Here’s Why Having an Established Social Platform Is So Important For Book Promotion

written by Vicky Lynch

A lot of potential clients come to us for help promoting their book and leveling up their platform and brand. Every single one of our clients has brought so much value, knowledge, and expertise to the table that have all made our job promoting them a true pleasure. The one thing that not everyone has brought? An established social media presence. 

Now, this isn’t a deal-breaker, but having a social presence is INVALUABLE when it comes time to promote your new book. Now, it’s completely understandable why many people haven’t had the time for this. In this day and age we are supposed to succeed in our careers, juggle our personal and professional lives, conquer the world and build an online following? It’s exhausting. But let me explain.

Here are 4 reasons why having an established social media platform will help you as an author: 

• Your social media following makes you more attractive to the media. We use everything we can to sell your expertise to our media contacts. They are interested in your professional credentials, your area of expertise, how well the books you’ve written have sold, your media experience, and yes, your social media following. If an editor has one guest blog spot open and two candidates that they know can write well on a topic that is going to be a great fit for their audience, they will always pick a writer who has 50k followers on Facebook over one with 250 followers. It’s simple. It also helps build THEIR outlet’s reach and platform. 
• Having a social media presence is a HUGE legitimizer. We can tell people all day long how brilliant and smart you are, and how much value your expertise will add to a particular outlet’s audience. Do you know what speaks louder? Thousands of other people who also think you’re pretty amazing. 
• It’s easier to pull together book influencers. When you already have a tribe who trusts you, it’s way easier to find people to support your new projects. Followers will clamour to share your book posts to win a prize, or buy and review your book on Amazon just to support you. You have a fan club at the ready and they all act as micro influencers spreading news about your book far and wide.
• You’ve got content. Chances are if you have a large social following, you are nurturing that following through regular posts. So whether your publicist or someone in the media is checking out your page,  they can get a lot more information on your expertise, and it goes back as long as you’ve had that account. It can translate into a lot more coverage for you and your book. 

As I mentioned above, it’s not a deal-breaker. We’ve had a lot of clients who have had successful book campaigns without a large social media presence. That said, I know you’ll agree that it doesn’t hurt to start nurturing your audience yesterday. We’d love to chat with you to find out more about your PR needs and can offer suggestions for how to leverage coverage to build your online community.