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Before I share the top10 Facebook Tips to increase book sales that EVERY author needs to know, let me begin by explaining why every author needs to be on Facebook.

So, Do Authors Need Facebook?

The quick answer is YES! As an author, you can choose if you want to be on other social media platform (like Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram), but you need to be on Facebook. With 2.7 billion users, Facebook is the only social media platform where every author’s audience is on. Other social media networks don’t cater to every industry or audience segment.

It is important to know who your target audience is before you create profiles on other social media networks. You only want to be on social media networks that your audience is also apart of. For example, Pinterest’s users are mostly moms, lifestyle bloggers, beauty gurus.

Facebook Tactics For Authors

There was once a time when authors could just write their book, hand it to an agent and let the publisher do the rest of the work. Now we are in the 21st century, and everything has changed. Authors today must also market their book and build an author platform where they can engage with their readers. One of the most facebook tactics for authors and ways to get more book sales is by engaging with targeted readers through Facebook. In this article, I will be sharing the top 10 Facebook tips to increase book sales. These Facebook tips for authors will help you build a tribe of loyal readers who help you further promote your book.

Here are the top 10 Facebook Tips To Increase Book Sales You Need

1. Create A Vanity URL

When you first create your Facebook author page, you’ll be assigned a random URL, consisting of a lot of numbers. To make your page easier to find and your links more recognizable, you should turn this link into a vanity URL aka your book title or author name. This will transform your URL from something like facebook.com/pages/123456789 to the much clearer facebook.com/yourbooktitle.

2. Setting Up Your Facebook Tabs

Once you’ve chosen your template, a system of default tabs will appear below it. You should reorder these tabs to put the ‘Shop Tab’ first, and the ‘Events Tab’ second. Rearranging the tabs is easy, just click n drag.

3. Setting Up Facebook Shop

To begin setting up your shop, click on the “Shop” tab from the left-hand column. A pop-up box will appear asking you to agree to the Seller’s Terms and Policies. Check the box and click continue. You will then be asked to choose a checkout method. Select “checkout on another website” so that you can direct readers to the Amazon page for your book.

When you’re done, click save. After that, you’ll be able to add books to your store!

4. Adding a Book To Your Store

Once your Facebook shop is set up, you will need to add some products aka books to it. To add a book, you will need an image that is square and with a resolution of 1024 pixels by 1024 pixels. This image should contain the book cover and cannot include any promotional material or text, or else Facebook may remove it.

You may be thinking, “book covers are rectangular, how do I make them square?” If you upload a book cover as is, the image will be distorted, and readers will not be able to see the cover properly. You will have to use an image editing program like Photoshop or Canva to create the square image.

Once you have the image, go to your author page and click on the Shop tab. Next, click on ‘Add Product.’ Fill out the form with the book title, price, book description, and URL. The URL should take the reader directly to a place they can purchase the book, i.e., Amazon. You should make sure your book is ‘Featured.’ To do this, check the “Feature This Product” box.

5. Set Your Facebook Button

At the top right side of every Facebook business page is a big blue button that says ‘Shop Now.’ Make sure you add the URL that will take readers to a place where they can purchase your book. But if you want to push email signups instead of sales, you may want to change the button to say ‘Learn More’ or ‘Sign Up Now.’

6. Use Facebook Stories

This tool was created to help you! Use it! Facebook stories don’t take up much time. Plus when you publish a new story, your audience will receive an alert!

Facebook stories don’t involve any editing and don’t need to be perfect. Just pick up your phone and start vlogging! The stories are also there for only 24 hrs then poof they disappear!

7. Use Facebook Advertising To Boost Your Audience

Yes, this may be at an additional fee, but it’s more than worth it. This step guarantees that you will have an audience. Those eyeballs don’t come cheap!

8. Use Facebook Audience Insights to find new interest audiences to target

Expand your audience targeting by finding other authors and readers through Facebook Audience Insights tool. Plug in your best-performing audience and see which pages it has an active crossover.

9. Improve Your Organic Reach With Tagging

Want to maximize your organic reach and start gaining followers organically? Try tagging your readers, other authors, businesses, or Facebook pages. Or when you share an article from a publication on your Facebook page, always tag the media outlet and journalist.

10. Try Boosting A Post

Boosting a post is available to anyone with a business page. Boosting a post on Facebook means paying to get your content seen by more people. Creating an Ad on Facebook is very different from boosting a post. With a Facebook ad, you are creating an entirely new targeted ad. With boosting a post, you are boosting an already published post. Make sure you’re boosting a post that is already doing well, and that has a high ROI (return on investment) value.

Benefits of boosting a Facebook post:

• Make up for declining organic reach.
• Reach a wider targeted audience.
• Access to analytics.

Conclusion: Facebook Tips To Increase Book Sales Every

Following these 10 Facebook tips to increase book sales will dramatically help you gain traction on Facebook. I used these same Facebook strategies for authors to help them grow their readership.

There is one facebook tip for authors that will always get you the most results. That tip is investing in Facebook Ads. Just because it’s free to use Facebook for promoting your book doesn’t mean it’s free to become successful.

A common misconception is that successful authors don’t invest money in their brand is false. There are plenty of things you can do to grow your Facebook account organically, but once you get to a particular stage, it pays to pay. I actually have a secret facebook strategy that I have used to help authors build a credible and highly engaged audience from zero to one thousand overnight. Want to know? Join my newsletter, and I will email you the secret.)

I hope this article helped inspire you to start growing your readership on Facebook! Looking for more social media advice? Join my Authors only Facebook group where I will answer any of your marketing or publishing questions. Plus I am giving away my free 20 page social media guidebook that has over 100 tips for authors in it!

