20 Ways to Promote Your Book

Authors invest a lot of time into crafting their books, so it’s important that their promotional efforts are effective. You don’t want hours of hard work and thousands of dollars to be poured into a book without results.

Before you create a marketing plan to promote your book, you must ask two key questions:

1. What value will readers get from your book?

2. Why should a reader listen to you over others?

These questions allow you to articulate your book's benefits, the needs it satisfies, and why you are uniquely qualified to serve those needs. Effective marketing of your book entails not only answering these questions but doing so before you even write the book. Doing this allows you to seamlessly integrate these promotional tactics into your writing process.

Now that you’ve started thinking about these questions, let’s dive deeper into 20 ways you can effectively promote your book.

1) Identify Your Audience

To effectively promote your book, you need to know who you are promoting to. Consider what your book is about, and who you are trying to reach. Once you identify your audience, you can conduct more research on the demographic. This will allow you to identify who they are, what they like, what they are looking for, what platforms they are on and much more. All of this will make it much easier to promote your book.

For non-fiction authors, this can be quite simple. For instance, if you are writing a beginner’s guide to car repairs, your audience comprises individuals interested in learning how to repair their car. However, for fiction authors, identifying your audience is a little trickier. Fiction books serve a variety of purposes and thus can appeal to various markets. Analyzing other fiction authors with similar themes might help you refine your target audience.

2) Perfect the Book

Now that you have written a great book, many other factors go into perfecting the book. The title, the cover, and the description all play a role in a successfully promoted book. The title gives them an idea of what the book is about, the cover plays a role in catching someone’s attention, and the description acts to sell the book. Before the release, you need to ensure all elements of the book, external and internal, are perfected and consistent. We will dive deeper into these elements in the following sections.

Remember that the title and description need to be SEO friendly. This will help to get your book recognized when people are googling online.

3) Create an Eyecatching Cover

You might know the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Although this is true, consumers can’t help but form opinions based on a book’s cover. When you are browsing a bookstore, you are overwhelmed by the number of available options. You tend to gravitate to a visually appealing cover. I know that I do this all the time. A nice cover grabs your attention in the sea of others, and it helps you to establish your perception of what the book is about.

Unfortunately, you might have a well-written book, but a poor cover can make the difference between someone picking up your book and skipping over it. Remember to remain consistent with your covers to establish a brand across all your works. This makes it easier for fans to quickly identify your books when they see them.

4) Write a Good Description

Most books are very long, and readers want to know what your book is about before buying it. So, a book description that is short and sweet is a great way to sell a reader on your book.

You need to be creative in this. Remember, an eye-catching cover is important. It’s enough to get the reader to pick up your book, but once they pick it up, they will read the description to decide if they want to buy it. So, your description can't simply describe what the book is about, it needs to sell to the reader why your book is worth purchasing. Think back to the question we asked at the beginning regarding what value a reader will get from your book. The description is where you can answer that question.

5) Take Your Author Photo

The book cover and the description are all about branding your book. But what about you? Readers are naturally curious about who the author is and how you can meet their needs. This takes us back to our second question about why a reader should listen to you over others.

An author photo helps to establish your personal brand and allows readers to feel more connected to you as an author. A great author photo sets a tone and can be used in your book, on your website, and across promotional materials.

6) Create an Author Website

Although the bulk of your sales may not come directly from your website, it’s still important to have a central place where readers can find more information about you. An author website will allow you to feature information about yourself and your books. It’s a great way to address the question of why a reader should listen to you over others.

Through the use of a website, you can promote your book with blogs, special releases, and other engaging content. You can also generate a mailing list and create a community of readers.

To optimize your website, make sure to include features like an About the Author Page, a section showcasing all your books with direct links to purchase them, a regular newsletter, and much more.

7) Utilize Email Marketing

Make sure to capitalize on email marketing. Leverage your existing newsletter subscribers to announce the release of your new book. Make sure to create engaging emails that not only introduce your book but explain the needs it fulfills. You can also offer exclusive sneak peeks through your email list that encourages individuals to be more engaged.

