities for students and recent grads to connect with their university.
And last, not that new but still worth noting, are Instagram stickers. You can use stickers in your stories to show locations, polls, or share GIFs. Ideas for how to use them include driving sales to products, asking for feedback, sharing content, and promoting your branded hashtags.
I don’t know of anything new specific to Twitter, but I did recently make some Moments and Lists. The Moments were a great way to collect information about a dinosaur conference I recently attended, and the List is a great way for me to keep track of people we’ve interviewed for the I Know Dino podcast.
Additionally, Anne R. Allen has a list of do’s and don’ts for Twitter. They include pinning tweets, sharing and retweeting often, creating visuals, and using hashtags correctly. Also, don’t AutoDM people, tag people with your book promotion, or automate every tweet.
Amazon (Reviews)
Last but not least, Amazon. Specifically, Amazon reviews. Though this isn’t a social media platform, it is a platform that is constantly changing, and it’s worth trying to keep up to date. The Book Designer has a great post about the do’s and don’ts of Amazon book reviews.
This includes not asking people you know for a review, and not even encouraging people via social media posts, not giving away copies of your book in exchange for a review (you can give them away, but not require a review in exchange), and not offering special prices of your book to reviewers. There are few other things to keep in mind, so I encourage you to read the full post.
