Promote Your Book on These Social Media Sites Even With Zero Followers
Why you don’t need a huge following to make that sale today
When we think of social media marketing, we immediately think about the number of followers.
Whether it’s Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest, we think that we first need to gather a large following before we can promote our products there. And of course it helps if you already have many followers.
But what if the timing isn’t right? What if you already have a book and you have no time to set up your social media presence?
Some people buy accounts that have already been set up by others. And they can decide to pay for those in exchange for the sales they estimate they could get from these accounts.
However, there is no assurance that these purchased social media accounts can be effective in promoting your book. A large following doesn’t necessarily equate to big sales.
Your followers should not only be big in number. They should also be suited for the product you’re promoting. If it is a book, will these followers be suited for your niche?
If You Have Zero Social Media Followers
At first, you may think it’s impossible to promote anything with a “zero” social media following. But in this post, I will tell you how it can be done.
The first thing you would have to consider is what type of social media account you can use for this. The second thing to think about is the method you’re going to use in promotion.
Let’s look at the social media accounts below and how you can promote your book on each one with no huge number of followers:
1. Facebook
Yes, you can still use Facebook even with very few initial followers. And there are two methods that you can use to promote your book here:
a. Advertisements
Instead of using your money to buy a Facebook account from an unknown source or irrelevant niche, you can simply pay for Facebook Ads when promoting your book!
b. Promoting in Facebook Groups
You can have no followers at all and still promote your book to relevant Facebook Groups by sharing a link of your book there.
First, post your link to your Facebook Page with a photo or a description of your book that would entice your readers.
Then, share this post to numerous Facebook Groups that you think would be related to your book.
As an example, there are various groups that focus on promoting Kindle books. And if you offer your book for a discount, there are also Facebook Groups where you can share your link to your discounted book.
Just be careful in doing so because sharing your post to an unusually high number of Facebook Groups may get your account temporarily restricted by Facebook.
If your account is new (and that’s the reason you have zero following), you should limit your posts to these groups to less than 10 per day. And don’t post in multiple groups at once!
Wait for a few minutes, or even better, post at different times in a day until you have shared your link to your target number of Facebook groups.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest is unique because the lifespan of your post there will be far longer than other social media accounts.
Lifespan is defined as the duration of time when your posts can still gather active engagements and clicks. While the lifespan of your posts in other social media accounts can only last for minutes or hours, your Pinterest posts can last in a number of months!
And this is because of SEO. Think of Pinterest as another type of search engine like Google. As a search engine, it has its own algorithm and ranking system.
To rank high on certain keywords, you need to use relevant keywords in the title and description of your post. Apply those keywords as well to the name of your Pinterest board. You should also ensure that your Pin or Pinterest post is attractive visually because this is a very important element when it comes to Pinterest.
The more attractive your Pins are, the more they will be Pinned (or saved) by other users and the higher you will also rank in their algorithm.
I have sold books from Pinterest because of this. And I have received clicks to my book link even after months of posting them.
You can read more about it in this post:
The Unexpected Source of My Book Sales!
I have more than 10 books published on Amazon and other digital stores. And while I cannot say that is my main source of income, I’m still happy whenever I see some sales coming in! When I first started selling a book online, I didn’t even know where to start. I relied on the number of visitors coming to my website and I sold the book directly from there.
When you convert your Pinterest to a business account, you can see the metrics or statistics where you can study your posts better. You can see which ones receive the most traffic and which ones have the most outbound clicks to your books.
Bonus tip:
Similar to Facebook Groups, you can also join Group Boards on Pinterest. By joining, you can share your Pins with more people. This in turn will help you in promoting your book.
Conclusion
You don’t need a very huge following to start promoting your books on the above social media channels. But you need to take advantage of some features that can help you expose your book to your relevant niche.
Study the various methods available for promoting your book and then gradually grow your following also to make the most of your Facebook and Pinterest accounts.