Social media is a divisive thing. Love it or hate it, most people have at least one form of it. Social media is mostly known for its influencers and ability to make life look like a paradise to anyone on the outside, but it's also an insanely useful tool when it comes to marketing a book...especially a self-published one, where the marketing responsibility is more on you than on anyone else.
But what really works when it comes to social media marketing?
I'm not proclaiming to be an expert in marketing my books. Print, Wattpad, blog posts...I'm not a seasoned pro. I have a tab of bookmarked websites and articles on my laptop titled "Marketing"--and I haven't read half of them yet, because school and work and spending time with loved ones takes up a lot of my time. But I have tried quite a few different marketing tactics on social media over the past few years, and I decided to rank different aspects of each.
**Also, to keep all comparisons fair, I set my budget at $10 for each promotion I tested.**
1. Twitter Ads: 2.5/5
Ad Analytics: 3/5
Attention Garnered: 1/5
Ease of Set-Up: 4/5
Pricing: 2/5
Twitter ads are probably the worst that I've found out of the three social media platforms I try to promote my books on. Their analytics of your promotion are alright, but not amazing, and the pricing is fairly good for what you're getting. But the attention that Twitter ads brought to my books and website out of the three I chose to advertise on was the worst. It saw only 251 impressions and 18 engagements with the promoted tweet over the week that the ad ran, which is pretty dismal.
2. Facebook Ads: 3.9/5
Ad Analytics: 4/5
Attention Garnered: 4.5/5
Ease of Set-Up: 3/5
Pricing: 4/5
Facebook ads are the middle ground of social media marketing, in my opinion. The analytics could use some work, but the site shows your ad to a lot of people for the price that you pay. My ad reached 1,262 people and had 393 post engagements over the week that it ran, which is a good deal better than what I got with my Twitter ad.
3. Instagram Ads: 4.5/5
Ad Analytics: 5/5
Attention Garnered: 4.5/5
Ease of Set-Up: 4/5
Pricing: 4.5/5
Instagram Ads are my favorite form of social media marketing. It didn't reach quite as many people as the Facebook ad did, but more people interacted with the post than on any other site. My Instagram ad reached 762 people and had 1,015 impressions from the people who saw it...so people were looking at it multiple times. 13 people bookmarked the post, 21 visited my profile, and 11 visited my website as a result of the promotion...which is 11 more than visited my website from either of the other promotions. Instagram ads also have the best analytics of the bunch, with clear distinctions on who is seeing and interacting with what you're paying to post.
Social media marketing is hard. It requires a lot of patience, hard work, and trying different things until you find something that works for you and your book or website. Hopefully this post was helpful in guiding you towards the social media outlet that works best for you to begin marketing your own work.
ALSO! Before you go, click here to go to my new Inkitt profile and check out what I'm doing over there! Three's Company is currently up in full on the site and new books will be coming soon, so be ready. And click here to check out my new Patreon account that will honestly get no attention whatsoever and I'm alright with that.
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