Tag: social media

Elevating Your Social Media Graphics: Using Canva Like a Pro

Posted on by CMPR

Eye-catching graphics are essential for standing out and engaging with your social media audience. It may seem scary, but there are so many tools out there that can help you create visually appealing content with ease, whether you are a graphic designer or not! Anyone can use Canva to create simple and stunning designs that not only look good but also encourage user engagement. Here are some tips and tricks on elevating your social media graphics using Canva:

  1. Start with a template. If you don’t know where to start, don’t be afraid to take inspiration from one of the templates that Canva provides. These are a great starting point for creating graphics for any social media platform and are completely customizable to fit your brand. Select a template that fits your needs and change the colors, photos, and text to align with your content and messaging.
  2. Utilize brand kits. In branding, consistency is key. The brand kit feature allows you to upload your logo, brand colors, and fonts, to easily and quickly input these details into every graphic you make. Incorporating similar elements into all of your graphics will create a cohesive look across social media posts and offer brand recognition to your audience.
  3. Incorporate elements. Canva offers an extensive library of elements you can use to add extra creativity to your graphics. Check out all the different shapes, arrows, lines, symbols, and icons, and play around with how they can add to your design. Symbols like the heart and share button can add a call to action to your graphic. Arrows can point out important information you don’t want the audience to miss.
  4. Try the new AI features. Canva’s newest feature, Magic Studio, will create graphics and videos for you, translate text to different languages, and even write passages. Our tip is to use these things for your inspiration and then turn them into your own! The Magic Studio also has plenty of helpful editing tools like an image background remover, image expander, and text grabber. These elements can make the editing process so much faster.
  5. Keep it simple. Avoid going crazy on your graphics with too much text or too many elements. Simplicity can often lead to a greater impact through a more centered focus. Typically, we use our graphics as a simplified version of a writing or blog post and direct our audience there.

Enhance your social media presence with these tips to create stunning and engaging content for all of your feeds. Explore Canva’s many features and experiment with all the design elements they offer. Happy designing!

Check out these other blog posts to get started on social media!

How To Talk About Your Book for the First Time on Social Media – Claire McKinney Public Relations, LLC (clairemckinneypr.com)

Getting Attention on Social Media – Claire McKinney Public Relations, LLC (clairemckinneypr.com)

The Power of Social Media Analytics

Posted on by CMPR

Social media is a valuable tool for authors to promote their books and build an online audience. While creating engaging content is important, understanding how the content performs is just as important. Social media analytics can help you determine this.

Why Social Media Analytics Matter

You need a brand strategy to optimize your presence on social media, but how do you know what is working? Monitoring social media analytics such as engagement rates, audience demographics, and post reach, is imperative to the understanding of how your content is performing. Using analytics can help you to reach your social media goals and beyond.

Tools such as Instagram Insights, X Analytics, and Meta Business Suite, are built-in analytic features within social media. Third-party tools like Hootsuite and Google Analytics can also provide more comprehensive insights across multiple platforms. 

Key Metrics to Track

Engagement Rates: Track the likes, comments, shares, and clicks that your content receives from your audience. High engagement suggests that your audience is connecting with your material. Engagement rates may seem lower than you think they should be. In 2023, the median engagement rate for Instagram across all industries was just 0.43%.

Follower Demographics: Understand who your audience is based on elements like age, gender, location, and what their interests may be. This allows you to make content more suited to their preferences. 

Content Performance: Determine which types of posts perform best with your audience. On Instagram this would include feed posts, Reels, and Stories. On X, this would be posts with pure text, or posts with images or videos. Modify your content strategy according to what appeals the most.

Here are some more analytics that you can keep an eye on, depending on what works for your brand and content.

Using Analytics Effectively

Set Goals: Define specific objectives you want to meet, like increasing engagement, driving website traffic, or boosting book sales. Tailor your content based on how you are meeting your goals.

Monitor: Check analytics regularly to track progress and identify trends over time.

Experiment: The good thing about social media is that you can’t break it. Use insights to experiment with different content formats and strategies. Continuously refine your approach based on what works best according to your analytics.

 

In the competitive digital landscape, using social media analytics is essential for authors wanting to improve their online presence and engage with their readers. Acting upon the data and tailoring your content strategy can ultimately help you achieve greater success in improving your social media accounts.

For tips on getting started on social media, check out these blog posts:

How To Talk About Your Book for the First Time on Social Media – Claire McKinney Public Relations, LLC (clairemckinneypr.com)

Creating Your Social Media Plan AI – (clairemckinneypr.com)

Getting Attention on Social Media – Claire McKinney Public Relations, LLC (clairemckinneypr.com)

Using Stories to Promote Your Book on Instagram

Posted on by CMPR

Instagram is a popular social media platform for influencers, including authors and readers. Using every feature the platform has available, including Stories to promote your book, can be very helpful to your campaign. Start by following celebrity and influencer accounts, as well as fellow authors, to get a rounded grasp of how useful Instagram Stories can be for public figures.

Instagram tends to skew young in terms of who is using the platforms, from teenagers to millennials in their mid-30s. As an author, it can be useful to tap into these age groups to cultivate a new audience for your books and/or brand.

