How I Use Social Media as an Author

Social media is generally seen as a must-have nowadays for creatives. Some writers love it. Others hate it. I find most fall somewhere in between. Which is why I wanted to talk about it. 

Being online can certainly come with its pros and cons. I have days where I love the connections I make and the information that I learn—and I have days where I feel how much of a time suck it can be. (Not to mention the dreaded imposter syndrome.) That said, I learned a long time ago that you must treat social media like a job. That often means adjusting your approach, researching new options, and paying attention to stats. 

Here are the main platforms I use in the order that I prioritize them and why (and a few tips along the way). That doesn’t mean this will work for you. It’s just to show you why I chose the platforms that I’m on and how I utilize them to the best of my ability. 

First and foremost, I recommend utilizing a third-party scheduler. I use one for every single platform that I’m on. I typically use the one integrated into the platform, which is why I’m putting this at the top with no specific name. For Twitter, I use the “Schedule Tweet” feature. For Instagram, I use the Later app. For Facebook, I use the Creative Studio. And so on and so forth. Scheduling saves me a lot of time and effort (and it prevents me from spending all day online). I highly recommend it! There are third-party schedulers that will cross-post on multiple platforms, but I’ve found those to look clunky and less than ideal on certain places. (Ex. An Instagram link will post on Twitter rather than the photo.) 

Finally, I’d recommend having an easy-to-remember, relevant username that is consistent across all your platforms. I use @AuthorSAT. I could’ve been @Coffee&Cats23, but that name doesn’t tell people what my platform is about. Make yourself easy to look up, and connect all your platforms on your website.

Without further ado, here are the specific platforms I use: 

Twitter: I’ve met some of my best writer friends on Twitter, and I’ve also come across hundreds of writing opportunities on there. If you’re a writer, Twitter is the place to be. That said, more writers are leaving Twitter than ever before, too, so that may change in the near future. For now, I really enjoy my interactions. I aim to tweet at least once a day, and I log in twice a day to respond to interactions or DMs. Overall, considering the trend of leaving Twitter, I think Twitter is a lesson in not putting your eggs in one basket. What’s in one day could be out the next. So make sure you have 2-3 platforms that you use throughout the year. Be authentic, and honor the 80-20 rule. (20% or less of what you post should be about your products.) 

Instagram: I’ve definitely ramped up my Instagram as of late. (Like, really recently.) It used to be a place where I periodically posted what I was reading, but as of January 2021, I realized that I truly enjoy the photo-focused feed. I like to take photos, so it seemed like a natural fit. I also find it a lot easier to interact with writers and readers on Instagram, rather than just writers on Twitter. 

Facebook: I admit, I neglected my Facebook page a lot in 2020, but now that I’m back on schedule, it only takes me a minute to copy and paste my Twitter/Instagram posts onto the Creator Studio in Facebook so that it shares on there, too. And that pays off! I’m actually getting a lot more interaction on Facebook than I ever expected. So much so that I’m considering spending a lot more time and effort on there rather than other platforms. This might be because I mostly focused on Facebook when my novels were releasing a number of years ago, so I have a lot of readers who’ve actually read my work on there. It’s hard to say. But I’ve enjoyed it, and I find it much easier to keep the page going with fun memes and book/writing discussions than other platforms that favor more independent content. 

WordPress: Obviously, I’m using WordPress right now to write this blog post. I’ve been on here since 2012, and my blog has gone from posting every other day to once a month to today’s schedule of every first and third Monday of the month. I love blogging. When I first started, a lot of others did, too. I admit, blogging has since fallen out of favor—and that might’ve been one of the reasons I stepped back—but at the end of the day, I love blogging, so I am going to continue to do so. Weirdly, statistically speaking, my views haven’t dipped much at all. It’s the interactions that have slowed down. It can be discouraging, but I am trying to give myself more room to do what I want to do, and blogging is one of those joys for me. 

