5 Compelling Reasons Why Your Next Book Needs Its Own #Hashtag For a Viral Moment

Your Book Needs It’s Own Unique Hashtag

Love it, or hate it, iHob was a sensation.

Social media was abuzz with this campaign which, purportedly, was changing the name of, “International House of Pancakes;” iHop, to, “International House of Burgers;” iHob.

We later found out it was just a publicity stunt; iHop would stay iHop. There were many hashtags that sprung up from this “fake news” story, such as, #ihob, #saynoihob, I’ll be taking my business to #dennysdiner, and many others.

In fact, #iHob was trending for days on end on Twitter. Was the campaign a success? Here are the numbers:

…more than 20,000 stories were written about the name change. The campaign produced more than 36 billion earned media impressions. Social media mentions of IHOP produced a potential reach of more than 4 billion people with the #iHob hashtag.

As authors, we too should be looking at ourselves as a brand, and not just a writer. We have the ability to create trending and viral moments with our books on a zero marketing budget.

Most of us may never reach 36 billion media impressions; but how does one-thousand, ten-thousand, twenty-thousand sound? We can create “viral” moments by coming up with a hashtag for our new releases (or resurrect old titles with hashtags).

The hashtags do not have to be the title of the book, either. They can be something funny, catchy, ironic, dramatic, controversial, etc. Just create one that’s worth sharing.

Let’s say you wrote, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” (sorry Harper Lee). What hashtag would you create? I can think of a few.

#atticusforjustice

#maycomb

#maverickattorney

#mockingbirdlynched

How do you come up with hashtags?

Write down key characters in your story, key locations, themes, dialogue and come up with your own viral hashtags. Once you have a few winners, use them across all of your social media accounts.

Here Are Five Reasons Why You Should Do So:

1. Advertisement — Creates Excitement: It creates anticipation for your book. Simply using #novel, #fiction or #kindle will get a few people to view your posts, but they won’t create a “moment” for your book. In addition to these hashtags, create well-thought-out unique hashtags that speak for themselves, or sustain curiosity. Consider creating multiple hashtags and stretch them out over a week or month, using them like breadcrumbs that lead to your pre-order page. Doing so, you create enthusiasm for your book’s release.
2. Increases Book Sales (and other services): One author prescheduled her tweets using custom hashtags and jumped from 2000 followers to 21,000! Her book sales increased by 1000%! She also saw a dramatic uptick in people using her editing services. Her tip? Don’t follow just authors as you’re only preaching to the choir; follow avid readers, bloggers, genre fans.
3. Advertise Without Advertising: How many times do you scan your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feed and see posts from fellow authors that say, “Just released!” “Buy my book!” “Win a free copy of my book!” Annoying, right? Have you ever clicked on their links, gone to Amazon and purchased their books? Or have you gotten in the habit of just ignoring their posts, muting them, or simply unfriending/unfollowing them? I can tell you I have. The authors I follow are ones who are creative about promotion. Unique book hashtags are a way to promote without promoting. How? Add it to a post where you talk about a character in the story. Use an image which connects with the theme of your book, then add your hashtag to the image. Get creative.
4. Creates Fans and Communities: By creating shareable content, you draw fans to your work, and more importantly, to you as a brand. These are people who are interested in what you have to offer. They are a curated crowd who will purchase your books over and over again because you’ve gotten them excited about it, or curious. Done right, fans will actually look for your posts; and not avoid them.
5. Readers Find Your Books Through Hashtags: Readers not only search for posts from authors to follow by using #YA or #Thriller, they also look for something that catches their eye and is re-tweetable. Would you rather retweet a post with the hashtag #novel #fiction, or with the hashtags #fireinbelly #novel? The latter is more visual and more intriguing. If you have added an interesting image with the hashtag, you double your chances of fans sharing your content.

I plan on creating an entire campaign with the launch of my next book which will include scheduled tweets and posts used as breadcrumbs in order to stimulate interest and pre-order sales.

So, do you plan on creating and using your own unique hashtags as part of your next book release? Tell me below.

Patrice Williams Marks is an author, Sensitivity Reader, founder of courses that teach Sensitivity Reading, founder of a non-profit charity, founder of several film festivals with diverse entries from filmmakers and writers. She also has a background in public relations, marketing, and journalism with an emphasis on research.