First off, you do not need to use every single form of social media ever. If you don’t like a platform for whatever reason, then don’t use it. I have never used TikTok, despite how everyone claims that it’s such a wonderful magical place to advertise. I don’t like video content because I don’t want to be on camera, and learning to make videos feels like a waste of time.
Still, I’ll try to give each one a fair shake here. There may be some I miss, so take my lessons with a grain of salt.
⤝❖⤞
WordPress/Other Website Tool
I firmly believe that you should at least try to have an active website. Maybe you don’t post as consistently as I do, which is fine, but a website serves as a permanent repository of your content and an SEO marketing tool.
Another benefit of your website is that you can easily crosspost, especially if you have Jetpack from WordPress. This way, you don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel and keep up with multiple social media platforms; you can keep an active presence on several platforms without too much hassle.
I crosspost my content to Facebook, BlueSky, and Tumblr, pulling in a range of different audiences depending on the medium. This also boosts my SEO rankings for my website, as I become a known public figure (ick) and Google trusts that I know what I’m talking about.
⤝❖⤞
Amazon
Demographic: Whatever demographic you’re specifically targeting based on your book genre. You can get quite refined and ensure that you’re attracting only the readers you’d like.
Methodology: I worked with a marketing company to pinpoint the right keywords. If you’d like to do it on your own, you’ll need to gather keywords and comps, then adjust your settings.
Pros:
You can reach the exact demographic that will most appreciate your work.
Ease friction between curiosity and sales by advertising on the platform where your work can be purchased.
You’re in control of who your advertisements are shown to and can repeatedly adjust as necessary.
Cons:
Ad spend can quickly get out of control.
You immediately lose visibility if you stop advertising, as this doesn’t boost your SEO.
Ads require a lot of babysitting and upfront investment, often for minimal returns.
Learning how to find the right keywords and choose the right categories can be time-consuming.
⤝❖⤞
Google Ads
Demographics: Again, you can decide exactly who to show your advertisements to for maximum potential returns.
Methodology: It’s similar to Amazon Ads in that you have to pick keywords, decide on landing pages. Often works best when you have a website to direct people toward.
Pros:
You again have maximum control over who sees your advertisements.
Adjust as necessary as many times as you want.
If you draw enough traffic, this can also boost your visibility on other platforms, particularly your website.
Cons:
Visibility drops immediately when you stop spending.
You need to choose keywords carefully and develop content that matches user interest.
Doesn’t necessarily improve your SEO that much because Google weights its results toward organic traffic rather than paid traffic.
Niches may be small.
⤝❖⤞
Demographic: Facebook trends older than other platforms, being most popular amongst the 40+ crowd. This is good if you want to market toward older readers who might not use other platforms.
Methodology: Set up a professional author page. If you write blog posts, crosspost them; the more active you are, the more you’ll be shown to others. Begin cultivating a fan base by commenting on appropriate pages with your professional profile, especially those within your niche. You can write long-form posts; make sure to include images, as this will get you more traction.
Pros:
Free, though you can choose to advertise as well.
Facebook users are more tolerant of longer posts, especially if they’re connected to an interesting graphic.
Automate the process by crossposting from other platforms, particularly your website, while supplementing with tailored content.
Cons:
It can be extremely difficult to build an audience beyond sympathetic family and friends. Posting regularly doesn’t necessarily expand reach as much as you’d think because visibility depends on interaction.
Not a good place to find younger readers, so if you do YA or something like that, you might not have luck.
Facebook prioritizes paid advertising posts, reducing visibility.
⤝❖⤞
Twitter/X
Demographic: Leans conservative and slightly older, typically 30+. Contentious because of Elon’s shitty behavior, so might tarnish your image.
Methodology: Open an account and begin interacting with people in your niche. Post images with very short captions. If you’re using WordPress, you will have to crosspost manually, though you can use tools like Buffer to queue.
Pros:
Potential to reach a very large and varied audience, especially if you connect with other authors.
Opportunity to be wildly creative and a little controversial, as divisive content works well on Twitter.
If a post goes viral, you will receive a lot of visibility.
Cons:
Twitter boosts paid users, and many users reflexively block any blue checks.
Your content is being used to feed AI.
Since the Elon takeover, X has a very bad reputation, so people might think you’re scummy for giving him money.
