Front-of-the-Line Social Media Marketing
A way authors can stand out among others on social-media.
Hi authors!
We want to start off this week by wishing you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the holiday, today’s newsletter is free to all.
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Now, onto this week’s newsletter…
Earlier this year, I wrote about using the “pin” feature on social media to keep purchase-links to your book(s) at the top of your social-media feed. It’s a method I continue to recommend.
Pinned posts are the first posts a visitor to your social-media profile sees, so it’s a smart movie, for the sake of ease and accessibility, to make that post a purchase-link. But on some social-media platforms, there’s an added benefit to pinning a post: front-of-the-line exposure.
On “X”, for example, when you pin a post, that post will show up in your followers’ “Pinned by people you follow” section that appears high up on their “Home” page.
In other words, when your followers login to X (formerly Twitter), your recently pinned post may be one of the very first things they see. It’s like cutting to the front of the line! That’s a big deal, and a good opportunity to get their attention. Therefore, for authors, it makes a lot of sense to switch back and forth from pinning links to your books, to pinning other important posts (like the announcement of a sale, an author appearance, or a book giveaway). However you choose to use the feature, active pinning on X can keep you on your followers’ radar.
Two more prominent examples of front-of-the-line social-media marketing are Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories. If you’re a user of either Instagram or Facebook, you likely already know what I’m talking about. These features let users share photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours. Because of that limited shelf-life, they’re promoted above regular posts — both literally and figuratively, since they appear to followers at the very top of every single user’s Instagram or Facebook page.
Here’s how they are displayed on Instagram:
And here’s how they look on Facebook:
Truth be told, a follower is far more likely to see one of your Instagram or Facebook stories than they are one of your regular posts, because of that top-billing. Each story (or collection of stories) is just a simple click — or tap — away.
What’s also nice with stories is that you can add hyperlinks. This helps you more easily direct followers to purchase your book(s).
However, don’t feel as though all of your stories need to be a hard-sell for your book. As we’ve discussed many times in this newsletter, it’s more about selling yourself, and building your author brand. Whether it’s pictures or short videos from you, or even entertaining posts from other people (both Instagram and Facebook let you easily share others’ content), just getting that front-of-the-line attention is valuable.
So, if you haven’t been taking advantage of Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories, you should probably start. There’s similar functionality on TikTok, Snapchat, and other social-media platforms. They’re great features for getting noticed.
That’s it for today. As always, we hope you found this information useful. Let us know if you have any questions, and good luck!