How to Stand Out on Social Media as an Author

Social media plays a significant part in people’s everyday lives, but its importance is amplified when it comes to presenting yourself as a writer and displaying your work to the world. As an author, having a strong social media presence can mean the difference between having a huge fanbase who love and buy your books, and struggling to build a following.

Let’s take a look at some ways you can stand out on social media as an author.

Your goal should be writing entertaining content that creates hype about your books, especially any upcoming releases. However, it’s important not to turn into one of those constant self-promoters who only post about their own book. No one likes that.

Your primary goal may be to present yourself as an author. But to stand out on social media, you should aim to express your personality in your profiles and posts.

Use a scheduling platform, or at least your calendar to keep track of your posts. You will stand out on social media compared to other authors who post sporadically. You will appear more professional if your posts are well-thought-out, and if you post at optimal times of the day for each social network. What is more, followers like a routine and will start to look out for your posts.

Do not bombard your followers with post-after-post, unless your content is absolutely top-notch. You will stand out by posting once a day or once every few days and receiving 50+ reactions, rather than posting 5-10 times per day and receiving no reactions or barely anything.

However, a clever way to stay active and be noticeable is to add 5-10 images and videos to your ‘Story’ on your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Story: it’s as though these were designed for authors! Be sure to use them to entertain your followers.

They allow potential followers to find you and they also better engage your existing followers. Use common hashtags to attract more followers, and also create your own to brand your posts. For example, if your book’s title were The Thrill of Forgetting, #TheThrillofForgetting would be a good hashtag to use. Here’s a handy list of hashtags that most authors use and follow.

Post quotes from your books as captions. Doing so would both entertain your followers and promote your book or other literary work.

Showing yourself in action or in your working environment are great go-to posts for authors: “my office for the day” posts are a popular example of this.

Stories, by far, are the easiest way to stand out. You can afford to post 5-10 stories per day as they disappear. Stories can help you become more familiar to your followers than others who don’t add to their story often.

To stand out on social media, have a personal theme that is unique to you, especially on image-based platforms like Instagram. The easiest way to achieve this is to consistently post images with the same color schemes, settings, or photo editing style.

You may combine posting inspirational quotes and having a personal theme by creating quote images in advance, in bulk, and scheduling them for later.

As a busy author, when promoting your book on social your time is best used by sticking to the most popular social media platforms. That way you can target a larger audience and optimize your efforts. Focus on conquering one or two of the following social networks:

The classic platform for authors. Twitter is an easy-to-use platform, great for reaching niche audiences with the use of hashtags. It is perfect for creating hype. Please see our post about the best hashtags to use on Twitter for authors by clicking the button below.

This social network is ideal for artsy authors and the younger crowd. It is another great platform for utilizing hashtags to find your ideal audience and create hype for your work.

Get used to the term ‘bookstagram,’ or better yet: #bookstagram. You can read our post about Bookstagram below.

If you’re not camera-shy, you may want to start a YouTube channel. Videos and vloggers are becoming more and more popular. The vast majority of authors do not vlog, so if you are an author that does vlog then you’re much more likely to stand out on social media.

Q&As, trailers, interviews, and book launches are examples of the content you may want to post. You can click the button below to read our post about integrating video content into your book marketing strategy.

A versatile platform with the largest audience. Outside of your page content, Facebook Ads are a remarkable tool that you should utilize. Their success can then be tracked and analyzed, making them ideal for authors advertising their books.

Be sure to join relevant Facebook groups, too, to connect with like-minded folks, future readers, and reviewers.

An example of this would be to use an avatar of yourself instead of using a photo as most people do. Use the same profile picture across the social media platforms you use to become better recognized.

Use a scheduling platform, or at least your calendar to keep track of your posts. You will stand out on social media compared to other authors who post sporadically. You will appear more professional if your posts are well-thought-out, and if you post at optimal times of the day for each social network. What is more, followers like a routine and will start to look out for your posts.

No, not the story of your book: the story of your origins and inspirations, as well as your day-to-day routine and notable events. To stand out on social media, you need to be your unique self.

Authors generally attract followers who also share a creative spark and like to be inspired and engaged. Poise questions in your posts when you can. Instead of saying, “Ernest Hemingway is the best novelist of all time,” you may want to post: “Ernest Hemingway is my favorite novelist. Who is yours? Who inspires you?”

Respond to the replies you get from such posts. Engaging with your followers is the whole point of using social media.

Not all of your followers will check social media every day, so many are likely to miss some of your key posts. Why not retweet your best ones, or pin them to the top of your feed?

A monthly round-up blog post can also help to keep your followers in the loop and create a sense of belonging. Not many authors do this, so this is another way to stand out.