⤝❖⤞
BlueSky
Demographics: Very liberal, typically an older crowd (30+). More “professional” vibe, meaning that thoughtful links and insightful comments will boost visibility.
Methodology: You can crosspost from WordPress without having to do anything. Interactions with other authors are highly recommended, and many authors do WIP games where you can share tidbits about your stories.
Pros:
Very author-friendly with a vibrant community of creators. A good opportunity to find other creatives, including freelancers and illustrators.
No paid advertising, so everyone has the same potential for visibility.
Allows you to garner interest through hints about your work.
Cons:
For some reason (maybe it’s just me), getting followers on BlueSky is extremely hard. People really do not follow you for any reason, no matter how helpful you are.
Much smaller user base than other platforms.
The tagging system is weird and confusing because only certain tags are well-traveled and often require memorizing emojis.
⤝❖⤞
Tumblr
Demographics: Nowadays, trends very young, typically teens and 20s. But I’m an OG who remembers Ye Olden Times. Not many of us left.
Methodology: Get familiar with the common tags and become creative with your formatting. Include images. You can write longform content, but consider putting it under a cut so as not to overwhelm peoples’ dashes. Creative, silly, non-pushy content works best. WordPress and Tumblr are both owned by Automattic so crossposting is native, including whatever tags you put in your post bar.
Pros:
If you use tags correctly and post regularly, you can garner significant attention.
Creative advertising intrigues readers, as do rambles about your characters and plot ideas.
Quick and helpful writing advice does extremely well, because many Tumblr users are aspiring writers.
Cons:
Tumblr users are extremely resistant to advertising. You’re unlikely to get many sales, though you can direct readers to your blog and develop a following that way.
The user base is younger so they’re not as likely to convert. They’re also more interested in developing their own craft rather than buying anything.
Users have been burned by the whole Neil Gaiman debacle and suspicious of authors now. I’m genuinely serious; it was a total implosion of “professional” accounts. So play it cool and easy.
⤝❖⤞
Demographics: Varies significantly amongst different subreddits. Some trend young, others older. Wide range of readers and niches.
Methodology: Start contributing to different subreddits in your niche to build a reputation. Helpful advice with light pushes toward your content helps.
Pros:
Connect with a wide range of readers and develop a reputation for thoughtful comments.
Secure market research by hearing what people really want from books. Great way to harvest potential content for your blog, as you see me do frequently.
Not much paid advertising so you don’t have to worry about being drowned out.
Cons:
Most subreddits will penalize you for directly advertising except on dedicated threads. Writing subreddits typically have a no self-promotion rule.
Much more difficult to secure readers because of the ban on self-promotion. You may only gain one or two because you have to coyly direct them to your profile with a link.
Requires consistent participation to gain a reputation.
Reddit threads are ephemeral. If you don’t gain traction immediately, you’ll get lost.
⤝❖⤞
Substack
Demographics: Slightly older professionals who want deep, thoughtful content.
Methodology: Write medium-length articles on your niche, with a link to your products embedded in the content and continued at the bottom. Think of it more like a newsletter. Be consistent.
Pros:
Sort of like a “website lite,” as you can maintain the content there indefinitely and it serves as a stable home base. Good if you don’t have the time, patience, or funds for a full website.
You can paywall some content, though consider having freebie content as well.
If someone subscribes, it’s sent directly to their email, improving long-term visibility and developing a loyal readership.
Cons:
Consistency is absolutely essential. If you don’t post regularly, you will immediately lose subscribers.
Subscribers can be quite resistant to paying for your content, so keep that in mind. They have to pay for every author individually and may not find you compelling enough.
Substack has gone through a lot of changes recently and people are starting to abandon the platform.
⤝❖⤞
Medium
Demographics: Slightly older professionals who want publication-level advice. Not really a good place to directly advertise your book; rather, you must make trendy and highly polished content that is useful to a broad range of readers.
Methodology: Find publications that match your niche and apply to join. Produce well-researched, medium-length content (about 15 minutes reading time) that aligns with the publication’s niche. Once you have a certain number of followers, you can monetize your content.
Pros:
Like Substack, works as a “website lite,” as you can develop a corpus of work that remains available forever.
Joining publications can garner you enormous visibility if you choose the right ones.