Mailchimp: I have a newsletter that I send out four times a year. It used to be more, but with no book news, I think four times a year is enough (for now). My newsletter includes an exclusive sneak peek at my WIP, giveaways, secret writing tips, and a behind-the-scenes look at where I’m at in my writing career. I love this newsletter, and I look forward to the day I can send it out more often! Just need to get that book deal first. 😉 I recommend every author have a newsletter. It might not feel necessary now, but you’ll be grateful that you have one when you need to share exciting news and you don’t have to depend on social media feeds to favor you that day. 

Goodreads: As a writer, I’m also a reader, and I love nothing more than tracking what I read. Goodreads has been that place for me. I don’t necessarily use it to interact with folks, but I do notice readers who follow me elsewhere liking and commenting on my reading updates. To me, it seems that readers enjoy seeing what authors are reading. It gives us something to fangirl over together, and to me, that’s precious. That said, if you are an author, I would discourage you from writing reviews, especially poor reviews. I only rate my favorite reads with five stars, and that’s it.  

Pinterest: I mainly use Pinterest for writing planning. I love nothing more than pinning inspirational pictures to secret boards for WIPs I’m still dreaming about. But I also use it to share blog posts. No matter where your content is, make sure you’re sharing it on other platforms. One of my biggest articles on this website is because it became a popular “Writing Tips” pin that still circulates today. If you can create custom images for Pinterest, even better. But I don’t have enough time for that. I just pin the image of the article and make sure to use good SEO. 

LinkedIn: I certainly use LinkedIn more in my library career life, but I also have my blog synced with my LinkedIn, so every post on here goes directly to that website. It’s a simple way to spread content without much hassle, and it works! I get a dozen or so views from there every time. Again, make sure you’re sharing your content on other platforms and not become siloed.  

Wattpad: I’ve been on Wattpad for years now. My novel, Take Me Tomorrow, actually started as a Wattpad book, before it was published by a small press that later closed down. When that press closed down, I decided to put it back on Wattpad rather than try to get it published elsewhere. It’s a fun place to share stories that you don’t plan on pursuing traditional publication with. I now have Take Me Tomorrow and Took Me Yesterday (book 2) on Wattpad for readers to catch up on, as well as some Bad Bloods prequel stories that die-hard fans can check out. But again, I wouldn’t recommend posting any work that you plan on pursuing traditional publishing with. Only side stories. And those definitely come last on my radar. My books that I am pursuing publication with must come first. But having a piece that I can share with readers is really delightful since I’m in between publications at the moment.

Of course there are plenty of other socials out there. TikTok is on the rise, for instance. I actually have one, but I’ve only used it to watch. I also used to have a YouTube channel, and it’s still up, but I haven’t updated it in years. I just didn’t have the time, energy, or technology to make that platform what I wanted it to be. And that’s okay. 

I’m a big believer in being on the platforms that you love the most. I also believe you should be spending more time creating art than talking about it. So, writing comes before socializing online. But that’s just me. 

For those of you who love stats, I thought I’d share my biggest referrals to my website: 

My biggest referring to my website by far was Google, and then the WordPress Reader. After that, in order, I have Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, with others’ blogs scattered in between. Interestingly enough, these are a different order than what I prioritize. But that comes down to one fact: These are just referrals to my website. Of course WordPress Reader would be at the top, because my website itself is a WordPress site. That stat may seem interesting, but it doesn’t show how many people find me on Twitter and go to my Facebook or Amazon page, or vice versa. 

Basically, keep your stats in mind, but also trust your gut. You may not be getting the whole picture through behind-the-scenes numbers.

I actually wrote about this in July 2014, if you want to see how my socials have changed. Here’s that post. If I were to sum it up, I actually used to spend a lot more time online being social. Mostly because it was my day job at the time and I had books actively releasing. I didn’t like Twitter much, mostly because my timeline was full of spam in comparison to today, but I’ve definitely started spending more time on what I want to do rather than what I think I should be doing. 

How do you use social media as an author?

~SAT