Are You Using Your Platform to Its Potential?

Are you using your author potential to its fullest potential?

Website: Your website should be the hub or the center for all of your promotional activities.

• Make sure the information is current and fresh.

• Look at your site on a tablet or phone. Is it easy to navigate? Are the colors and photos appealing? Is your information updated?

• Are your photos, events, and logo dated? It may be time for a refresh.

• Are you using a blog to drive traffic to your site? Chances are you don’t have new book content regularly. You need a blog to keep readers interested in your site and to encourage them to visit regularly.

Social Media Sites: These should complement your website.

• Use them to advertise events, new books and blog posts.

• Your sites should look similar (your branding: colors, images, photos, etc.). Make sure readers know it’s you.

• Link to posts and pages to drive traffic to your website.

• Make sure you spend some time each week following new accounts and commenting on others’ posts. The social part of social media is key.

• Start your social media platforms before your book is published. It takes a while to build up a following. I focused on one site a week and worked to build my following.

• You need to post regularly. Readers want to be informed and entertained. Graphics, videos, and posts that spawn discussions attract more attention.

Newsletter: This is the marketing material that you own and control. If your social media sites shut down or ban you, you have no way of contacting your readers.

• Use this to advertise events, books, and blog posts. Recycle content from your blog.

• Make sure the branding matches your website and social media sites. You want a unified look.

• Try to be consistent when sending out your newsletter. Decide the cadence that works for you. Weekly may be too much, and annually may not be enough.

• Have a sign up feature on your website. Remind your folks on social media to sign up for your newsletter.

• Start building your email list before your book is published. Collect names and email addresses.

• Readers want to be entertained and informed. Look for ways to have interesting comment that appeals to readers of your genre.

Social Media Ideas for Authors

Here are some ideas for posts that you can create to spark conversation on your site. Make sure you include a catchy graphic.

Use a “holiday” calendar like Brownielocks to find interesting “holidays.” Make a post with a fun graphics. I create lists of holidays related to books and reading, and I combine them with promos for my books.

1. Ask your audience what they are reading.

2. Ask for movie recommendations.

3. Ask your followers to post a picture of their pet.

4. Ask your audience to tell you what their theme song is (or their favorite song).

5. I will ask folks for recommendations for shows to binge watch. Readers provide great ideas.

6. Ask who their favorite book character is.

7. Ask your audience to tell you what their favorite children’s book is.

8. Find out what your readers wanted to be when they grew up.

9. During Halloween, ask what their favorite costume was.

10. Ask readers what the best gift they ever received (or gave) was.

11. Ask your followers to tell you what actor would play them in a movie.

12. Find out three people your readers would like to have lunch with.

13. Ask what the best or worst thing someone ordered online.

14. Ask what your readers need to throw out or get rid of.

15. Find out what the most daring thing your audience has done. (Or ask what they chickened out of doing.)

16. Ask who the coolest person is that they have ever met.

17. Ask what the most creative thing people have done.

What are some other ideas you’d add to my list?

Social Media Tips for Authors

Social media, especially when you’re trying to market a book, can be overwhelming. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Know the platform’s style. Are hashtags popular (or even used)? They are popular on X, Instagram and TikTok, but not as much on Facebook.

2. Can you include a clickable link in the post? You can include one on Instagram, but it’s not clickable. On Facebook and X, you always want to include a link to make it easy for the reader to find you or your book.

3. Many platforms will truncate your text. (It will show a few lines and then offer a more link to see the rest.) Put the most important parts of your post first. It’s a three-second world out there. People are skimming, and they often don’t click for more unless they are really interested.

4. Always include a graphic with your posts. Movement in videos or interesting graphics draw readers to your post.

5. Avoid long paragraphs of text. Again, people are skimming on their devices, and they don’t spend a lot of time reading volumes of text.

6. Always tag locations and people that you mention. This helps your content reach those who search for the tags you use.

7. Reactions and likes are good. Comments and shares help you more with the platform’s algorithms. Pose questions. More responses will help your post be visible to a larger audience.

What ideas would you add to my list?

Watch out for Bad Actors and Scams

There are a lot of bad actors and scams out on the internet (and social media). Here are some hints to help you protect yourself and your accounts.

You don’t have to friend everyone. If the account looks suspicious, you can ignore the request or block the person.

Watch out for the lovelorn widowers, sad stories looking for money, and handsome men looking for friends. These are often bots or other bad actors. They friend you and your friends to start up friendly conversations that usually end up with some kind of request for money.

Watch out for spoofed accounts, friend requests from someone who is already your friend.

There are some scams where you are tagged to a group post that looks like it’s from the social media company. The message is usually something about being locked out of your account for a violating some kind of standard. They provide a link for you to rectify the problem. It’s really a link to gather your private information. The social media platforms do not notify you in a group post. Untag yourself and block it.

You can report offensive, harassing, or dangerous accounts to the social media company. You can also untag yourself from messages or posts. Use the block or ban feature to prevent that account from contacting you again.

You can also set security parameters on your account and posts that will limit who can see your items or contact you.

Here are some hints that may help you spot a suspicious account:

• It’s a request from someone who is already your friend.

• There are very few posts on the person’s site, and most of them are from another user (not the account owner).

• There is very little background or biographical information and often only a few pictures on the account.

• Many times, there are no recent postings.

• If you receive a random direct message, it’s often a “ping” with a “hello” or something else to see if you will respond.

• Posts or direct messages are full of spelling and grammatical errors. (Though this is improving with AI.)

• There are lots of pictures of military personnel, flags, puppies, kittens, and flowers on the “person’s” site.

• The account may flood your page with likes and comments that don’t quite fit the topic.

• Some “digital marketers,” “book promoters,” “professional book reviewers,” and “social media promoters” are often accounts who are looking for authors to buy their “services.” The friendly chat will quickly turn into an expensive sales pitch.

