If you’re an author, there’s a good chance you’ve hit that “boost” button on Facebook, shelled out a little (or a lot) of money and hoped for the best. And in recent years, this was a great choice. Facebook marketing has been a cheap, effective way to reach consumers. But, as you know, the world of digital marketing changes as often as a new iPhone comes out. As a social media platform, Facebook is trending downwards.
A recent SimilarWeb study found:
Traffic to Facebook.com has fallen from ~8.5 billion visits per month to ~4.7 billion over two years.
Instagram Stories is a feature that allows you to post images or videos, which will remain visible for 24 hours, then be automatically deleted. The stories are featured at the top of the user’s feed, so they are very easy to access and highly visible. Users can quickly click from one user’s “stories” to the next.
Unlike typical Instagram posts, there are additional features available that offer exciting marketing opportunities, such as clickable hashtags and mentions. More on that later.
If you’re still not sure what we mean, open the Instagram app, click on those circles at the top and click through to get a feel for the feature.
This is where your creativity comes in! There are so many potential ways to use Instagram Stories to market your book. Here are few we came up with:
Do you want some great news? All of those ideas are free! If you have a decent camera phone and an Instagram account, you have everything you need to implement these ideas.
If you want to go beyond organic reach on Instagram Stories, we recommend that you try some paid ads. Your ad will simply show up in Stories just like all the others, but with a note that it is sponsored. Just like Facebook, you can choose which users you would like to target and you can set a daily budget. There is a great post on Neil Patel's blog that explains all the details of paid Instagram Stories marketing.
Finally, we thought we would share a fun way that bestselling author and speaker Jon Acuff is using Instagram Stories. Jon is currently writing his seventh book, but this time he’s decided to share his process with his followers. Every few days, Jon posts a few videos on Instagram Stories detailing how many hours he’s spent on his manuscript and exactly what he’s done during that time. Some days he works on a chapter, others he drafts letters to publishers and some days he brainstorms ideas with his wife. Many days include a variety of writing activities.
By pulling back the curtain a bit, Jon is not only offering helpful content, but he is also increasing interest in his upcoming book. And you really couldn’t ask for more when it comes to social media marketing.
Are you ready to up your social marketing game, but feel a bit overwhelmed? Certa Publishing offers a variety of marketing services, from one-time consulting to a complete overhaul of your social media plan. How can we help you? We would love to hear from you today.