Q&A
Q&As
1: What kind of content is better suited for IG stories vs the permanent feed?
One way to use Stories is to add informal, behind-the-scenes clips that give people insights into your day. This 'humanizes' you beyond the relatively narrow confines of your content pillars. Stories are a great place to practise talking-to-camera if that makes you nervous, especially if you post to your grid then add more context by talking about the post in more detail in Stories. This will also give people a reason to watch your stories as they will get used to the idea that they get extra insights from you there.
Stories is also a great place to put links to preorders/ podcast episodes, etc, although generally, this will only work if you've already done the work of engaging your audience in watching your Stories.
You can read more about how to approach Stories in this Instagram post.
2: If you run a podcast, how do you incorporate that into the pillar strategy?
There are two ways to incorporate it. First of all, make sure that one of your content pillars reflects the subject(s) you talk about in the podcast. In the content for this pillar, post broadly about those subjects and the ways they're relevant to you/ your audience without mentioning your podcast. Perhaps there are questions you routinely address on your podcast that you could ask your audience, or if you have guests who give great advice, maybe you could create round-up posts that are valuable to your audience.
The second way to incorporate the podcast into your content pillars is to have a 'promotional' pillar in the mix. This is the content where you ask/ encourage/ invite your audience to do something. A word of caution, this kind of 'selfish' content should only ever make up a maximum of 20% of your posts and the rest of your content should centre your reader/ audience.
3: Disclaimer: I am new to IG (I never posted, have account). Do we need to worry about our ideal reader doing a "psychographic profile" on us? In other words, my own interests extend beyond the themes of my book. Do I need to only follow things my ideal reader would follow? Or can I basically follow what I want for myself and focus my own content on my ideal readers?
In my experience, it would be very unusual for people to check to see who you are following so I wouldn't worry about this too much. If you are planning to use Instagram for entertainment or education about topics unrelated to your work, then follow whatever accounts you are interested in. However, if you're interested in keeping strict time limits and boundaries around your screen time and/ or social media use I would recommend keeping the accounts you follow quite narrowly focused on other writers, readers that you build a relationship with, and accounts related to the topics and themes you are writing about. This way you can keep the creeping scroll time to a minimum and be super-targeted in your online activity.
4: how about establishing relationships with book reviewers via IG. How do you start a dialogue with them?
Online relationship building actually follows the same patterns as in real life relationship building usually does. That is, it starts slowly and carefully, sharing small talk and relatively non-controversial opinions, which then *might* evolve over time. It is important not to enter into these relationships purely focused on what you want to get out of it at the end; find book reviewers and book bloggers whose style and content you genuinely like and would be interested in regardless of being a writer or not. Look for book reviewers who specialise in the genre you are writing in and enjoy reading yourself.
If there was someone I was interested in developing a relationship with I would start by leaving thoughtful comments under their posts and seeing if they are open to conversation. If they use Stories I might respond to their Stories, and you might eventually decide to share your own platform with them by sharing some of their content to your Stories.
You might be tempted to take the view that these relationships are purely business and therefore are transactional, and if you have a large platform to share this could indeed be beneficial to the book reviewer. However, in most cases book bloggers have built their platforms over a long period of time so I would always encourage writers to be mindful of this and to respect the labour they have put into building their audience.
One way to use Stories is to add informal, behind-the-scenes clips that give people insights into your day. This 'humanizes' you beyond the relatively narrow confines of your content pillars. Stories are a great place to practise talking-to-camera if that makes you nervous, especially if you post to your grid then add more context by talking about the post in more detail in Stories. This will also give people a reason to watch your stories as they will get used to the idea that they get extra insights from you there.
Stories is also a great place to put links to preorders/ podcast episodes, etc, although generally, this will only work if you've already done the work of engaging your audience in watching your Stories.
You can read more about how to approach Stories in this Instagram post.
2: If you run a podcast, how do you incorporate that into the pillar strategy?
There are two ways to incorporate it. First of all, make sure that one of your content pillars reflects the subject(s) you talk about in the podcast. In the content for this pillar, post broadly about those subjects and the ways they're relevant to you/ your audience without mentioning your podcast. Perhaps there are questions you routinely address on your podcast that you could ask your audience, or if you have guests who give great advice, maybe you could create round-up posts that are valuable to your audience.
The second way to incorporate the podcast into your content pillars is to have a 'promotional' pillar in the mix. This is the content where you ask/ encourage/ invite your audience to do something. A word of caution, this kind of 'selfish' content should only ever make up a maximum of 20% of your posts and the rest of your content should centre your reader/ audience.
3: Disclaimer: I am new to IG (I never posted, have account). Do we need to worry about our ideal reader doing a "psychographic profile" on us? In other words, my own interests extend beyond the themes of my book. Do I need to only follow things my ideal reader would follow? Or can I basically follow what I want for myself and focus my own content on my ideal readers?
In my experience, it would be very unusual for people to check to see who you are following so I wouldn't worry about this too much. If you are planning to use Instagram for entertainment or education about topics unrelated to your work, then follow whatever accounts you are interested in. However, if you're interested in keeping strict time limits and boundaries around your screen time and/ or social media use I would recommend keeping the accounts you follow quite narrowly focused on other writers, readers that you build a relationship with, and accounts related to the topics and themes you are writing about. This way you can keep the creeping scroll time to a minimum and be super-targeted in your online activity.
4: how about establishing relationships with book reviewers via IG. How do you start a dialogue with them?
Online relationship building actually follows the same patterns as in real life relationship building usually does. That is, it starts slowly and carefully, sharing small talk and relatively non-controversial opinions, which then *might* evolve over time. It is important not to enter into these relationships purely focused on what you want to get out of it at the end; find book reviewers and book bloggers whose style and content you genuinely like and would be interested in regardless of being a writer or not. Look for book reviewers who specialise in the genre you are writing in and enjoy reading yourself.
If there was someone I was interested in developing a relationship with I would start by leaving thoughtful comments under their posts and seeing if they are open to conversation. If they use Stories I might respond to their Stories, and you might eventually decide to share your own platform with them by sharing some of their content to your Stories.
You might be tempted to take the view that these relationships are purely business and therefore are transactional, and if you have a large platform to share this could indeed be beneficial to the book reviewer. However, in most cases book bloggers have built their platforms over a long period of time so I would always encourage writers to be mindful of this and to respect the labour they have put into building their audience.