Instagram has more than 15 million active user in Germany, worldwide there are even more than 800 million. That means that Instagram has a great potential, to build a community, gain new fans and readers. Over the past years the social media platforms has developed more and more: Additionally to the classic posts, you can also upload short videos, insta stories and live videos. Recently they introduced “highlights” into the profiles, where you can save your insta stories, which would usually be deleted after 24 hours.
But why should an author use insta stories? We show you a few tips, why and more and importantly how you can create interesting and exciting insta stories to use for your online marketing.
Behind The Scenes
Give your readers a look behind the curtains. Lots of people are nosy by nature and want to get to know you better as a person:
- You are writing on your new book? Show your writing process
- You are having a public reading? Give the readers who cannot attend a chance to “be there” as well” and take them with you through Instagram
- You are going to a book fair or an event? Take your fans with you as well
Target the Young Audience
If your main readership is fairly young who are usually on platforms like Facebook, Instagram & Co., then meet them at eye level and tell them your stories “in person”. Or maybe you are a nonfiction author and online marketing, social media, etc. are your strong suit? Your readers are for sure interested to get live tipps from you, not only in written form.
Little Effort – Great Effect
To do social media and insta stories you do not need expensive equipment or software. All that you need is your smartphone and you are good to go! Your videos don’t need to be cut for hours, you can simply upload them right after you’ve taken them. That way you are way faster compared to a YouTube video. Furthermore the stories are online for 24 hours only, so that way you give your followers kind of an exclusivity to your content.
Question & Answer
So your fans can get to know you better, ask them for questions (personal, business-related, or book-related) and answer them in your stories or you can even answer them in a live video. During the live video your followers can ask you questions too!
Poll Questions
In your insta stories you can do a poll question. That way you can engage with your fans and give them some importance and power of decisions:
- names of characters
- title
- cover design
- hardcover/softcover/eBook
Of course you can still keep everything under control if you only select things that you would choose anyway.
Announcements/Price Campaigns/Giveaways
You can arrange a giveaway, inform about price campaigns or discount codes, etc. Or do you have news to announce? Then do it face-to-face via video.
Also don’t forget to stay in contact with your readers besides insta stories. Answer questions in the direct messages or underneath posts. It is best if you reply promptly or as soon as possible. If you are short on time, a Smiley will do, too! Story telling is your passion! Use this gift to not only write them down!
