A lot has been written about how social media can help writers (including on this blog), particularly those involved in independent publishing who are trying to make a name for themselves. There is certainly no doubting that social media is a useful tool, but things can still go wrong. Your plans might not work out as you’d hoped and your marketing might not have as much impact as you’d like. Here are some of the issues writers can face with social media, to give you an idea of what to do and what not to do when using it to promote your work…

Lack of consistent effort

It’s OK to take a bit of time out from Facebook and Twitter now and then, but long periods of no social media action could well be harming your marketing activities. It takes time and effort to build up good followings on social media, and lengthy breaks between posts will only add to the time it takes to get where you want to be.

Lack of communication

One thing we should never forget about social media is that it’s a two way street. It isn’t just there for authors to plug their books or effectively fill their Twitter timelines with announcements to themselves. It’s also for talking to people, and one of the best ways to build your presence on social media is to be serious about this. Engage with people. Get involved in conversations. Reach out to people. After all, it’ll be hard to get anywhere with your book marketing if you don’t.

Lack of content

Why should people engage with you on social media? If they’re going to stick with you, you need to give them something to stick with – and that means you need good content. Whether it’s hilarious tweets, informative blog posts or content shared from people you admire, you need to make sure you social media content is interesting and relevant. A lack of interesting stuff could well harm your marketing plans.

Lack of resultant sales

You could have thousands of Twitter followers and loads of likes on your Facebook page, but there’s no guarantee that this will translate into epic sales for your book. This is a reminder that success is not (usually) an overnight phenomenon, and it takes time and a combination of other activities alongside your social media to make a difference. Plus we can’t forget that all important sales factor: luck. And that’s something that’s never certain.

We shouldn’t expect social media to be the magic bullet, magically propelling us up the bestseller lists. Rather, we should see it for what it is: something useful, that can help us increase our profile and perhaps make some sales, as well as a bit of fun that gives us a chance to get to know others. The value of social media is not always – or even often – monetary, but it can bring us other rewards that, with any luck, will help us on our way to achieving what we want out of our writing goals.