#Booknerdigan: How To Gain Instagram Followers

Instagram is a hub of communities and images are the common language.

In fact, there are rich communities passionate about reading and books and authors and anything even remotely related to words. For authors, finding Instagram followers is as easy as tapping into a niche and sharing your passions for books.

Head over to Instagram for a moment and search #bookish, #bookstagram or #booknerdigan. These are a few of the many hashtag communities thriving on book covers, artistic compositions of favorite titles, and rich word of mouth recommendations of what to read next.

A lot of authors are building their communities on Twitter and Facebook. But my Twitter feed seems to reach writers more than readers, and I’m too busy with social media for my day job to want to nurture a Facebook community larger than my immediate family. I wanted to connect with readers that love books the same way I do and have fun doing it. Because anything that is fun never feels like work.

I did the homework to find out how to launch on Instagram and build an audience quickly. It’s not gaming the system, it’s coming out of the gate with the foundational knowledge that minimizes the stumbles. I’m eight weeks in and @bookblab is still growing.

What do I like about Instagram?

Once you know how to look, it’s easy to find like-minded book lovers to connect with.
You can post several images at a time and fill a whole day’s worth of content in a few minutes.
Visual content inspires written content.
The platform does not allow links inside posts which discourages spammy content.

How To Grow Your Bookish Community

What’s in a name?

Start with a name for your account that says what you’re about. I knew I would be reposting a lot of content rather than creating original images to build a virtual library of beautiful books and titles readers recommend, so @Bookblab felt like a perfect fit from the start. Occasionally I post my own titles, but mainly I look for my favorites books and authors to promote. Whatever name you choose, you want it to be easy to remember.

Got the picture?

There are also image guidelines I follow. I look for content to reshare that is beautiful or unique, or a book cover that is exceptionally well done. If you browse similar accounts, you’ll see how lovingly some of these are composed. When you talk about a passion for reading, this is the community that builds the altar. Even if I like the book, if I don’t love the image, I don’t re-post. Bookblab’s original images are usually tagged with my handle so if they are reshared, I get trackable credit to lead folks back to my account. This is easy to do using WordSwag from the app store.

Where are our manners?

As with all social sharing, etiquette is important. Re-posts should be tagged as reposts with the creator credited. I also take it a step further and tag the creator’s account so they know I used their image. Often I get a follow back and some of my posts are reshared as the word of mouth variability of social media takes the content to new homes.

What’s the theme?

Make images relevant to your theme. I post only fiction titles, mainly mystery, suspense and Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Staying within a theme helps people know what to expect and focuses your audience.

How & Where?

If you want to build a following quickly, you need to start off with a lot of posts, as many as 8-10 images a day for the first few weeks. This builds your content library quickly and makes your new account look not so new.

A few minutes of research will go a long way in finding your audience. Use Instagram’s search tool and type in keywords or hashtags for your theme. Pay attention to the hashtags others are using. Click to discover what type of content you’ll find with each. This reveals niches within the larger communities. If you post for family and fun, skip the hashtags. If you post for marketing or business you need these to get discovered.

Hanging Out

Like any social media platform, you need to hang out before venturing too far. Learn from the accounts that are successful in the same theme as you before diving into contests and challenges. Also, be honest with yourself and how much time you have to give to the platform. I find that when I’m on Instagram, I spend less time on Twitter. Is that good or bad? It’s a very different audience on both platforms, both equally important when maintaining a fan base. Once a foundation is built, it becomes easier to spend time multiple social media networks without overlapping or having to give something up.

I set a daily time limit for social media marketing, but I may be on a different platform from one day to the next to mix it up and keep it interesting. It appeals to my squirrel-like attention span.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and repost your beautiful #bookaholic images. Tag @Bookblab on your posts so it pops into my box and I’ll happily re-share. This is what Indie Authors do, we cross-promote and share what we know so we can all get better at our craft and be successful.

If you have tips for Instagram or book marketing, please share in the comments below. Thanks for hanging out with me.

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Bookish Instagram

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Instagram is a hub of communities and images are the common language. For authors, finding Instagram followers is as easy as tapping into a niche and sharing your passions for books. Here are tips on how to gain Instagram followers for your book marketing.

#Bookish Instagram