instagram | The Creative Penn

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.

Example of a First Person Instagram post

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

It's important to choose the social media platform that fits with your personality as well as one that resonates with your target market.

Personally, I still like Twitter best (@thecreativepenn), and I use Facebook to connect with my readers and fans. But I have also started to use Instagram more (@jfpennauthor) and in today's article, Frances Caballo from Social Media Just for Writers explains how to use the platform effectively.

What’s the hot social media network that people are talking about but few understand how to use?

Snapchat. Surprised?

But Instagram still appears to win the prize when it comes to the race for the fastest growing social media network.

According to The Medium Well:

Its growth has outpaced the other top four social media platforms in recent years: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Furthermore, Instagram has very dedicated users, who often use the platform daily.

In 2016, Instagram introduced new features similar to Snapchat. But first, let’s get a few numbers out of the way before diving into Instagram Stories and Boomerangs.

Instagram’s User Base

Pew Research Center has the most reliable facts among U.S. users of social media. Their latest report, released in the latter part of 2016, revealed that:

32% of internet users (28% of all U.S. adults) use Instagram.
Instagram usage is especially high among young adults. An estimated 6 in 10 (59%) of online adults ages 18 – 29 use Instagram.
33% of 30- to 49-year-olds use Instagram.
Female internet users are more likely to take a shine to this platform than men, 38% to 26%, respectively.

Also, according to the Buffer blog, there are 500 million users on Instagram and of those, 300 million are daily active users. In all, 95 million users post images daily.

What’s clear is that if your reader demographic is between the ages of 18 and 49, Instagram can be a strategic application for you to use. If you write young adult, new adult, dystopian, graphic, and teen and young adult romance novels, then you need to spend time connecting with your readers on this channel.

The beauty of Instagram – and this is why it’s easy to test whether it’s the right platform for you – is that it’s effortless to incorporate it into your life. You’ll see why if you keep reading. For now, let’s leave the statistics behind and talk about how to sign up and use this tool.

How to Join Instagram

Profile Image

Joining this network is easy. Sign up by navigating to Instagram.com on your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Username

When you select your username, use the name you use on the cover of your books. Build your brand around your author name, whether it’s your birth name, a name you predominantly use, or a pen name.

Bio

Complete your bio, which Instagram restricts to 150 characters, and add your author website address. Don’t forget to check the box next to Similar Account Suggestions so that Instagram will suggest additional users for you to follow.

As you’re out and about, visiting your favorite café where you write or taking a walk in the woods or a lovely path through your city, snap images with your smartphone. Then, upload them directly to Instagram. Select a filter you like, and post it.

As you post your image to Instagram, you can simultaneously post it to other accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, but I don’t recommend that you sync to Twitter.

When you sync Instagram and Twitter, the tweets appear as links and your followers won’t be able to see the images until they click on the link. Few will do this. Consequently, the links will generate poor engagement, if any.

On the contrary, syncing Instagram to Facebook is seamless. The comment and hashtags you write for your Instagram post will integrate smoothly with your Facebook profile as well as the image. This is how to connect your accounts:

Navigate to your Instagram profile on your smartphone.
Tap the gearshift in the top-right corner.
Click Linked Accounts and select the websites you want to sync with.

Don’t want to sync your accounts and rather decide on a case-by-case basis? Then as you’re about to post your image on Instagram, indicate that you also want to post it to Facebook.

How Authors Can Use Instagram

Many authors have taken to Instagram, expanding their brand, and letting readers learn more about them than what they write or blog about. Check out these examples:

Tyler Knott Gregson

You’ll find Tyler on Instagram where he’s known as Tyler Knott, an #Instapoet on this app. He’s a successful poet who rose to fame by using Instagram. He creates quote images and posts them mostly on Twitter and Instagram.

Here’s one of his poems displayed as an image:

Jane Friedman

Jane was excited about the inclusion of an essay she wrote in an anthology and announced its availability with this picture of the cover. Granted, it’s not an exciting cover, but it’s still a good use of Instagram.

