I've only recently started using Instagram (JFPennAuthor) but I'm increasingly finding it a fun social media platform to use. I enjoy posting images and seeing where others are traveling too.
But can you use Instagram for book marketing? In today's article, Jose Lopez, author of Instagram Marketing That Sells, shows us how.
Just like the publishing industry changes every single day, so does the marketing aspect.
One of the newest places to market your books that has taken the world by storm is the young social media platform called Instagram. But make no mistake, Instagram may be young, but it is stronger than Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter, combined.
Here are the 4 ways you can use Instagram to market your books, using the Point-of-View Method.
First Person
This approach is my all-time favorite, for various reasons. However, like the first person point-of-view in a story, it requires some set of social skills to pull off as you will be running a personal/author profile.
Who is it for?
Someone who loves to be social and interact with fans, authors, and bloggers; and isn’t shy about being personal sometimes.
Benefits:
- Much easier to gain a following
- Less hassle to post content
- Higher engagement rates
- Creates personal relationships with essential followers
- Easier and more efficient to sell
All those benefits should be something to take into consideration when you decide what approach you want to go with. The reality is that this approach requires having an excellent social personality since you will need to be interacting with your followers on a regular basis.
If you are not the social type, then this approach probably isn’t the best for you; but keep calm, because there are still three other approaches in the Point-of-View Method available to fit your personality, style, and goals.
Tips:
- Convert your account to a “business” one on Instagram, and link it to your author page on Facebook. This helps readers know you are an author, and gives more credibility.
- Keep your content in the 80/20 rule. Which means: 80% of your content should be normal writing related, and only 20% be a post meant to sell.
- Content: nothing is better than posting about important milestones in your author journey. Whether they be that you finished outlining your next novel, or that your current one just got a new review. People love to hear about the author journey.
Second Person
If you aren’t that social, then this approach is probably the best fit for you. In this approach, you will be posting much more content related to your book.
This approach differentiates from the First Person in the content you publish, and how you run your account. Instead of running a personal author profile, you will be running a sort of “book blog” where you will post less personal posts, and more general posts that have to do with writing.
Who is it for?
Those who are natural bloggers and love to post helpful content that your followers can benefit from. This also helps those who are not so comfortable with being transparent about their writing life, but still want to maintain a personal connection with fans, and followers.
Benefits:
- Creates a sense of respect from your followers due to your helpful content
- A way to show followers your vast knowledge
- Creates professional/helpful bonds with followers
Although this approach is mostly used by nonfiction authors, it can still be applied to fiction authors.
While nonfiction authors would use this approach to post helpful tips/tricks that correlate with the books they have for sale; fiction authors can use that same strategy to post about other books in the genre or related posts that would interest your followers.
Tip:
- Keep your content in the 50/50 rule; where you post as much normal content as you post sales pitches.
- Make sure not to post too often. Bookstagram blogs are only successful when they keep things moderate and do not wear out their followers. Posting 2-3 times a week is perfect.
Third Person Limited
This approach may be considered the least effective in general. However, when used correctly, it can be more efficient than any of the other three methods.
Who is it for?
When you want full anonymity. Say you were writing under a pen name, you could easily use the third person limited approach to remain anonymous. This approach is also best for those who don’t have good social skills or just don’t want to be personal, at all.
Benefits:
- Anonymity
- Non-personal
This approach is the hardest to understand, and develop an efficient strategy for. The reason it is “limited” is because your content will be only about your books. This requires you to come up with highly creative/elaborate strategies that will help you dominate Instagram, while being limited to your books and its content.
Tip:
- Create an account for your book, or your pen name.
- Post teasers, quotes, and pictures of scenes in your book.
- Make sure to post at least once every two weeks (minimum).
Third Person Omniscient
You know how the Third Person Limited is non-personal and anonymous? Remember how the Second Person approach is like a “blog,” where you can post helpful/related content? Well, imagine if we joined those two; and that is how you get the Third Person Omniscient.
Who is it for?
