In the age of technology and the internet, social media has become a vital tool that authors use to promote their upcoming events. Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest have various features that make it easier to share information.

However, it takes a tech-savvy and active author to utilize these tools to their full potential. In this post, you will learn useful techniques for promoting your book signing and reading tour using social media.

1. Share other types of media

Aside from just putting links to your blog, why not try posting images and videos? Most people are visual creatures, meaning they can easily learn and be stimulated by pictures. This is because these types of media are easier to digest and share online.

Try creating an online scrapbook of what happened during your previous book signing occasion. If you have guest speakers, post their pictures too. If your readers saw how exciting and fun the past event was, they will be exhilarated to join the next one.

2. Let others do the promotion

You do not have to exhaust yourself and promote the book on your own. The beauty of social media is that other people can also participate in whatever you are doing. Do you have some loyal readers who created a fan art of your upcoming book? Thank them by retweeting and sharing their works. If you saw a newspaper article about your upcoming event, share it. These posts provide fresh alternatives to your promotional campaigns.

3. Start early

Start your social media campaigns early, probably 3 or 5 months before the actual release of your next book. Most authors become active in social media after their works hit the shelves. However, that is not advisable because it takes a lot of time to build excitement. During the early months, start teasing your readers by posting images of the book cover or talking about its contents.

4. Show, don’t tell

Just like writing a story, posting about how great your upcoming event or new book is won’t help in promoting it. Instead, share useful bits of information that would interest your fans. These include snippets of your book, details and images of your next live reading event, news releases, blog posts, and other information about your upcoming work. These pieces of information have a bigger chance of being shared online because they can show how much fun your upcoming event or book will be.

5. Create engaging challenges

A lot of people enjoy simple but exciting challenges on social media. You can ask them to create a fan art of their favorite characters from your works, or a short video explaining why they should attend your author event. The best submissions should be awarded on the day of the event. You can also host a Twitter Party wherein your followers can provide suggestions for the author event. Use hashtags to make the challenges trend online.

To wrap things up

Thanks to social media, authors have new platforms to promote their events. Make sure to post updates, fresh information, and exciting challenges to keep your readers interested. In addition, spread yourself across various social media networks to increase your presence.