If you are looking to grow your email list, you might consider reader magnets like a free eBook, or giveaway, that gives people a reason to sign up. Once they sign up, you can use it as a way to continue to promote all your work.

8) Add the Book to Your Email Signature

Although it may seem small, it can make a difference. You probably send a ton of emails in a day, so why not promote your book while you do it? Adding your book to your email signature subtly promotes it without feeling like you're being pushy. This might even make someone more inclined to buy your book because they came across the email signature themselves and don’t feel like you tried to push a sale on them.

9) Reach out to Bloggers and Influencers

People love to hear what others have to say. It’s all about getting the right people to talk about your book. Before your book is released, reach out to bloggers and influencers who are well-known to your target audience. For instance, if you are writing a cookbook, reach out to a well-known influencer that makes cooking videos. These influencers possess a substantial following within your target demographic and hold considerable influence within the community.

By sharing your book with these influencers or bloggers, you leverage their credibility to endorse your work and share their genuine opinions with their audience. This will help to generate stronger interest in your book as the endorsement is coming from someone well-known within the space.

10) Leverage Your Social Media Presence

In today’s digital age, social media is a key part of marketing. If you already have a social media presence, work on continuing to build it. It’s important to start by identifying where your target market is and what platforms they use the most. Make sure to focus your marketing efforts on those platforms.

Through social media, you can announce your books, provide exclusives, and interact with potential readers. It’s a great way to get the discussion going and to generate a community.

There are a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc. Identifying the right platforms not only depends on where your target market is but also on what makes the most sense for you. For example, Twitter is a great platform for people to share their thoughts. This is a great opportunity for non-fiction authors to share their thoughts and solidify their expertise on the topic. On the other hand, TikTok is a creative platform that tends to have a younger audience. It’s a great opportunity for authors who have a younger demographic, or who want to capitalize on the BookTok community.

11) Videos and Livestreams

On the topic of using your social media presence, videos and livestreams are a useful tool. This allows you to engage with your audience and directly communicate with them. Through this, you can promote your book and tell them why they should be reading your book specifically.

One way you can utilize this is by holding Q&A sessions. This can either be through a live stream or you can have people submit questions in advance that you generate video responses to. Once you have generated some interest in your book, it is natural for readers to get excited and have questions. By holding a Q&A you can continue to generate interest and provide some more insight. Be mindful that you don’t reveal too much so that readers are still surprised once they read your book.

You can also create vlogs showing behind-the-scenes clips of you working on your book. This helps to get readers more engaged and excited about the process. It also humanizes you as an author and allows for a better connection. This all plays into author branding.

12) Collect Book Reviews

What’s something you do before you buy something? You check reviews. You might notice that seeing good reviews encourages buying while the absence of reviews causes hesitation. This applies to your book as well. Without reviews, potential readers may be less inclined to buy your book. It’s crucial that you have reviews when your book launches so that the interest you have generated translates into sales.

However, getting book reviews isn’t always an easy task. So, before your book launches, it’s important to give some people the opportunity to read it and write an honest review. You can send it to book bloggers, and subscribers, get a professional book review, and much more.

13) Gather Blurbs for Your Book

Similar to reviews, blurbs are a great way to promote your book. Blurbs are quotes about your book from others who have read it. The best blurbs are the ones that come from people who are trusted by your target audience. Make sure to do your research and send your book to the right people. Once you have great blurbs, you can include them in your book and promotional materials.

14) Make Friends in the Community

A great way to promote your book is to make friends and connections in the author community. Before you release your book, gain connections with other authors. You can help to promote their books, write reviews, engage with their social media, etc. You can also find online groups for authors that you can make connections with.

If you are willing to lend a hand to others, they will likely provide the same support to you when you release your book.

