Last week, we discussed why you need a social media presence and why it can be nerve-wracking to put yourself out there. This week, we tackle a different, perhaps more pragmatic, social media concern: What to post.

Deciding what to post on social media is much like facing the dreaded blank page. The good news is you don't need to worry about coming up with something increasingly profound (or absurd) week after week. Your content will revolve around your writing and your work, a foundation that will keep you grounded. So, instead of exploring specific types of content today, we’re going to look at the big picture, namely, how to approach content creation overall to maximize your efforts.

Authors on social media are similar to (very) small shop owners. Imagine yourself with a pushcart crammed in with other pushcarts along a very busy street. Amp up the scale. You're selling drinks from a cooler beside a twenty-lane super highway competing with ten thousand other vendors. In this metaphor, the drivers (called users because social media is a drug) fly by. Should fortune smile, you'll get a few milliseconds of their attention. In that tiny window, you have to grab them and hold on, jerking their car off the highway, so you can pitch your soda.

Attention is always valuable because it's required to make sales. This is a million times truer in social media. Meta is a trillion-dollar company, to be discussed, and attention is their primary product. Keep in mind that there's good and bad attention. The bad kind comes from bells and whistles or blowing things up. The good kind catches potential readers.

Attention is also fleeting; it arrives quickly and can disappear faster. When posting, capturing attention demands making the right first impression. People passing by your shop, equivalent to scrolling past your posts, put zero effort into figuring out what's on offer. You need to show them. That information allows them to make a decision whether to pursue or move on. To start, setting up your account well makes it likelier for them to proceed. At that point, it's time to deliver the message.

This logic, our storefront strategy, pervades all sales. Step one: grab buyer attention; then, step two, make an impression that leads to the next step. Let's point out an obvious no-no. Your Instagram post has space for an image; you're selling a novel, so you upload the whole enchilada, reducing the font to squeeze into that space. All 75,000 words on a postage stamp, so to speak. Ridiculous, right?

Repeat to yourself: hold their attention and persuade them to the next step. The right way, of course, is to post a slice of your product to reel them in. Marketers call this the customer journey. It may turn into a long, winding road, but it ends in a sale, if you do your job. Keep the storefront strategy top of mind, whenever you're promoting your work.

Next, let's dive into first impressions. Great shop windows showcase your product's value in an instant. You'll know yours is great if they step inside, meaning like, follow, buy, etc. On these platforms, your name, picture, bio, and pinned posts are literally your shop’s window. They must be clean, aesthetically pleasing, and, above all, demonstrate your novel's value.

You must also consider your value as an author because that is tied so closely to your novel's success. For example, if you’re trying to sell a gothic mystery thriller, then the above content must evoke those genre expectations. Creepy lettering, foreboding images, and you can even add some haunting music. This aesthetic should carry over to your content as well, allowing you to establish an easily recognizable author brand.

Before moving on, don't forget it's not enough to sit inside your shop making posts. That's roughly equal to regularly changing posters in the window. You also must step out the door to pull other people in. Early on particularly, go out of your way to wave, say hello and introduce yourself when appropriate. Embrace the “social” aspect of social media, and you’ll find the experience much more productive.

That's all for this time, but we'll be back next week to discuss how to create your author brand. If you're eager for more social media insights, and want all our collective wisdom compiled in one place, the Bardsy Author's Social Media Primer is now available on Amazon. Check it out here