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{"id":10557,"date":"2018-02-21T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildbookbuzz.com\/?p=10557"},"modified":"2023-12-07T21:36:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T21:36:19","slug":"use-instagram-to-sell-more-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandra.oddjar.com\/use-instagram-to-sell-more-books\/","title":{"rendered":"How I use Instagram to sell more books"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend Kate Hanley has been micro-blogging on Instagram to promote her latest book, <\/em>How to Be a Better Person:<\/a> 40<\/a>0<\/a> Simple Ways Make a Difference in Yourself — and the World\"\"<\/a>, and I’ve asked her to write this guest post about why and how she’s doing that, and what results she’s seen.\u00a0Kate is an author, yoga teacher, and personal development coach who helps busy women focus on the things that matter so they can stop stressing about the things that don\u2019t. In addition to working one-on-one with clients, Kate teaches and speaks at companies and events about mindful time management, avoiding burnout, and finding work-life balance. Learn more and get her free decision-making matrix at her website.<\/a>\u00a0Follow Kate on Instagram<\/a>, too.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

How I use Instagram to sell more books<\/h2>\n

By Kate Hanley<\/h3>\n

When it comes to social media, I love Instagram above all other platforms. I used it strictly for personal purposes, primarily to share photos of my kids and my daily life. (Which may explain why I loved it; it was a work-free zone!) But as I was creating a promotion plan for my newest book, How to Be a Better Person<\/a>\"\",<\/em>\u00a0I hired an online marketing consultant who challenged me to re-think that.<\/p>\n

Pointing out that I had nearly 500 followers and that my posts generally got a decent level of engagement, she convinced me that my Instagram feed<\/a> was too good a promotional opportunity to ignore.<\/p>\n

\"use<\/a><\/p>\n

I saw her point, but I was nervous; I loved Instagram because it wasn\u2019t the frenzy of promotion that Facebook has become. I didn\u2019t want to contribute to the noise.<\/p>\n

Presuming I could get over that hurdle, I also didn\u2019t know how to use a visual medium to promote a book that\u2019s filled with tips that are related to changing your outlook.<\/p>\n

Together, we worked out a plan to spend one week on each of the eight sections on my book as a way of giving first and inviting people in to the book instead of merely asking them to buy\u2014which can feel like a big ask to someone who doesn\u2019t really know you and not likely to be very effective.<\/p>\n

For each post with the themes, I decided write two to three paragraphs about the tip I was posting a photo of\u2014call it micro-blogging. As a writer, this was a way for me to get excited about using a visual platform for something work-related.<\/p>\n

Micro-blogging helped me come at book promotion from a spirit of giving and inviting, and not so much about \u201cpay attention to me and buy my stuff!\u201d That helped ease any reservations I had about using my Instagram feed as a promotional tool.<\/p>\n

The How<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tech-wise, it hasn\u2019t been seamless. I\u2019ve typed most of these posts on my phone with my thumbs, which is slow-going and painstaking, but I feel it\u2019s important to have access to an emoji keyboard to stick with the conventions of the platforms and to infuse tone.<\/p>\n

You can install Gramblr<\/a> on your computer and then upload photos from your hard drive and use your nice big keyboard to post\u2014I just heard about this and am looking forward to trying it out!<\/p>\n

\"use<\/a>
An example of one of my Instagram posts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One thing I have come to love about Instagramming for work purposes is that it shows you exactly how popular each hashtag is, so you can choose hashtags for your posts that jibe with your content and that will help new people find that content and, hopefully, follow you.<\/p>\n

Instagram is also more conducive to building relationships with other followers whom you might not know in real life\u2014perhaps it\u2019s the heavy use of emojis and tagging that really engages people and makes it feel like a friendlier place.<\/p>\n

Make sure you reply to all comments and use emojis to connect with your commenters, and people will be more likely to share your posts with their followers (although they, and you, will need to download an external app\u2014I prefer the Repost App<\/a>\u2014to share other people\u2019s posts to your own list.)<\/p>\n

The Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"use<\/a>I released a book last May called Stress Less<\/a>\"\",<\/em> which I didn\u2019t do much social media promotion to support\u2014mostly because I was on deadline to write How to Be a Better Person<\/a>\"\" <\/em>when it came out! (Having two books come out in the same year is kind of like having Irish twins; one will naturally get less attention when the other is more needy.)<\/p>\n

But comparing the sales numbers, How to Be a Better Person<\/a>\"\" <\/em>has sold 30 percent more copies in its first month than Stress Less<\/a>\"\"<\/em> did in its first month of life. (I\u2019m also up to 680 followers.)<\/p>\n

Of course, the fact that How to Be a Better Person<\/a>\"\"<\/em> came out in prime new year\/new you season (it was released on January 2) probably has something to do the strong first-month showing, but if you can boost book sales doing something you enjoy and that helps you engage directly with your readers, why not?<\/p>\n

Other cool Instagram ideas I\u2019ve seen:<\/p>\n