15) Start A Blog

If you already have a blog, that’s great, but if not you might want to consider starting one. A blog can be a long-lasting promotional tool if it is used right.

Starting a blog provides you an outlet to share all your thoughts that didn’t make it into your book. Especially for non-fiction authors, you can establish a stronger reputation and expertise in your field by releasing more content related to it. For example, if you wrote a cookbook, you might also have a blog that allows you to share more tips and recipes in the meantime while you write your next book.

Also, it’s a great way to stay connected with your readers and keep them up to date on your work, your life, etc. Readers tend to become very loyal to certain authors when they find one that they like. They start to love their work and are always eagerly waiting for the next thing. A blog will allow you to build a stronger connection and community with your readers and is a great way to continue promoting yourself and your work.

Frequent and regular posting is important so take the time to create a posting schedule that works for you. Remember to keep the content relevant to your space to ensure consistent messaging and marketing.

16) Create an Audiobook

It’s no secret that audiobooks are an increasingly popular way to enjoy a book. With the global audiobook market valued at USD 3.3B and an expected CAGR of 24.4% between 2022 and 2027, there’s an opportunity for authors to capitalize on.

Audiobooks allow people to listen to your book when they are on the go, have short breaks, are cooking dinner, etc. It’s also a great way to reach potential readers who just prefer audio or have a harder time reading a physical book. There is an uncaptured market if you don’t present this option to potential readers. Having an audiobook option is a great feature to promote in your marketing materials.

Creating an audiobook does take time, but once created, it presents a great opportunity to increase the popularity of your book. You might consider using an audiobook production service that helps you with everything from the beginning to the final product. Using an audiobook service will not only allow you to save time but also expand your audience, grow your brand, and benefit from external expertise.

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17) Giveaways and Contests

People love free stuff! Running giveaways and contests is a great way to engage with current fans and even those who might not know who you are.

For a giveaway, you can offer something like a free copy of your book in exchange for engagement such as a like or a follow. By doing this, you either gain a good review from a current fan or you can gain a new follower. Once they are introduced to your page through the giveaway, they will now have the opportunity to read some of your work. If they like it, you have now gained a new fan. Although it might cost some money at the start to host these contests, it can pay off in the long run.

18) Create a GoodReads Author Page

Many readers will check GoodReads when they want to learn more about a book or an author. Signing up for the GoodReads Author Program can provide many benefits.

Through this page, readers can find more information about you, your book, your blog, your events, etc. An author page also allows you to take questions from readers, it allows for reviews and is a great way to develop a social network for your fans.

As a GoodReads author, you can also link GoodReads reviews to your author website. GoodReads also allows you to hose giveaways through it, advertise your book, and access other marketing tools.

All this together contributes to your promotional plan to create more exposure for your book.

19) Be a Guest on a Podcast

Podcasts have risen in popularity and are a great way to gain exposure. Podcast hosts are always looking for guests to keep their shows interesting and to bring new perspectives.

Do your research. Find a podcast that aligns with your brand and audience. If you are writing a book about business, you might want to go on a podcast that also talks about business. This will give you a chance to have real conversations about your book with the hosts and their audience. It acts as a tool for promotion because you’re not just selling your book but yourself as an author.

Also, if you’re a company owner/leader and want to start your own B2B podcast to meet top decision-makers in your industry to grow your business, while at the same time gaining an audience in your niche for your book, you can work with a podcasting partner. They can handle the entire process, all you would need to do is have one conversation weekly or bi-weekly, fully remote.

Also, use this as an opportunity to share a free copy of your book with the host. This might just lead to another positive review you can use.

20) Start Early

It might seem early to promote your book while writing it, but it can prove to be advantageous. Delaying promotion until the book is finished will deprive you of sufficient time to generate buzz. By starting early, you can cultivate interest in your book ahead of its release. Once it is out, fans will be eager to purchase your book.

