With 3.96 billion users worldwide, social media is clearly a great marketing tool, for businesses and authors alike. Even if you can get your eBook in front of a small percentage of social media users, your sales can get a good boost. However, you can’t just do blatant self-promotion on every social media platform and expect people to listen to you. There are certain ways to go about promoting things on social media. This is exactly what we’re going to help you learn. Keep reading to get some tips to promote your eBook with social media.

Promoting eBooks on Social Media – 7 Useful Tips

Here are some simple and useful tips for promoting your eBook on social media to get a good return on investment:

1. Pick Your Platforms

While you may want to go all out and promote your eBook on every social site, it may not necessarily be the right approach for everyone. Use the good ol’ marketing advice of locating your audience to know what social media platforms you should be promoting your eBook on.

In view of various social media usage statistics, marketing experts agree that presence on Facebook and Twitter is somewhat mandatory. These two platforms form the basis of your social media marketing campaign. Others can be added as needed, depending on your niche and/or the topic of the eBook. For example, if the eBook targets professionals or people involved in B2B sales, LinkedIn is the best site to connect and engage with your target audience.

But, if it’s female-centric, you may want to add Pinterest to your marketing platforms. And while Instagram has captured everyone’s attention in a comparatively shorter period, it’s considered a great marketing tool for businesses or industries where visuals play a vital role. It’s also a great platform for targeting the younger audience.

There is no one stopping you from using all social media channels to promote your eBook. But, to better invest your time and energy, it’s recommended to choose the right (best) platforms and focus on them only to get the best return on investment.

2. Use Customized Social Banners and Covers for your ebook

Banners or cover photos are one of the first things (if not the first) that grab visitors’ attention on a social page or profile. Use them to your advantage; create a customized cover photo to tell people about your eBook.

3. Create Buzz with Snippets

Find interesting quotes, stats, sentences, or appealing images from your eBook and share them across your social platforms to entice your audience and incite their curiosity to know more. Start doing this while you’re still in the process of eBook writing, so you have plenty of time to create buzz around your content offer. Don’t forget to add a clickable link to your eBook if it’s already published and available for purchase.

While this isn’t exactly related, you can also share behind-the-scenes pictures or bits and pieces of your everyday routine during the eBook writing process to keep your audience engaged and make them look forward to your upcoming book.

4. Make Use of Popular Hashtags

This may require some digging, but incorporating popular or commonly used hashtags into your promotional posts can really help increase their reach and, through them, the visibility of your content offer, i.e., eBook. Make sure they are relevant to your eBook topic.

5. Participate in Social Media Communities and Forums

Social media is all about connecting with others. It provides numerous ways for people to get in touch and engage with each other. Groups, communities, and forums are great places to find and engage with a large number of like-minded people. These are platforms for learning and helping others. But, they can also serve as marketing platforms. Use them to promote your eBook.

But, instead of going with in-your-face marketing, we recommend you do it subtly and start with getting yourself known and establishing your expertise. Take part in discussions, answer others’ queries, and share your knowledge with others. Once you build a relationship with other group members, only then move on to promoting your eBook. People are more willing to download or purchase your book if they know you and are aware of your knowledge and expertise. So, take time to build your reputation in various communities and forums, contribute to them, and help others before asking them to do anything for you.

6. Run Paid Ads for your ebook

The good old “paid advertisements” are your surefire way to have your content offer reach your target audience. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – all these social platforms run paid ads where your offers are integrated into your target audience’s feeds to get more clicks. Make sure your ad is appealing and inviting, though.

Go All Out to Promote Your eBook, But Don’t Spam Your Audience

There is a fine line between marketing and spamming. Unfortunately, it’s common for people to cross that line, many a time unknowingly, and alienate their audience instead of drawing them in. Make sure you know the distinction between the two to get your eBook promotion right. Do not bombard your audience with promotional posts. Limit your posts to one to two per day on each channel and refrain from blatant, in-your-face marketing. Build a relationship with your audience and establish a reputation before asking people to do something for you, which in this case is downloading or purchasing your eBook.

If you’re struggling to get all things right, hire a professional. Many eBook services also offer marketing services in addition to eBook writing. It’s better to hire a reliable eBook service to make good use of social media for your eBook promotion than to do it all wrong on your own.

Image Credits

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash