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Book Promotion Tips and Using #Hashtags

{Guest Post from Susan Mayfield}

Book promotion is an ongoing project with a very big learning curve! Here are some Book Promotion Tips to keep your marketing machine humming.

Facebook returned to the use of hashtags this summer as a way for users to search for things and for business pages to get more visibility. They are now offering # suggestions in the search bar and as you type in #\’s in the status area they will pop up, much like on Instagram.
This is really big when it comes to being found on Facebook for pages. For example, the non-profit that I do Social Media Manager work for (Multicultural Children\’s Book Day) has an official hashtag of #ReadYourWorld. When I search that hashtag on Facebook, it produces a long menu of all content that has been posted connected to #ReadYourWorld.
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So how many hashtags is too much? Online social marketing guru, Mari Smith, offered this advice: \”I would suggest adding 3-5 key hashtags. And then maybe expanding to 10-15 if you wish.  From what I am seeing right now on Facebook, I suggest only 3-8 hashtags per post, for now. You can do more, but people on Facebook tend to not like as many #\’s on a post.\”
 
{Pro Tip} Hashtags DO NOT decrease post reach!
Many experts claimed in the past few years that using hashtags decreased a post reach on Facebook. This is now not the case and in fact, Facebook now wants you to use hashtags.
Also, many social media users find a blob of hashtags \”ugly,\” so another hint to consider when using hashtags on Instagram is to use this format to push the extra hashtags down past the main content:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Sponsorships for the MCBD 2021 Event are OPEN! Access our Sponsorship Levels via #LinkInBio⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Sponsorship is a great way to support our non-profit initiative while tapping into some amazing visibility and exposure for authors and publishers of diverse board books, picture books, chapter books, and YA.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ January 29, 2021, will mark the 8th year of Multicultural Children’s Book Day’s (MCBD) quest to get culturally diverse books into the hands of children, parents, teachers, and librarians.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #ReadYourWorld #MCBD ⁠⠀ *⁠⠀ *⁠⠀ *⁠⠀ #bookstagram #edchat #teachersofinstagram #momsofinstagram #raisingreaders #diversepicturebook #readtothem

A post shared by MulticulturalChildrensBookDay (@readyourworldmcbd) on

Here is the Blog post from Mari Smith with more details about using hashtags:

Holiday Marketing Tips for Authors and Small Business Folks

  • Much of the holiday shopping will happen ONLINE this year. Shoppers are buying online now more than ever because of COVID.
  • Many in-person shopping events and shows will likely be canceled this year. Businesses that already have an online presence are ahead of the pack.
  • People are buying EARILER this year because of COVID (mid-October)
  • People will not be motivated by small discounts. Think 25% and up. People will expect discounts more than ever in 2020. It\’s perfectly acceptable to insist on a minimum cart value before the discount kicks in. Decide what that threshold is NOW.
  • People will spend more when there’s a coupon code.
Even though we are facing one of our most unorthodox and challenging holiday book-buying seasons, the key is to PIVOT. Try new things, new venues, new methods, new ideas.

And whatever you do, don\’t stop marketing.

Don\’t give up.

Don\’t throw in the towel.

Don\’t decide that young readers don\’t need to hear/see your voice. They do. Probably more than ever.

During a time of uncertainty, books offer a refuge, sanctuary, and a slice of normalcy for kids.

So keep working/writing/trying/sharing/marketing.

 

\Meet Susan Mayfield, the owner of Reduce the Chaos

My passion is promoting growing Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Organizations, to increase their visibility on social platforms. I do this by using social media and email marketing plans as a part of connecting to their prospective clients and staying in touch with their current clients. The goal is for this increased visibility to result in more client satisfaction and increased revenue to you, the client.

As technology changed, I saw the opportunity to expand my already existing office services into the virtual assistant and social media manager arena. My focus shifted away from in-person office management and turned toward social media management and virtual assisting, thus, Reduce the Chaos Virtual Assisting and Social Media Management was born.

Personally I love to read and to learn new things (which is a good thing since social media changes rapidly!). I also have a large garden and spend part of my time in the garden during the warmer months here in Colorado.


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