Hi all!
This week I'm going to discuss something that I've seen a lot of authors talk about recently - social media. While some only have one or two platforms for their marketing, others have several. The ones who have several say that all authors should be marketing on every platform available, and I thought I would share why you don't need to do that.
The platforms that authors usually have a mix of are:
Twitter.
Facebook.
YouTube.
Instagram.
Reddit.
Medium.
TikTok.
Clubhouse.
Pinterest.
Patreon.
To begin with, it's too much.
Some authors may be able to use all of the platforms effectively, but I just think it's too much. How are you supposed to engage with your audience equally when you have so many platforms to keep an eye on? Ones like TikTok and YouTube may require you to follow trends or do challenges in order to stay relevant. So you have to research that, on top of posting regularly, and interacting with other regularly. It's just way too much.
Most of the time, it's not effective.
Some choose to post the same thing on all of their social media platforms so then more people see it. However, with things like Twitter and Facebook, it's hard for these posts to get noticed unless one goes viral. A lot of the time you'll just be screaming into the void.
It takes away from other marketing and writing.
If you're spending all day on social media crafting the perfect post and engaging with others, you're going to have less writing time. It also means you'll have less time to research for your advertisements.
Information overload.
If your fans follow you on multiple platforms then they will see a lot of posts from you. Sometimes this can be a hit overwhelming, as if they miss a few they have to go back and see what you've posted. Sometimes it's best to post a couple of times a day.
It’s not fun.
You’ll likely spend most of your day worrying that you haven’t posted enough on specific platforms, or that your posts aren’t doing as well. This is mentally draining, so it’s much better to focus on a few rather than all of them.
Some are not accessible for all.
In the case of Clubhouse, I've seen a lot being posted about how they are not accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. A lot of the events on there don't use closed captions, which means that some people can't engage. If you're going to do an event on here, then make sure that you also run the same event on a different platform that is more accessible.
I only use three platforms myself; Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. It means that when I get home from work I'm not spending hours on social media. I can post as little or often as I want, with no pressure to post something on each account every day.
That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!
