When people think of social media, they think of Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter, but rarely do they give LinkedIn the time and respect that it deserves.
LinkedIn is not great for fiction or general books, but if your book appeals to thought leadership, then LinkedIn is the perfect platform for every author when building their audience and promoting their book.
But even if your book is not for leaders, it is still the perfect social media tool for authors in building a professional network in which to share their expertise.
Here are a few tips to help you begin to build a presence on LinkedIn.
- Post content that engages your audience
To build interest in your work as an author, there are some key ways that you can engage your audience. The five main types of posts are: blog posts, curated content, native video, text-only posts, and photos/graphics. You can use all these to your advantage by sharing updates on your book writing process, when your next book is coming out, elaborating on key excerpts from your book, or sharing your thoughts on articles you read (or wrote). What’s important is that you open up the floor to conversation with other people on the platform by leveraging engagement with interesting posts. Use your expertise on a topic to provide value, build intrigue, and give valuable insight.
Remember, people respect authors, so you can use this to your advantage.
You can tell your audience why you wrote the book, when it is being released, as well as providing a call to action to pre-order your book. if your book is already published, then you can post content from your book, which reminds the reader that your book is available.
2) You need to post consistently
You can post content on LinkedIn weekly, if possible. The real key is to make sure that you post content that is relevant to your audience. Posting quality content is key. If you are able to create consistent, engaging content over a long period of time, you will be able to build your audience, slowly. And as your audience grows, so does the number of people you can promote your upcoming books to.
3) Make use of analytics
LinkedIn has some of the best analytics built into it. From one simple post, you can check analytics such as the number of likes, comments, and people reached. You can also see the companies in which these people are based and also what companies they work for.
These analytics help you to determine what posts are the most engaging and what your audience likes the most. You can track your analytics straight inside LinkedIn, or through tools such as Hootsuite and Smarterqueue, to see what is working in terms of engagement. Having a long-term look on posts that have done well goes a long way in informing your decisions moving forward.
Make sure you make use of hashtags too. On LinkedIn, you can use hashtags in your posts to increase the chance people will see what you post. Use them to categorize your content and attract people through hashtag topics they are interested in. Additionally, you can follow hashtags and see conversations based on those topics. Engage with those posts. They are useful to gain the attention of people who aren’t following you yet. Examples of hashtags that do well depend on the number of followers of the hashtag and its relevance to your post. If you’re an author, using #author, #book, #writing, are all no brainers. Do some investigation by following these hashtags and see what other people are doing and the levels of engagement they’re getting.
Connect Constantly
Lastly, use LinkedIn as a means to communicate with peers you admire, companies you work with, and companies that you want to notice you. The larger your network, the greater the likelihood your posts will get meaningful engagement.
On LinkedIn, add a personal note when attempting to connect with someone; which gives you a chance to authentically express why connecting would be valuable to them. For example, if you’re an author, there are tangible reasons why you’d want to connect with a book reviewer.
Check to see if you have similar interests, work history, or you can even use LinkedIn’s Alumni Tool to see people who’ve attended the same university as you.
LinkedIn is a professional social network. Use it to your advantage to increase engagement, expand your network, and provide value through your expertise.