How Instagram Stories work is that the photo you post will disappear after 24 hours of your posting of it, unlike regular posts. Instagram feed posts and Reels are there permanently unless deleted by the user. They are good to use for more temporary ideas you have that will not stay on your feed forever.

Using Stories to Your Advantage as an Author:

Use them for exclusive content. Are you in the middle of writing a new book? Insta-story a line from a chapter you just wrote. Are you writing a short story for a new anthology? Snap a photo of yourself with one of the other authors or editor with something along the lines of, “Meeting with so-and-so today. Can’t wait to show you our latest project coming soon!” Creating some mystery and suspense will excite your followers.

A personal glimpse into your life. We all want to know what our favorite celebrities are doing – and posting photos of themselves cooking food, out to dinner, enjoying a concert, or reading a book achieve that aspect of making followers feel like they are included in their lives. You can do the same thing as an author by taking a video of a book you are reading or your new writing desk setup.

Hold a contest. Gain followers on Instagram by holding a contest–they have to follow you to enter and the winner will receive an advanced reader’s copy of your upcoming book, a box set, or a signed copy of your newest release. 

Engage your followers. Try posting a question or hosting a poll. “What are you reading today?” or “What’s coming up on your TBR?” will engage your followers by having them respond in a message. Respond back so that they can feel that you are engaged with them as well and begin to form personal relationships with your readers.

Using Stories to promote your book on Instagram is yet another aspect to using the platform to your full advantage. Start out by posting a few personal things from your week, and see how your readers respond. You may find yourself discovering a new outlet to engage with your followers and potential new readers.

Using Reels to Promote Your Book on Instagram

Posted on by CMPR

Over the past few years, it has become clear that Instagram is no longer just a photo sharing platform. Reels are one of the best ways to grow on Instagram, but they can be very overwhelming for those who are not familiar with creating video content. Here are some ideas you can use to promote your book using Reels. 

Following Trends

Did you know that you can follow hashtags? If not, I suggest you do that now, starting with #BookTok and #Bookstagram. Bookstagrammers and authors use these hashtags to showcase content around books and writing. 

Often there are fun and easy Reels trends on these hashtags that require minimal filming and editing. Monitoring the type of content users are enjoying in these bookish spaces and tailoring the content specifically to your book will give you a bit of an edge.

You do not have to dance or point to make a Reel that performs well, but you do need to show up consistently with valuable content.

Check out this one from a fantasy author promoting his book with the use of quotes here.

General Tips and Tricks

Think of Instagram Reels like a business card. The point is to spread the content far and wide, not overloading your viewer with too much information. 

Do not introduce yourself. In the Reels format, you just do not have the time. This also might not hook your viewer. Instead, lead with educational or entertainment value and have an optimized profile to explain who you are to convert viewers to followers. 

Try using stock footage. We get it, you don’t always have the time or energy to film with your face on camera. Did you know you can find faceless stock footage online to use in your Reels? For example, grab a stock video of someone flipping through book pages (make sure you read the fine print and that it’s free use), and put quotes from your book over the footage. Simple!

Include a call to action. A call to action is an essential part of any content you make that has a purpose. People will not always engage with your content in the way you want them to unless you tell them how to do so. If you want people to comment or follow, tell them! For Reels, an excellent call to action in the caption is to comment a specific word, alerting you to DM them a link or a freebie.

Grab our free e-guide to social media marketing for information on all social platforms.

Getting Attention on Social Media

Posted on by CMPR

Getting attention on social media can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. With millions of people on each platform, how do you get the right people to see your content? 

Hashtags

Many people think hashtags are a thing of the past, but they do still have their place on many social media platforms. The landscape around them, however, is constantly changing and every site tends to leverage them slightly differently. It can be very confusing if you’re new to social media or coming back from a long hiatus to find everything has changed. This is why tailoring your hashtag strategy should be a routine part of your social media plan.

First you will want to identify your target audience and search for appropriate hashtags that the audience may be interested in. Get in the mind of your audience. Think about what tags they might search for on social media. If you’re an author, #bookstoread and #bookstagram are popular, community-based hashtags that many bookworms use when looking for new reading material. Complete a search of your own to see which posts get the most traction, and remember to be continually researching as information is changing constantly.

Tags

Potentially the simplest way to get attention on social media is to tag people or accounts that may be interested in your content. Tagging an account will get your post to pop up in their notifications, giving your content a higher chance of being seen by specific people.

Similar to your hashtag research, you will want to find accounts that you think would be interested in your content. Think about your target audience and identify accounts that may want your content to show up in their notifications. Once you have these accounts identified, you can begin mentioning them in your captions. On Instagram, Facebook, and X, start by typing ‘@’ and proceed to type in the account name you want to tag.

For example, if you put @mckinneymediagroup in an Instagram caption, we will be notified and see your post.

The Algorithm

The main way your content will get attention on social media is through the elusive algorithm. Social media platforms will deliver content they think you want to see based on things you have searched for and looked at previously. It looks at content and users and tries to serve the right content to the right people. 

“Beating” the algorithm and getting people to see your content isn’t always so easy and there isn’t one thing or another that you can do that will work every time. What is important is creating consistent, high quality content that you know your target audience will enjoy. Constantly keep an eye on trends in the algorithm on all your social media platforms to make sure that you’re staying up to date on how content is being pushed to users. Check out these 2024 guides to the algorithm on Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter) for more information.