Paywall your content to get revenue. People pay for a single subscription to Medium, so if you paywall, you can get a little revenue from every subscriber.
Cons:
Every publication has a different niche and different style guides. You may have your post rejected for very minute issues.
Medium publications don’t like controversial content and prefer something you’d see at a mainstream news source, so anything that touches difficult topics will likely be rejected.
The pay really isn’t that good. I typically crosspost friend links for everything because the pennies I make off my content isn’t worth the hassle.
⤝❖⤞
Demographics: Professionals. The most highly active demographics are in STEM industries, sales, finance, business, academia, and marketing. Serves as a hybrid between a resume and a blog, so ensure you fill out all your credentials. You can publish papers and highlight well-performing content.
Methodology: Fill out your resume, awards, education, etc. Post short to medium-length content with a clear “hook” and value proposition. Make sure to advertise any launches, awards, etc.
Pros:
Great tool for connecting with other professionals, finding jobs, etc.
Prefers nonfiction content, including nonfiction writers and academic writers, rather than fiction. Good tool for those in those niches.
Good way to build your resume and professional network if you want to go into more industry-type publishing.
Cons:
Not particularly good for fiction writers and leans far more toward academic/nonfiction stuff.
You’re selling yourself as a brand and entity rather than necessarily your books.
Far more about marketing and publishing commentary than about selling books.
⤝❖⤞
Demographics: Trends all over the place, but mostly young. Niche focused and casual, good for those with a very clear genre.
Methodology: Image-heavy, so requires good graphic design and short, Twitter-like captions. Post short videos, pictures, etc. Ensure you engage with other creators, whether by liking or commenting.
Pros:
Great choice for visually-oriented writers who like to share short quotes, book graphics, poems, moodboards, etc.
You can carefully curate your aesthetic and build a recognizable brand.
Native paid advertising that works quite well and is simple to set up, though paying for it can be sort of weird.
Cons:
Instagram captions don’t allow links. People will have to copy-paste the link into their browser, which nukes mobile traffic.
Long captions do not do well on Instagram. Even though you have 2,000 characters to work with, no one will read them.
You must know how to make attractive graphics or reels.
⤝❖⤞
TikTok
Demographics: Very young, typically teens and twenty-somethings. Highly active and passionate community of book readers, particularly smut and romance.
Methodology: Post short videos of yourself or of book graphics with trending music. Use appropriate tags to ensure visibility.
Pros:
Short-form content works perfectly, making it quick and easy to produce content.
You can schedule videos and hold livestreams for your audience.
Build a brand through a quirky personality, short reviews, and unusual content.
Cons
Like most social media, visibility is ephemeral and requires constant posting.
“Serious” lit doesn’t do well here. Romance, YA, smut, stuff like that is going to get the most attention.
Pretty privilege definitely applies because it’s a visual-based medium. Graphics-only content will be ignored.
⤝❖⤞
YouTube
Demographics: Huge range, from young kids to older folks. If you find the right niche, you can gain thousands of followers very quickly. Highly targeted algorithm that allows easy transition between different creators.
Methodology: There are two methods: short-form and long-form. Short form is much like TikTok, while long-form prioritizes videos that are 15 minutes or longer because people want to settle in and binge.
Pros:
Connect with viewers with your authentic experience and thoughts. You could read excerpts of your books, take reader questions, do livestreams, or post video essays about different aspects of craft. The possibilities are endless.
Secure sponsors through consistent posting and high metrics for additional income.
Monetizing is quick and easy once you reach a certain subscriber count.
Cons:
Like TikTok, pretty privilege applies.
Your content needs a high production value, which takes time and money to learn. You will likely need a video editor if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself.
There’s only so much you can say about your book, so you’ll likely need to find a tangential niche while regularly promoing your book to an interested audience.
⤝❖⤞
Every platform appeals to a different type of creator and a unique audience, so what may work great for one person might fall flat for you.
If you’re good at SEO (I like to think I am, given that it’s my day job), then a website is going to be your primary mode of attack. Readers who want books will also be willing to read long rambly thoughts like this very post.
What really matters is that you have an authentic voice and a style tailored to the platform. Generic marketing isn’t going to do well anymore except for the paid advertising approaches, which don’t require much talky-talky.
Experiment for a bit to see which one is right for you, and don’t forget that you can crosspost between different platforms to reduce your mental load.