Orna Ross

Orna likes to take pictures of her surroundings and give her readers and colleagues a sense of the beauty where she lives.

Grammarly

This image with a thought bubble is perfect for Grammarly, an online application that corrects grammar and word usage in your writing. Notice the logo placement in the lower left-hand corner.

Fleur Hols

Barcelona writer Fluer Hols chose this quote image featuring Maya Angelou.

Kate Kisset

Romance novelist Kate Kisset posted this image of a vineyard near where she lives in Northern California.

Crissi Langwell

While attending an Indie author event at a library, Northern California author Crissi took an image of a display of her books.

Gordon Warnock

Agent Gordon Warnock’s Instagram feed is named for his dog, Archer and the feed is called archersnack. Gordon regularly posts touching or amusing images of his dog.

When to Post on Instagram

The easiest time to post is right after you take a picture or create one. You can also plan your posts.

According to Later, a scheduling application for Instagram, the best time to post is between 2 am and 5 pm EST, with 5 pm being the most opportune time. The best day to post is on Wednesdays. According to Co-Schedule, the best time to post is between 8 am and 9 am EST.

I think that the best time to post is when you receive the most engagement from your followers. So test several times of the day and try to post consistently at your own optimal time.

How to Grow Your Account Organically

I include this information not because numbers are important – people and engagement are important – but because we can all become impatient with growing our accounts. The best way to expand the follower count on any social media channel is organically. Here are some tips:

Choose a posting frequency and stick to it. You want your followers to be able to rely on your for content they love.
Cross-promote from other channels. Don’t be shy to ask your Facebook friends or Snapchat followers to check you out on Instagram.
Create a photo theme by creating consistency in theme by using the same font, filters, and cropping style.
Use hashtags. On Instagram, you can use quite a few of them.
Experiment with emojis.
Do giveaways.
Create quote images.
Share your followers’ posts.
Include faces in some of your images.
Share Instagram posts to Facebook.

Instagram Stories

No post on Instagram would be complete without some mention of Stories. Instagram Stories are temporary videos or photos (similar to Snapchat’s feature) strung together to tell a story. To create one, follow these directions:

Swipe left in your news feed. You can also quickly launch Stories by swiping right from the main screen.
Tap the circle button at the bottom of the screen to take photos or tap and hold to record a video.
Edit the photos or videos with text or add a drawing.
Tap Done to save your Story.
Tap the checkmark button to share your Story.

Boomerangs

Perhaps to further compete with Snapchat, Instagram added the Boomerang feature. When you create a Boomerang, you take a burst of 20 photo frames and then Instagram speeds them up forward and backward to create a looping video. Here’s what to do according to Instagram:

Tap the circle at the bottom of the screen. To control the length of your video, you can swipe the screen to switch between your phone’s front and rear-facing camera.

Tap the Instagram or Facebook icon to share your Boomerang video, or send the video to a friend.

Tap save in the top right to save the Boomerang to your phone’s camera roll.

Scheduling Apps for Instagram

Once you start using Instagram regularly, you might want the option to schedule images in advance.

Onlypult

With this app, you can upload images and videos from your computer, not just your smartphone. Onlypult also provides analytics. Plans start at $12/month.

Later

This tool enables you to upload images from your computer, iPhone, Tablet, or Android, plan and schedule your posts, upload videos and manage multiple accounts if you have more than one. On a free account, you can upload 30 posts per month.

Buffer

With a free account, you can use this app to schedule posts to Instagram. If you opt for a paid account, starting at $10/month, you can also view your analytics.

How do you use Instagram as an author? Do you have any questions or tips of your own? Please do share in the comments below and join the conversation.

Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She’s a regular speaker at the San Francisco Writers Conference. In addition, she’s a contributing writer at TheBookDesigner.com, blogger and Social Media Expert for BookWorks, and blogger at Bowker’s Self-Published Author.

She’s written several social media books including The Author’s Guide to Goodreads, Social Media Just for Writers, and Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, finding new readers, and selling more books. Her clients include authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for my free email course.

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