Those who want freedom to post whatever they like, but still want to remain anonymous, and non-personal.
Benefits:
- Freedom to post content outside of your books
- Creates meaningful bonds with your followers
- Remains anonymous
- Remains non-personal
One of the most effective strategies to use this approach with is to become an Instagram book reviewer. This helps immensely if you have multiple pen names, yet don’t want people to find out you are behind them all. Having reviews, teasers, and snippets of books you like, can help you market multiple books across multiple genres with different pen names.
Tip:
The best strategy for this approach is to become a “book reviewer”.
Make sure to keep a weekly schedule when posting. Example: Every Tuesday is #teasertuesday and you post a teaser of a book you liked. Every Friday is #funnyfriday and you post a fun fact, or quote. Etc…
In every post, have a CTA (call to action). Whether it is answering a question, or commenting their thoughts. This will help more than you know.
Have you tried using Instagram as part of your book marketing strategy? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.
Like most millennials, social media has played a large role in Jose Lopez’s life, but he took the time to understand Instagram from its earliest days. Jose has followed
every development and tested every idea he could think of. Because of this, in 2016, the CEO of InformeAgricola.com invited him to revamp their Instagram program and, in only a few months, he grew their account from under 500 followers to over 10,000. They continue to use the strategies Jose developed for their SMM program, growing their audience exponentially.
Jose’s mission with the Instagram Marketing That Sells (IMTS) series is to spread the knowledge he has gained so that individuals and businesses alike can succeed with the Instagram platform. This ground-breaking series of SMM guides unveils The Secrets They Don't Want You to Know, then explains How To Go Viral, and ultimately, teaches you How to Turn Your Instagram Followers Into Business Dollars. Learn more at TeenagedAuthor.com
Great article! Thanks for all the great info you always give us.
You might want to remind people to check their spelling before they post anything. This article is fine, but TheSecretoftheHeirloom spells ‘debut’ with an ‘e’, which stops me dead in my tracks. Can I trust this author? If someone doesn’t bother to proofread even a short Instagram post, will they bother to proof their book? So many self-published (sorry, indie) authors produce unedited writing – I think that’s a terrible mistake. Maybe we could have a post on the absolute necessity of editing?
I appreciate your comment and personally, I choose to use an editor and a proofreader – but there will always be missed typos. There are in every trad pubbed book as well. Also, people write blog posts for free and I put them out there for free, so I don’t use an editor on this blog because of the cost. I think content is more important than exactness in information and entertainment.
I also think that tolerance for typos and grammar shifts has changed with the generations – digital natives, millennials, Gen Z think differently than those of us X to Boomers who are obsessed with it. Digital natives use emojis, text abbreviations, rap language and other new forms that I think Shakespeare would be proud of. After all, back then, spelling was not consistent and he invented a ton of words: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html
How can you blog on a site where posting a text post is impossible? I don’t understand this advice at all. Instagram allows photos with a bit of text, and even posting photos is limited to what you can do on your phone, but it has no options for uploading or for blog posts.
Lots of people write a lot of text under their photos – so it can be done 🙂
This is very timely for me as I have been posting some pictures of my children’s picture book “Who Paints the World ” without knowing what I’m doing. My goal is to show a child with there favorite page in the book. I am working on building my readership base with a give away campaign #1 method sounds the best. Thank-you, looking forward to seeing you in Philadelphia in November.
Aloha!
I was an Instagram DISASTER! Then, I took a class called Instagram with Intention, and it spoke to me, and helped me understand IG. I started over and have built my followers from about 800 to 3000 in the past two + months. More important; where I had no engagement before, I have 10-20 comments on my posts. So exciting for me. I know it is a powerful tool and am SLOWLY but SURELY unleashing that power. I am excited to see how I can use it to promote/sell my upcoming book in April 2019. I used to LOVE Twitter, because I made great connections to bloggers/media peeps; but now, not so much. I hope IG is my new Twitter!
Cheers!
I’ve been an avid Twitter user for 9 years now and I am also finding more joy in Instagram 🙂