Social media expectations, pt 2
a deeper dive into what I am actually doing as an author trying to social media
Hello! And welcome back to part two of my “social media expectations as an author series!” My last post was focused on an author’s viewpoint. You can check it out here! This blog is more focused on the process and tools that have helped me along the way! Now this is not going to be a how-I-got-to-5,000-followers-overnight type of list. I don’t have 5,000 followers anywhere. And I’m not looking for that viral type of following and overnight success. I’m building a community of people who are also curious, kind, and trying to expand their horizons. Here are some things that I have learned which are helping me to do that!
Define your mission
This one I wasn't ready for! When I first sat down with my kid last year as we started to talk about my author's social media presence, I came to the meeting ready to create an Instagram post that day! I wanted to dive right in! Allie, my middle child, had me slow down and take several steps back. They sent me a whole page of questions and prompts that I had to really think about to complete. Now this wasn’t how I thought I should start, it felt so slow and “too much” for what I wanted. I’m an author, why do I need to have a mission or be a “brand?” The more we talked through it all, I realized I did need to focus and think bigger. Also it has made it much easier to think of posts and styles. If you are interested in the questions that Allie had me answer, email me at melorafern@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to provide them!
Set a schedule, but keep it fluid
We then discussed where we would post and how often. We decided to start with just Instagram and Facebook (and acknowledged this might change in the future). By setting up a schedule and having a theme for each post, it has been easier to plan ahead for the month. Ideally we would always have the Instagram posts, reels, and blog posts ready a week or more ahead! However, life happens so our posts aren’t always scheduled as far in advance as I would like, but we’re working on it! We are trying to stick to the schedule - once a week blogs and three times a week Instagram posts as much as possible. When my youngest kid joined us, she was able to help us ramp up our posting schedule and helped me understand why it’s important to be consistent and post often. It’s a lot of work to continually post on social media and I’m still not sure how much it really helps but it's what we are doing for now. Our schedule might change in the future and that's ok!
Design a brand and stick to it
This is another part of marketing where my team has taught me so much! First, Allie helped me pick out a palette. I knew generally what colors I wanted but they helped me choose ones that would be more visible. We used Coolers to nail down our palette but I know there are many color palette generators out there. Second, they helped me choose specific fonts. Even though “I’m just an author” it has been very helpful to have a predetermined color palette and style guidelines. It streamlines much of the decision making for so many things. Then Allie designed my logo—didn’t they do an ab-so-lute-ly awesome job?
I was lucky that Allie knows enough about Adobe Illustrator to create my logo but again, it was because of the work we did with determining my mission statement in step one! If you can afford to hire a graphic designer to help with the logo, I would highly recommend it. I know with all the AI tools out there it's very tempting to use them, and they are helpful. But there are great sites like Fiverr or Upwork that can connect you with a creative graphic designer who will customize a logo for you. Once we had our colors, fonts, and logo, we were able to quickly build out a website on Squarespace. Other good website building sites are Wix or Shopify especially if you’re selling directly from your website.
To create our stickers, bookmarks, and many of our social media posts, we use Canva. If you aren’t skilled in Adobe Illustrator, this provides a quick and easy way to build posts! Like many apps these days, there is also a big push for AI use in terms of copy and art. We try not to use them (for many reasons—I’m sure I’ll have an AI blog soon), but I also know AI can make the process easier. (Especially if you don’t have a team that can help you out!)
I hope that you have found this post to be helpful as you dig into the social media and brand side of being an author (or anyone sharing their work!) These days so much more is expected of us to be successful and there's not a guaranteed solution that will work. I’m trying to use these strategies right now to build my community, but I know that it will take time. If you have any tips or tricks for being an author in this social media age, I would love to hear it!
Keep learning and stay curious,
Melora Fern
Like this article? Here are some of my others you might be interested in:
Social Media Expectations from Authors, pt 1
Audacious dreams and Grandmothers
My book Whistling Women and Crowing Hens is out now! Check out different places you can purchase here!
This was also published on my blog at melorafern.com