Be vigilant and stay safe out there. The bad actors are always trying to work a new scam.

How Do You Avoid Being Overwhelmed by Social Media?

Keeping up with all of your social media sites can be a lot of work, and it can often feel overwhelming. As a writer, your goal is to be active on your key sites and still write your next book. Both are important components of your writing life. Here are some ideas that can help you manage your social media and promotion time.

• Create a social media schedule. I still have a day gig, so what works for me is to check my main sites in the morning, at lunch, and in the evenings. I respond to messages and comments.

• The “social” part is key. You need to interact with those who comment on your posts. It’s also important to comment and share others’ posts.

• Know which sites your readers are on and focus your efforts there.

• Make sure that you post regularly. I schedule a lot of my daily posts on my main sites. This lets me plan my posts to match my goals and strategies. I still do ad hoc posts on random things that I want to share. It also allows me to have posts throughout the day, even if I’m busy doing something else.

• Remember that every post is not going to sell a book. Balance the content of your posts, so that twenty percent or fewer of your items are “buy my books.” It’s important for readers to see what you’re doing and your interests. Everything shouldn’t be a sales post.

• Social media followers are interested in entertainment and good content. Avoid being too wordy. Include graphics or videos to draw attention to your post.

• Be careful not to let your social media time take over your writing time.

• Create a business account on these platforms where you can. They offer more flexibility, features, and metrics than a personal account does. They also allow you to schedule your posts.

• Review your accounts’ metrics or analytics from time to time to see what posts are working. Many of the business tools offer hints for the best times to post for your readers. This can also help you to see how your audience is growing.

Organizing Your Website

Whether you’re creating your author website or overhauling your current one, here are some things you may want to consider.

• Determine what you want your visitors to see first.

• Decide on the number of pages that you need for your content.

• Figure out what you want on each page and where you want to put them. The easiest way to do this is to storyboard your pages. Sketch out your design on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper. It can be full of stick figures. This is a way to organize your thoughts and ideas.

• Use the site-builder’s templates. There are lots of designs that are already created. You can use these or modify them to fit your style.

• Use colors to match your branding. Figure out what you want to project and represent. Do you write dark thrillers or humorous cozies? Your colors and fonts should give your readers/visitors an idea of what to expect in your writing. To get ideas, look at other authors’ websites (in your genre).

• After you build your website, make sure to check all links and forms that you have on your site.

• Check your website on a variety of devices to see how it presents. Most web services will optimize your site for the device your visitor uses. It’s a good idea to make sure all the pictures and forms look correct. People who use a computer, will see a wider picture than those on a cell phone that tend to render websites in a tall format.

What would you add to my list?

What an Author Needs to Get Started

It’s often difficult for authors to figure out where to start building their social media and internet presence. There is so much out there. It can be overwhelming. Here are the key things I think new authors need to have to get started.

Heather’s List

• Professional Headshot – Selfies aren’t the quality you want for print and digital - This is one of the first investments I made in my writing career.

• Your Biography – This should be written in third person. For your website, you may want to have a short one and a longer one that can be used when you do events and presentations.

• A Short Description of Your Book/Work – Have a short summary of what your book is about. This could be as short as an elevator pitch or a couple of paragraphs long.

• A URL and a Site to Host Your Website – You need a URL and a site to host your website. Try to get your name or penname if possible. The website is the hub of your author platform. You want readers to be able to find you.

• A Newsletter/Email Marketing Service – You will need a hosting service to maintain your list of followers and to create and distribute your ne3wsletters. Many services are free, and others have fees based on the number of followers you have.

• Book Cover Images – You will need clear images for your website and socials. If it’s the original (giant) file, you may want to think about reducing the size to make it more optimal for mobile users. Large files take a while to load.

Here are some other things you need to consider as you start creating your author presence.

• Your Budget – Determine what your budget is for your website, tools, URL, and author photograph. Start small. You can always add on to what you’ve created.

• Who Maintains Your Sites? – If you pay someone to maintain your website and socials, it can get expensive. I like the freedom of being able to update my site whenever I want without waiting for someone else to do it. Youtube and many of the hosting companies have tons of videos to show you how to create and maintain your site.

• Your Tools – I invested in two subscriptions to help me create my graphics. You will need to include a visual with your posts on social media. There are lots of free and for a fee products out there. Do your research and check to see which ones you're most comfortable with using. I use Canva and BookBrush.

What would you add to my list?

Ways to Expand Your Facebook Presence

It takes some time and a lot of care and feeding to build a steady following on social media. Here are some ideas of things you can do to expand your social media presence.

• There are lots of specialized Facebook groups for books, reading, and all genre imaginable. Find these and join them.

• Join in discussions.

• Many book groups on Facebook offer author take-overs. This is a chance for you to meet new readers in that genre and to introduce them to your books.

• Post interesting/entertaining content on your site. This keeps people coming back.

• Make sure your posts have some sort of picture, graphic, or video. Avoid huge blogs of text. Facebook often only shows the first few lines, make sure the important information is first in your sentence.

• Follow the 80/20 rule. Only about 20% of your posts should be about your books. Readers want to know about you and your interests.

• Be social. Don’t just post and run. Make sure you respond to comments.

• Spend some time scrolling your newsfeed and comment on others’ posts.

• Celebrate others’ accomplishments on your site.

• Put your key social media links in your email signature, website, and newsletter.

• Use your Search button. Look for topics that interest you for ideas of people or groups to follow. You can also search by key words for subjects like librarians, book bloggers, cozy mystery, etc. to see what is available.

• When you meet new people, check out their social sites and follow them.

• When you post group or event photos, make sure to tag the other folks who are with you. Your audience expands when they share it with their readers.