Early promotion involves showcasing your expertise in the field for non-fiction authors or teasing exclusive insights or spoilers for your fiction book. This approach prepares your audience for the launch, fostering excitement and anticipation.

Conclusion

You put all this time into creating a great book so making sure it is seen is so important. It will take time but every step you take to market your book is another chance for people to see it. Now that we’ve covered 20 different ways for you to promote your book, it is time for you to start your book promotion journey.

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

14 Key Elements of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement plays a crucial role in an organization’s success. Every business leader aims to ensure their employees are dedicated to the organization and putting in their best efforts. However, this is not always an easy task. Encouraging employees to be engaged in their work and remain committed to the organization requires addressing various factors.

A high level of employee engagement can drive prosperity and serve as a tool to attract top talent. So, you might wonder, how do I enhance employee engagement in my workplace? Before we dive into that, let’s look at what employee engagement is and why it’s so important.

What is Employee Engagement and Why Is It Important?

Employee engagement is a measure of an individual’s mental and emotional connection towards the organization they work for, their team, and their work. Employees who are engaged usually exhibit a high degree of commitment, productivity, and positive impact on the organization’s culture.

The levels of employee engagement are:

• Highly engaged employees

• Moderately engaged employees

• Barely engaged employees

• Disengaged employees

Reaching a highly engaged employee level is important as this indicates an organization is thriving, successful, and a great workplace. Maintaining a high level of engagement is crucial as it lowers absenteeism and turnover, boosts productivity and customer satisfaction, and promotes employee well-being. With that in mind, we have highlighted 14 key elements of employee engagement below.

1) Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment is the level of loyalty an individual feels towards their job and organization. A highly committed employee has a strong connection to their team and firm and will contribute more to the organization’s success. These individuals possess a strong inclination to help their organization succeed.

The level of organizational commitment is influenced by multiple factors including job satisfaction, culture, management, and more. We will further outline some of these factors below.

2) Company Culture

Company culture reflects the norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and standards of an organization. A company’s culture is key to employee happiness and motivates them to come to work every day. Employees are more engaged in their work when they are surrounded by a welcoming and positive environment as opposed to one that causes stress. Moreover, employees are even more engaged when their personal beliefs and values align with the company culture.

It’s imperative to recognize that ensuring cultural diversity is a key element in company culture. This underscores the company’s commitment and values towards diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). A diverse and inclusive workplace impacts employee recruitment and loyalty. With the rise of DEI, incorporating this into your company culture will foster trust, enhance reputation, nurture empowerment, and stimulate innovation.

If you find your company culture is not conducive to fostering employee engagement, it might be time to conduct a thorough analysis to pinpoint the underlying issues. Are there specific aspects missing, or is there something inherent in the culture that’s reducing employee engagement? Sometimes minor corrections to company culture might suffice and other times a complete change in culture is necessary.

3) Meaning and Purpose

As most of us can understand, finding purpose and meaning in what we do makes a tremendous difference in our careers. Thus, ensuring you provide meaningful work for your employees is a key to employee engagement. Employees who perceive their contributions as impactful are more likely to be committed to the work they do.

Demonstrating to employees the meaningfulness of their work requires communicating how their efforts contribute to the larger picture. How does their work make a positive impact on the company? It’s important to provide employees with opportunities to grow within their roles and expand the impact of their work. This will contribute to a stronger sense of purpose in the workplace.

4) Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is one of the biggest factors contributing to employee engagement. It’s evident that an employee who isn’t happy with their job is unlikely to stay in it for long. Multiple factors contribute to job satisfaction including the work itself, the company, management, coworkers, opportunities, etc. Ensuring all of these aspects are providing sufficient benefits to the employee will help to increase satisfaction and thus the commitment to the role. We will outline some of these factors later in this blog.

5) Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the belief that businesses have a greater responsibility to society than just generating profits. CSR goes hand in hand with a company’s culture as it aligns with its values. Employees who feel strongly about CSR and its effect on the community are inclined to be more engaged if their workplace shares similar values. Conversely, if you are not engaged in CSR, you will likely see your employees exhibit a low level of engagement. Employees care about what their company is doing and value opportunities to contribute to the community in their work, whether directly or through supplementary opportunities like volunteering. Employees who can participate in CSR at their workplace are twice as engaged compared to those who can not.

6) Management/Leadership

The management and leadership in an organization is very important. Employees seek to form meaningful relationships with leadership. Those who hold their leaders in esteem are more likely to listen to them, take direction, and thus be more engaged in their work. Additionally, management plays a pivotal role in shaping company culture, promoting CSR, and other crucial aspects. Thus, ensuring a strong leadership team is very important.

A leadership team that demonstrates care for their employees, treats them with respect and values their opinion, contributes to strong employee engagement. It’s important to take a look and examine your leadership team to spot anyone who may hinder employee engagement.

7) Career Advancement Opportunities

Engaged employees place importance on learning new skills and expanding their knowledge. A company’s high-performing employees are interested in progressing within the company and finding opportunities for career advancement. If employees perceive a lack of opportunities for career advancement, they may not be motivated to invest efforts in their role. Thus, it is important to make career opportunities clear from the start. If an employee does not feel like the company will provide them with opportunities to move up, they will easily find another company that will.

Hence, it’s important to talk about promotions, learning opportunities, and more early on when hiring new employees. Demonstrating your commitment to professional development can be achieved through programs, opportunities for mentorship, conferences, courses, and more. Providing avenues for career advancement will foster commitment to the organization.

8) Flexibility

Nowadays, workplace stress is a big factor influencing an individual’s job satisfaction and commitment. Work-family conflict is a big contributor to workplace stress. With many individuals having children, parents to take care of, or other commitments, balancing work and family life can be a difficult task. Workplaces must make this easier for their employees by providing flexible options. This includes flextime and flexplace work arrangements that allow employees to work from home or to have flexible hours.

These initiatives demonstrate an organization’s concern for its employees, reflecting its values and culture which ultimately influences an employee’s satisfaction on the job and consequently their engagement.

9) Communication and Honesty

Effective communication is a key element of employee engagement. Employees crave an environment where they can communicate openly with their managers, feeling valued, involved, trusted, and listened to. If there isn’t strong communication between employees and management, there will be a lack of engagement. Communication allows employees to feel included in the firm and thus deepen their organizational commitment.

A key to communication is honesty and transparency. Employees don’t want to hear about company news through the grapevine. It is important that they can hear what is going on, good or bad, from leadership. If they feel like things are being hidden from them, they won’t feel like they are a true part of the company and this can ultimately affect how engaged and committed they are to the firm.

10) Equitable Pay

Salaries can be a very sensitive topic but it is a very important one to most employees. It’s important that employees feel fairly compensated for their work, and know what the company is looking for when considering promotions. This is important for employees looking for career advancement opportunities.

Transparency is very important when it comes to salary. Companies can achieve this by sharing salary ranges for job postings. This reinforces a culture of open communication and transparency which we have established as a key to employee engagement.

11) Recognition & Rewards

Employees are unlikely to demonstrate high levels of motivation and engagement if they aren’t recognized for the work they put in. 86% of workers admit that recognition in the workplace is a major driver of motivation.

Recognition can take various forms including thank you cards, employee of the month awards, verbal recognition, and tangible rewards or gifts. Having these positive consequences to an employee’s hard work will set a standard for what is recognized within the organization. This will act as positive reinforcement and encourage the behaviour to continue.

Developing a good rewards and recognition system allows employees to differentiate what behaviour is considered “good” and “bad” in the eyes of management.

12) Encourage Learning

It’s easy to stay stagnant in your role but there’s always so much more to learn. Employees that are committed to learning more, are likely more engaged in the work they do. A key to learning is an organization that encourages learning and provides employees with the resources to do so. Starting a B2B podcast for your company can be beneficial for employees to learn more from industry experts in your niche, while at the same time growing your business to allow for more opportunities.

