How Authors can Use Social Media to Build their email List

social
by David Harris // October 10  

Social media is a fantastic marketing tool and there are many ways you can monetize a large number of followers or likes and be highly successful as a result.

At the same time though, social media also has some significant limitations. Chief among these is the fact that it means you’re relying on a third party to give you access to your readers. If Facebook changes their terms and conditions it can alter how you connect with your fans overnight. What’s more, if someone leaves Facebook, you’ll lose access to them.

A mailing list is a better and more direct way to communicate with your followers, but unfortunately it is also harder to build and grow seeing as people tend to be rather protective over their personal details.

The goal then, is to take your social media account and to convert those followers into subscribers. Here’s how you can go about doing this…

Share Posts

One of the main ways you can turn your social media followers into email subscribers is to share content. This way, you’ll get them to leave the social media site and go somewhere where you can embed an opt-in form.

Talk About Your Book or Resources

With a social media account you have a captive audience and you can use that to build interest in what you’re offering. If you often provide discounts and special offers from your mailing list then you can just talk about all the exciting offers and provide links to your mailing list.

Likewise, if you have a forthcoming book, you can talk about how it will change everything and suggest people subscribe if they want more information.

Engage

Using social media gives you a great chance to engage and discuss things with your audience. Make sure you ask and answer questions and create discussion. This way, people will feel more ‘involved’ with what you are doing and will want to take that further by signing up to your list.

Provide Value

Most importantly, make sure you provide value by making interesting and entertaining posts regularly. This way readers will assume your mailing list will offer value too!

 

About the Author

David Harris is a content writer at Adazing with 20 years of experience navigating the ever-evolving worlds of publishing and technology. Equal parts editor, tech enthusiast, and caffeine connoisseur, he’s spent decades turning big ideas into polished prose. As a former Technical Writer for a cloud-based publishing software company and a Ghostwriter of over 60 books, David’s expertise spans technical precision and creative storytelling. At Adazing, he brings a knack for clarity and a love of the written word to every project—while still searching for the keyboard shortcut that refills his coffee.