Are you an author who is struggling to promote your book on Twitter? You want more followers, more engagement, and of course, more book sales. You see other authors killing it on Twitter, and you want some success yourself. So where do you start? Well, don’t panic. I have you covered in promoting your book with these Twitter tips for authors. I use these same Twitter strategies to promote my client’s book on Twitter.

Twitter can be a very much underestimated platform. Twitter doesn’t have the same kind of targeting that Facebook has. Instead, it’s a very open social media platform, where anyone can find your content through immense viral potential. You may have an audience of 50 people, but one retweet from one popular person can give your tweet a reach into tens of thousands of people or more.

Every author needs a Twitter account. However, you don’t need to tweet every day or every week to gain success on Twitter.

What Makes Twitter Good For Book Promotion?

Tweeting your way to book sales can be a thing. But it takes a strategy and time. Instant success is rarely a thing. One of the marketing advantages that Twitter has over other social media platforms is anyone interested in a subject can easily search for information. That means, if you tweet your topic well and use the right hashtags, people will be able to find you better. Tweets that are on topic and use relevant hashtags work with Twitter’s search functionality- making those tweets a potential audience magnet for you and your book.

How To Promote Your Book On Twitter

Powerful book promotion on Twitter can take less than 2 hours a week for authors.

Two hours a week is not that much time if it can result is successful book sales. Just think of you tweeting your book towards bestseller status. Sounds good right? But how? It is all about using the right social media tools and having a Twitter strategy for your book in place.

There is only one social media tool you need for promoting your book on Twitter. The tool is just for monitoring and scheduling tweets in the Twitterverse. The tool I recommend is either Hootsuite or TweetDeck. Both these tools essentially let you schedule tweets, monitor your book and author brand, and see who is talking about the things that matter to you.

For example, if you are a GrimDark writer, then you would use TweetDeck to help find other GrimDark writers on Twitter and monitor all of their conversations. It might sound creepy. However, your goal is to insert yourself into the current discussion and connect with other readers and authors who love GrimDark as well.

To further help you promote your book on Twitter, here are my top 5 Twitter tips for authors.

Top 5 Twitter Tips For Author

1. Smart Use Of Hashtags On Twitter

Twitter is the birthplace of hashtags, so make sure to be smart about it. According to research, two hashtags per tweet is the optimal amount!

2. Keep Your Messages Short On Twitter

Research shows that the best length for a tweet is around 103 characters. Keep it short and sweet!

3. Post At The Best Time On Twitter

On average, a Twitter post lasts for around 18 minutes. You want to use these 18 minutes to your advantage. Post when traffic is at its heaviest. These times usually are around 5-6pm, 12 pm sharp and 3 pm.

4. Use Twitter Lists To Curate Content

‘Twitter Lists’ is a curated group of Twitter accounts. You can create your own Lists or subscribe to Lists created by others.

• Follow these steps to create a List:
• Visit your Lists page via the gear icon drop-down menu or by clicking Lists on your profile page.
• Click Create List.
• Name the List & provide a description.
• Designate the List as Public or Private.
• Save the List.

5. Use Images To Gather People’s Interest On Twitter

Twitter isn’t just about sharing short messages. Use this platform to share quick informational images such as infographics. People are visual, and your tweet will pop out more if it has an image along with it.

Advanced Twitter Strategies For Authors

If you are seasoned Tweeter, then this section is for you. The only way to gain success on Twitter is to get better at it and to provide excellent content that offers value to your readers. To help you become better at Twitter here are some advanced tips.

Here are six advanced Twitter Tips for authors.

1. Find Your Target Reader On Twitter And Connect With Them

Following your target reader and commenting on their tweet will help you get noticed. You want your readers to connect with you on Twitter…well guess what they want the same thing. Why not be the first to make that connection. Third party tools like TweetDeck can help you find your target reader on Twitter.

2. Keep Track Of Public Opinion

Twitter is the best social media platform to track public opinions. Different social media tools can help your author brand monitor the surrounding change of public opinion and steer your Twitter campaign in the right direction.

3. Find, Follow, And Connect With Key Twitter Influencers

I love all types of influencer marketing. Twitter influencer marketing is actually underused- making it an excellent opportunity for authors to connect and work with Twitter influencers. Influencers on Twitter are key individuals that have influence over others and can drive their opinion and liking activities around a brand, event, or book. Influencers are mostly industry specific. So, make sure you connect with Influencer who are relevant to your book and brand.

4. Ensure Your Followers Stay Interested

The contents of your Tweet can make a difference in engaging your followers or making them click the unfollow button. The trick to making sure your Twitter followers stay engaged is to tweet your readers what they want.

Here are some key points to keep in mind while writing a tweet:

• The tweet should be either highly informative or extremely attractive
• Always include images, gifs or videos
• Tag top industry influencers in the image
• Include popular hashtags to increase the reach
• Create quizzes and contests to better engage with your readership

5. Use Direct Messages Wisely

You don’t want to excessively advertise your book when sending a direct message to any Twitter user. Instead, be polite and send messages that are personalized to each contact.

6. Build Trust By Staying Transparent

Transparency builds trust, which will automatically help you grow your following and book sales. It is essential to be real by not over-promising what you cannot deliver.

I don’t suggest doing ALL of the Twitter tips for authors. Instead, I recommend adding a few of these author tips into your strategy. Once you feel more confident, you can start using more and more of these Twitter tips for authors. Remember, an active Twitter network can help you power up your book promotion and sales.

Looking for more social media advice? Join my Authors only Facebook group where I will answer any of your marketing or publishing questions. Plus I am giving away my free 20 page social media guidebook that has over 100 tips for authors in it!