Ten Bad Social Media Habits of Authors

Dana Kaye reports:

"If you are guilty of any of the following social media practices, for the sake of your readership, please stop immediately...A hashtag is not the secret to getting discovered, and no one meaningful is going to follow you based on a tweet in which eight out of 10 words are hashtags. Instead of trying to game the system and latching on to various trending hashtags, consider posting meaningful content that would attract your target audience...[Y]our social media followers expand beyond your friends and family. Your followers are your readers, your publishing team, librarians and booksellers. I see too many authors who forget about this, and continue posting about all aspects of their life, from photos of their breakfasts to complaining about writing and publishing. You are a public figure; your social media content should reflect that...If your Facebook posts automatically aggregate to Twitter, you’re not using either platform effectively. Facebook posts tend to be longer and meatier; tweets, on the other hand, are short and pithy. If your lengthy Facebook content is tweeted, those tweets will be cut off with an ellipsis, and followers won’t understand your content. If you post shorter, pithy content to Facebook, that content won’t perform as well. Take an extra few minutes and translate your content for both platforms...I can safely say that all of us, at one point or another, have received a Facebook message or @ reply on Twitter from someone asking us to check out their book. Social media is not about the hard sell, which, by the way, is the quickest way to have your account blocked...When tragedies like Sandy Hook or the Orlando shooting take place, no one wants to hear about your upcoming book tour or recent four-star review. If you’re going to schedule posts ahead of time, establish a system that reminds you when posts are going out, or stay attuned to the news cycle so you can cancel content in the event of a national emergency...Yes, I know your book is out today. And yes, I know you have a newsletter. Yes, I already saw your tweet about your book tour. If you want to run one in-case-you-missed-it (ICYMI) tweet at another time of day, or remind me once a month to sign up for your newsletter, fine. But if I see the exact same tweet 3-5 times a day? The only thing you’ll get from me is unfollowed...We all have opinions. But as a public figure the quickest way to alienate half your audience is to post content that offends or enrages them. If you don’t write about sex, politics or religion, then adhere to dinner party rules and don’t post about them...You wouldn’t send a book [in to] your editor without giving it a read through, so why would you post on social media without rereading your content? Tone is hard to convey on social media; that’s why I recommend reading your posts aloud in a deadpan tone. Does it convey the same attitude or message? Or could people take it the wrong way? If there’s a chance you’d offend someone or the post would come off as bullying or antagonistic, delete or revise...The purpose of social media is to establish your online brand and create relationships with potential readers and influencers. How can you do that if you’re only re-tweeting and sharing other people’s Facebook posts, not posting any content of your own? When I see authors only sharing other people’s content, it’s usually because they’re unsure of what content they should be posting...Before you post your first Instagram photo, before you sign up for Tumblr or Snapchat, it’s imperative that you develop a content strategy. You wouldn’t start writing your book without an idea of the characters, plot and genre. So why would you start posting to social media without a plan?"