It’s no secret that more and more authors are flocking to social media to help sell their books. After all, with the entire world at your finger tips, you ought to be able to find your ideal reader and tell them about your book.

So you set up your accounts, you fill in all the information they ask from you, and now you’re done. Right?

Unfortunately, the hard work has only just begun.

In order to successfully run a social media account that will return the results you’re so desperately hoping for—namely, higher book sales and increased name recognition—a few things have to be working in your favor. No matter which platform you’re on (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (now X), Tumblr, Pinterest, and any of the others), these components always help you succeed.

In this article, we’re looking at what it takes to make content people want to interact with.

Think like a Consumer

As you scroll through your feed, what are the things you pause to engage with? What makes you scroll past? What kind of people do you follow? Why do you follow them?

Most likely, the things you interact with fit into one of the following categories:

• Humor
• Encouraging
• Informative
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Fun Personality
• Friend/Family

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t identify as a funny person. I’m quirky and unique, and funny things happen to me. On my best days I can recount those events in an accurate manner. But I’m not funny. I don’t know how to write a joke and I couldn’t if I tried. (Believe me, I’ve tried.) So humor isn’t going to be my strong suit (unless I’m sharing other people’s content).

That leave the rest of the list for me to choose from as I focus on the types of posts or themes of posts I want to create.

I personally find these posts to be the easiest to create, as well. I don’t often have issues coming up with ideas for what this content holds. That’s a good sign I’m with my niche. That should also be a good sign you’re in your niche. Creating content should not be hard for you to maintain. If it is, you may be trying to go into the wrong niche.

The Recipe

No matter what your niche is, or until you figure out what your niche is, this recipe will help you create content people are likely to interact with:

Select or take a photo that relates to your content or is simply on brand and within your chosen aesthetic.

Start with a good question or a shocking fact. Many people call this your hook. And it’s true, you’re trying to hook someone in.

Follow it up with a paragraph or two (don’t write a whole essay, social media is not the place for you to wax poetical. No one has the time or the attention span for that.) Keep it short, sweet, and skimmable.

Finish with a takeaway, a call to action, or a final thought for your reader.

If applicable, add your link here.

Finally, choose a few relevant hashtags. Base these off of the photo you post or the text you’ve written, or both.

That’s it. That’s all it takes to create a killer social media post that will perform well.

To take it to the next level, in your question, include simple instructions for how your followers should interact with you: “What’s your favorite fall drink? Vote with your favorite emoji: 🎃 Pumpkin spice? or 🍎 Apple Cider?”

Because this interaction will only take them a few seconds, people are more likely to interact.

If you’ve been particularly inspiring in your 2-3 paragraphs of explanation, people will share. If you’ve expressed something common to the human experience, people will share. If you’ve given them a reason to interact, people will. By default, humans are community focused creatures. We love to feel like we’re part of something larger than ourselves. The hardest part of social media is creating something larger than life that people can engage with.

If you try this recipe, I’d love to hear how it goes for you! Come back and let me know. And if you want more help setting this up, I’d love to hear from you and see how we can work together to help you bring your book to the world. Contact me to set up a consultation.

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