5 Tips to Promote Your Books on Facebook Live

In 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Live, a platform for users and businesses to broadcast real-time video to their followers. With video quickly becoming the most popular (and most engaging) form of content available, both authors and publishers should consider using Facebook Live and including it in their overall marketing plan.

Now, to use Facebook Live to broadcast real-time video, it’s recommended that you have a respectable Facebook following already. While it is possible to target your live videos, broadcasting to followers who already know your books will make the experience both more intimate and engaging.

To use Facebook Live, you’ll need a smartphone with the Facebook app already installed. To learn how to use Facebook Live and to explore its various advantages and limitations, head over to Hubspot for Facebook Live 101. It’s super easy – we promise.

Once you get the hang of it, try incorporating these 5 Facebook Live tips into your marketing plan for your next book.

1) Provide Regular Updates on Your Next Book

One of the best features about Facebook Live is that anyone watching can submit a question via text and you can choose which ones to answer. Jump onto Facebook Live and provide regular updates and answer a few questions about your next book. Provide your followers with teasers to get them excited about your next release.

2) Conduct an Author Interview

If you’re a publisher, post a schedule to your Facebook page that outlines when your followers can expect a Facebook Live interview with their favourite author. Once it’s time for the interview, have a staff member hold the smart phone (it must be connected to your Facebook page so this would likely be someone from the publicity team), filming the author and asking questions as they come in. This can easily be done by an author on their own.

3) Broadcast a Bookstore Appearance in Real-Time

Many bookstores view author appearances as crucial in getting people into their stores, and are often more than happy to have an author appear. To add additional publicity for the bookstore, ask if they would be willing to have part of your appearance broadcast via Facebook Live. A few days before the appearance, make sure you post that you’ll be live during your appearance.

4) Host a Weekly Live Show

If you’re a non-fiction author, Facebook Live is a great way to demonstrate your expertise. Let’s say, for example, that you recently wrote a book on investing. Through Facebook Live, you can hold a weekly “show” during which you can provide your real-time reactions to existing market conditions, and tie in your book as well.

5) Provide Writing Tips & Advice

Sometimes, you won’t have a book to promote, but that shouldn’t stop you from connecting with your followers. Take some time to provide advice to any aspiring writers out there. Every author has a unique story, and Facebook Live provides you with the perfect platform to directly assist others who are walking a similar (and often frustrating) path.