This can be through offering courses, and certifications, deploying a virtual knowledge base for all employees, and simply creating a culture that promotes learning and growth. Employees who continue to learn can do their jobs more effectively. It will also demonstrate the company’s commitment to the individual’s development and not just the bottom line of the firm.

13) Digital Experience

As new technologies evolve, it becomes increasingly imperative for companies to integrate them into the workplace. Enhancing technology infrastructure facilitates a smoother and more seamless experience for employees, enabling them to focus more on their core tasks and thereby enhancing productivity.

Moreover, a robust digital experience facilitates improved digital onboarding and training functions. It also opens up opportunities for remote work, enabling employees to connect with the company from any location easily. As previously mentioned, this flexibility improves employee engagement.

Adoption of tech broadens the possibilities for a firm allowing them to make their processes more efficient and provide better resources to their employees. Especially with the younger workforce, acknowledging and incorporating modern technology will help to attract new talent and demonstrate a firm’s commitment to innovation.

14) Feedback

Feedback is crucial in any organization. For an employee to improve, they need to know what they are doing well and what can be improved on. It can be hard to give and receive constructive criticism but it is important.

Employees that actively seek feedback, are naturally more engaged in the work they do. Moreover, when firms provide effective feedback, it enables employees to refine their skills and make meaningful contributions to the organization.

Conclusion

Commitment to the organization is the end goal. A committed employee not only finds satisfaction in their job but also resonates with the values of the firm, fosters strong relationships with management, and embodies various other positive attributes. However, reaching this point will not happen overnight. It takes time and effort to solidify employee engagement across a firm. Now that we have outlined these key elements, it’s time to ask yourself, what next steps will you take to increase employee engagement in your firm?

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

17 Tips to Build Your Social Media Presence

In today’s digital world, having a strong social media presence is increasingly important for both brands and individuals. Social media serves as a great tool to build brand awareness in the consumer’s mind. Without a presence on these platforms, you may be at a disadvantage compared to competitors who are leveraging social media marketing.

Building a strong and successful social media presence can pose a challenge amidst the ever-growing array of social platforms and mounting intricacies.

Building a presence transcends merely posting an image with a caption. It requires a strategic approach intertwined with creativity and a true understanding of your brand to cultivate brand recognition. We’ll start by defining what a social media presence entails and its importance.

What Is a Social Media Presence and Why Is It Important?

A brand’s social media presence represents their visibility and engagement across various social platforms. It involves building genuine relationships with consumers and establishing online communities. A strong online presence can help to deepen connections with existing customers while reaching out to new ones.

With over 4.95 billion social media users across the globe, this represents a substantial opportunity to broaden reach and visibility for any brand. The use of social media can be pivotal in creating trust and credibility with the consumer, cultivating genuine connections, and expressing your brand’s values and personality. All of these elements can work together to drive brand awareness and foster a positive brand image, allowing for growth.

It is important to note that a social media presence isn’t something that can be created overnight. It requires a strategic mindset and a well thought out plan to achieve optimal outcomes.

With that in mind, we have put together 17 tips to help you build and grow your social media presence.

1) Pick the Right Platforms

With a growing digital landscape, there is a vast array of social media platforms that you can use. However, don’t let this overwhelm you, and don’t try to get famous on every platform. Understanding your brand, your audience, and what platform will best align with these is essential.

For instance, if your brand focuses on creativity and artistry, platforms such as TikTok or Pinterest that allow for creative content would be most suitable. On the other hand, for a sophisticated, established business, platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook may be more appropriate. Nevertheless, it is important to conduct research to identify which platforms best align with your brand and where your audience is most active.

If you use Instagram as one of your platforms, consider some of the best video editing apps to create your Instagram reels.

2) Identify Your Audience

Effective social media marketing relies on your ability to identify your audience. Understanding your market allows you to choose the most suitable social media platforms and effective strategies.

