5 Best Practices for Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Book

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for authors promoting books that resonate with business professionals. This platform allows authors to showcase their expertise and accomplishments while connecting with other professionals in their field. If you’re planning to release a book to a business audience, discovering strategies for using LinkedIn to market your book is beneficial. In this post, I share five best practices to promote your book on LinkedIn.

5 best practices to promote your book on LinkedIn

Here are some best practices to promote your book on LinkedIn and drive book sales:

1. Establish Your Credibility in Your Field/Message

As an author, one of the most crucial aspects of selling your book is establishing credibility and expertise in your field or on the topic you’re writing about. This step increases the likelihood of readers trusting your insights and purchasing your book. Here are two ways you can establish credibility using LinkedIn:

• Highlight your qualifications and achievements. Add your relevant work experience, accolades, and any experience you may have as a keynote speaker or presenter to your LinkedIn profile. With this step, visitors perusing your profile can learn about your qualifications and accomplishments.

• Share insights into your daily work activities. Allow others a glimpse into your professional life by posting about your responsibilities, current projects, or career updates. For example, you might discuss an effective strategy you use to complete a complicated work task or inform your followers of the projects you’re completing.

Learn more: 7 Marketing Tips for Nonfiction Authors

2. Share Lessons and Key Points from Your Book in Posts

While it's tempting to use LinkedIn solely as a platform to promote your book, being overtly salesy can actually turn potential readers off. Instead, create valuable content that showcases the themes and topics of your book. Here are effective strategies to consider:

Share stories from your book

Stories are a powerful tool that can captivate your audience and help them relate to your message. If there’s a story in your book, share it as an isolated post on LinkedIn. If you don't have a relevant story in your book, consider sharing a personal story that relates to your area of expertise. For example, if you’re an entrepreneur, you might share a story of when you started a lemonade stand during your childhood and highlight what you learned from the experience. Include a photo that enhances the story, such as a childhood photo of you at your lemonade stand.

Share “listicles”

Another effective strategy is to share "listicles" or lists of key points from your book. For example, you might share three ways to overcome adversity at work, or ten ways to set boundaries with your boss. By sharing these lists, you are providing value to your audience while also giving them a taste of what to expect if they were to read your book. Here are two ways you might share “listicles” on LinkedIn:

• Caption: You might include a lengthy caption explaining your list. Consider including an image or a graphic with text explaining what the list includes (“10 ways to set boundaries with your boss”).

• Swipe graphics: You can create swipe graphics using a PDF document. Swipe graphics allow users to swipe through a series of graphics to read the content instead of reading a lengthy caption.