Social media is more than just an outlet for announcing your eBooks and a means to improve sales, although a variety of social media platforms are useful for that. Social media is, however, that which connects indie authors to existing and potential readers, transforming them into dedicated and loyal fans – a street crew of sorts – that are willing to carry part of the burden of marketing your eBooks.
How do you turn social media connections into a street crew? You give them a glimpse of you: the author.
Your social media efforts should not – and cannot – be only about sales. In fact, the biggest way social media can help you is in branding yourself as an indie author and providing you with a variety of platforms from which to share, grow, and develop your visibility as an author.
The following social media platforms are crucial for authors, and we’ll discuss why and how each should be used in coming blogs:
- Goodreads: The author/reader platform for connecting, discussing, and sharing.
- Facebook: While you can allow people to follow your personal profile on Facebook, it is through your author page that you will realize the most benefit.
- Twitter: Twitter is a must-have for every author and one of the quickest platforms to launch and build a following.
- Tumblr: Often-overlooked, Tumblr is an excellent platform for building your brand as an author and making management of other platforms easier.
- Instagram: Instagram is the platform every indie author should consider adding in 2015 if they are not already using it.
- Pinterest: As image-based connecting becomes even more important, Pinterest is a platform you shouldn’t be without.
- Google+: While there are some who claim Google failed at its social media experiment, the improvement in visibility from having Google+ makes it a worthy platform.
