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Harnessing the power of book influencers for maximum impact is easier than in the past.
Do you remember the time that social media wasn’t a thing? Book marketing is a whole lot different in those days. But since the rise of platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok a new world of opportunities opened to sell books. Have you been able to keep up with these changes? In this article, we will inform you about a specific part of social media marketing in which you can make some time-efficient measures so you will have more time to focus on all of your other marketing activities.
IT and automation are becoming more and more important to publishers. Even if publishers produce paper books, the processes that follow after are mainly digital. Book marketing and sales are activities that happen predominantly online. Think Google Search ads, YouTube Display marketing, Facebook ads, LinkedIn campaigns, affiliate marketing, or influencer marketing. There are a whole lot of activities to juggle and they all take time and skills!
So, let’s talk influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses individuals to promote or endorse products or services to their audiences. These individuals are often seen as experts in their niche which makes them trustworthy. You might have heard about travel influencers that fly around the world, staying for free in hotels in exchange for a blog or pictures of them lying on the side of the swimming pool. Or beauty influencers that test a new line of makeup and get paid large sums by the industry for their efforts. There’s good news for the book industry, we have our very own influencers: book influencers!
#Bookstagram
With the growth of Instagram a new phenomenon arose: Bookstagram. If you do a hashtag search on Instagram today you’ll find over 86 million hits, meaning there are thousands of people adding pictures and videos about the books they read. If you broaden your search and add #bookstagrammer to the mix you’ll find another 16 million hits. Bookstagrammersmake a variety of content such as pictures of the books they just read or Instagram Reels in which they present a book in a short music video.
BookTok*
Didn’t the description of Instagram Reels make you think of another platform? You’re right, it’s the Instagram version of TikTok. The youngest bookish creators love to express their passion for books on this fast-growing platform. They are called Booktokers and have a huge impact on the sales of books. If you walk into a bookstore nowadays, chances are you will run into special ‘booktok’ displays showcasing the most popular books. The fun thing is that it is not just about the latest Colleen Hoover but older books get a completely new audience too. Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992) was recently rediscovered by a large community of young readers.
Increased spending on influencer marketing
We all know the value of mouth-to-mouth promotions and how people tend to trust the opinions of their peers over advertisements by corporates. This makes influencer marketing very interesting. A survey by Influencer Marketing Hub with 5000 respondents from marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals states that 83% of respondents believe influencer marketing is effective. Half of the brands that responded to the survey spend over $ 10,000 a year on influencer marketing, 11%, spend over half a million.
Finding a book influencer with whom to collaborate
Finding the right influencers is the most significant challenge for those running campaigns in-house. It’s a time-consuming matter: unread emails, landing in second inboxes on Instagram, not being able to reach out to Booktokers, sending out products while not knowing for sure whether they will make it into an Instagram post or Tiktok video, keeping track of all these people in spreadsheets. It’s a lot of work!
Because of the rise of influencer marketing, we also see a growth in influencer marketing agencies and platforms, helping brands find the right people for their marketing campaigns. They don’t only mediate for influencers in travel, fashion, and makeup anymore. Some niche platforms also specialize in industries, even for publishers and authors.
Bookinfluencers.com is the only dedicated platform for book influencers. It helps publishers, (indie) authors, and bookish brands find book influencers with whom to collaborate. The website has 4000+ profiles of book influencers from all over the world. Collaborating with an influencer means they will read and promote your book on their social media channels in return for the book and an optional, but highly recommended incentive.
Seeing that influencer marketing is taking a larger cut of the marketing mix every year, have you optimized these processes? Can automation by the use of a platform make your work easier? Share your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below.
Antina van der Veen is the founder of Bookinflluencers.com, a time-efficient influencer platform for the book community. For more information go to www.bookinfluencers.com or reach out contact@bookinfluencers.com.
*Editor’s Note: The White House has directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices. Booktok is owned by TikTok. Bookstagram is owned by the US company, Meta (Facebook).