For instance, if you are targeting younger consumers, platforms like Instagram and TikTok would be ideal choices. Statistics show that for Gen Z, 75% are using Instagram as their main platform and 69% on TikTok. On the other hand, if you are targeting older consumers, you may consider platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Knowing your audience can also help you develop appropriate strategies. For example, Gen Z consumers prefer personalized content and influencers. So, if Gen Z is your audience, leveraging influencer marketing can help establish connections between the consumer and your brand.

3) Make People Aware You Are On Social Media

Sometimes it can be hard to grow a following on social media when you first start. It can be even harder if no one knows where to find you. Make sure you link your social media to your website, email marketing, etc. so that your current consumers are aware of your accounts.

4) Set SMART Goals

SMART goals are:

● Specific: Give concrete targets (followers, views, shares).

● Measurable: quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

● Achievable: Are your targets realistic?

● Relevant: Do your KPIs (key performance indicators) measure engagement?

● Time-Based: Set a fixed point for assessing campaign success.

Setting smart goals will allow you to keep track of what you want to achieve, set realistic timelines, and ways of measuring success. Any successful brand or social media personality has likely set SMART goals to reach the point of success that they desire. Setting goals will hold you accountable and help turn your aspirations into realistic objectives.

5) Create An Editorial Schedule

Creating a content calendar is so important to ensure timely posts. Balancing running a business can be stressful as is. Keeping a calendar will allow you to track when you are going to post, what you are going to post, and on what platform. It will hold you accountable and prevent you from forgetting to make a post. This is also a great way to track and look back at previous posting schedules.

Using a calendar tool like Sprout’s will allow you to streamline your social media planning and scheduling.

6) Be Human

Regardless of the platform you are on, it is imperative to be real, honest, and authentic. Consumers want to feel like they can connect with the person behind the brand. Companies that fail to convey their personality through social media risk appearing cold and ingenuine, which can deter consumers from the brand. Think of ways you can incorporate fun posts like “behind-the-scenes” content of what goes on in the company. This shows viewers the real people behind the seemingly impersonal brands they encounter.

Take Duolingo, for instance. They are a great example of how a brand has effectively leveraged TikTok and created videos showcasing their playful personality to engage with consumers. They have been so successful that they have even made a lasting impression on non-Duolingo users.

7) Leverage Trends

Trends are constantly changing across social media. It is important to stay up-to-date and take advantage of their popularity. Jumping on the right trend that aligns with your brand can lead to viral posts and help you gain exposure. This not only aids in reaching new customers but also shows your current consumers your brand personality.

Consider Chipotle as an example. They are a great demonstration of how a brand utilizes TikTok to showcase a variety of posts ranging from hacks to promotional content to trends. With ASMR videos being very popular, they leveraged this trend and made an “ASMR” video of their Chicken Al Pastor, which they recently brought back to stores.

With podcasts on the rise, this can be another great way to leverage content creation and get personal with your brand as a business. You can use a white glove B2B podcast partner to help you network with your ideal potential clients, while at the same time building an audience in your niche to close more deals easily. They can help manage and create written SEO, video, social, and audio content from each episode to drive more people to your website and increase sales.

8) Make Use of Visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words. Graphics can grab the attention of consumers when they are mindlessly scrolling through social media. Ensuring you use visuals in your posts, like images, videos, infographics, etc., can help your post stand out. Once you grab the attention of the viewer, they can go further to read your caption if they are interested. Don’t underestimate the importance of visuals in having a strong social media presence. It is noted that people will retain 80% of what they see, only 20% of what they read, and 10% of what they hear. Below is an example of a visually appealing social media feed for the brand, Pleasing.

9) Stay Active

Post, post, post! It’s not enough just to create a social media account; you must be active to maintain awareness. Finding a balance between staying active and not posting too much is crucial. Discover the right balance between the frequency and timing of posts. This comes with time! You may start to notice patterns the more you post.

