20 Ways to Engage and Encourage Participation on Social Media Outlets

The best way to engage readers and encourage others to participate while posting on social media is to consider the audience and create games or activities that will appeal directly to the potential readers.

Hey there, my indie author friend. Kudos to you for taking a leap and trying to spread the word about your most recent work. I’ve had the honor of hosting quite a few Facebook Takeovers and from my own experience have found that the most rewarding moments have come when I’ve shared a fun or quirky game, then made sure to interact with followers as they commented.

For those of you who haven’t done any projects like this before or are merely looking for fresh inspiration, check out these posts.

*Helpful Hint: Before you really get rolling, remember to label the posts so that people will easily be able to follow the order you determined ahead of time. If you want to create six posts in total, be sure to stamp each one accordingly: Post 1 of 6, Post 2 of 6, and so on…

Begin with an Introduction

It’s probable that the reason you are doing this at all is because you want to get word out about your book or resource. So, start by introducing yourself. Don’t feel like you need to go overboard. This can be as simple as sharing the bio you have already posted on your website. Or you can do a little extra and give your readers some fun facts about yourself. Try these ideas, if you like.

1.      All About Me Post

2.      Two Truths and a Lie

3.      An Introduction Video

Once you’ve established who you are and said hello to the readers, talk more specifically about your work. Posts that might entertain and engage your audience would include:

4.      Your Inspiration (What or Who Inspires You to Write)

5.      A Description of Your Main Characters or Why You Decided to Tell Their Story

6.      A Note about the Research You Did for This Writing Project

Now that the group knows all about you and your work, focus on getting other people involved. Use some of these games and activities to invite readers to interact with you and each other.

7.      Offer a Character Quiz

8.      Encourage Readers to Discover Which of Your Characters Might be Their “Book Boyfriend”

9.      Scramble Your Book Cover by Using Jigsaw Planet

Visit the website to learn more and see an example.

10. Play a Quick Game of “Would You Rather?”

11. Show Readers a Few “This or That” Options

12.  Present Readers with a Bingo Board

13. Create a Scene from Your Book and Ask Readers to Interpret What’s Happening or Allow Them to Write a Caption

14. Conduct a Reader Poll—There’s no graphic included here because this is something that authors can do right in the group. Facebook has a rather handy way for submitting polls and it collects results easily.

15. Slide Some Tiles into Place and Suggest a Game of Scrabble

16. Ask Readers This Question: If You Had to Live in the Last Book You Read, Where Would You Be?

17. Share a Recipe That is Related to Something Which Appears in Your Book

Once the fun and games have concluded, wrap up the event by inviting the readers to continue following you and sharing your experience. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways.

18. If you’ve got a new book coming out soon, ask readers to weigh in on cover options. Allow them to help select which cover you should use. *A variation on this idea is to ask readers to help name a character in an upcoming work you’re producing.

19. If you haven’t already given the audience members a freebie or conducted a giveaway, be sure to do just that. Sometimes, the easiest thing is to just give a free eBook to anyone who spent time engaging with you. But, in other instances, it’s gratifying to select a few winners and offer them a selection of prizes.

20. Finish the day with some sort of thank you post and call to action. Most often, authors want to ask readers to subscribe to their newsletter or click on a link and check out their catalogue. Don’t forget to give all the information so that everybody can catch up with you later.

I wish you the best of luck as you embark on this endeavor. Unlike making random posts on social media or simply shouting about your new releases, these offerings will hopefully encourage readers to engage with you and your work.