Remember to also stay engaged with your followers. Respond to their comments, share their stories, like their photos, and be responsive to direct messages. This level of interaction can foster loyalty and a sense of connection.

With the overwhelming amount of social media activity that can occur, it can be hard to track and keep up with everything. Using a social media listening tool can streamline this process and collect all relevant online information about your brand on a centralized platform.

10) Be Engaged With Your Audience

Many people will see your content, but it is those who engage with and interact with it that are so important. In order to foster an interactive environment with your consumers, you need to show the person behind the screen. This doesn’t necessarily mean posting a picture of yourself, but allow your personality to come through in your posts. This creates a friendlier and more interactive environment. Respond to comments, ask questions, and prompt your viewers to engage with the brand. This will create meaningful experiences and grow genuine engagement.

11) Don’t Try To Oversell

Trying to push and close a sale may be appropriate in certain situations, but not on social media. Social media should be used as a medium to help grow your brand and its awareness. Pushing the hard sell on these platforms is likely to steer away consumers. They want a brand that is genuine and truly cares about their concerns. Focus on social media to engage with the consumer, offer useful tips, answer their concerns, etc. By showing that you care through social media, this can drive sales in other aspects. A push for sales through social media can come across as bold and intrusive.

12) Track Engagement

It’s great if you are creating fun content and have a good posting schedule going, but you need to know how your posts are doing. Tracking the success and engagement of your posts is a great way to identify what is working and what is not. This will allow you to plan future posts and strategies based on past trends and what has been effective. Using a platform such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, etc. can provide you with a platform that summarizes engagement data, allowing you to draw key insights and patterns to inform future strategies.

13) Give Users A Reason To Follow You

Potential followers need a reason to follow you! People don’t want cluttered feeds, so they will only follow someone or a brand if they have a reason to. Whether you post exclusive content, tips/tricks, or special sales for your followers on certain platforms, these can all act as incentives for people to follow your account.

14) Host Giveaways

Giveaways are very popular on social media and are a great way to engage and interact with your customers! A lot of brands will ask contest participants to follow them, like a post, leave a comment, share their story, or some combination of these, in order to enter the giveaway. By doing so, the brand is getting people engaged with their page, increasing their awareness, and giving a chance to try their products. This is a great way to create an experience for followers that will create a positive association with the brand.

15) It’s Not All About You

It’s important to post about your brand, what you’re doing, and content that you have created. While doing this, you have to remember that social media is about you and the other person viewing your page. Make sure the followers know you care about them and see their posts on social media. If a follower makes a post and tags you in it, you should like it, leave a comment, or share it on your story. It shows your followers that you are engaged with them, shows authenticity, and makes them feel valued. This helps to foster an online community and relationships.

16) Generate New Ideas

It’s important to stay relevant and capture the attention of your followers. Don’t always share the same thing over and over. This can get boring and lead followers to avoid your account if they know you always post the same thing. Make sure to incorporate innovative, new, and exciting posts that can capture the interest of your followers. Keep in mind that consistency is still key. That is, come out with new content but maintain consistent branding and messaging throughout to send a uniform message across all your posts.

17) Learn from your mistakes and successes

It’s okay to make a mistake! Starting a social media presence can be a hard task, and you will likely see failures and successes along the way. It is important that you take those failures and learn from them to improve your strategies moving forward. Also, make sure to identify what is working. You may notice that your consumers are more receptive to certain types of content. You want to make note of this so you can continue to utilize effective strategies. Social media listening tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social can be helpful in measuring your performance and identifying what is working and what is not.

Conclusion

It takes time to build a strong social media presence, so don’t get discouraged. Stick to these tips and learn from your experience. If you view social media as a medium to create authentic connections with your consumers instead of just a selling method, you will see your business start to grow. Remember, patience is key. Now that we have run through 17 key tips, how will you start to build your social media presence?

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.