As an author, you know that social media can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's a powerful tool for building your brand, connecting with readers, and promoting your work. On the other hand, it can be a major source of stress, distraction, and burnout.
It’s not surprising that many authors end up taking social media breaks (both planned or unplanned) to reduce stress, boost productivity, and improve work quality. Unfortunately, such breaks hurt their relationships with their readers who at worse forget who they are or at best move on to other authors who show up more consistently.
So, how can authors have both—the mental break they need and the book sales they want? The answer lies in the smart use of AI. With the help of AI, authors can reduce the work needed to generate social media content and take breaks, all without sacrificing their market momentum. In this post, I will explore how.
Should Authors Take Social Media Breaks?
During a recent talk on How to Use AI to Generate 30 Days of Twitter Content in 60 Minutes, an author told me she loves the idea of AI for social content generation, but can’t execute on it as she was in the middle of a social media break. She explained that she was working on her book and wanted to limit her social media time while writing.
While I understood her reasoning, I also knew that her audience could become stale during her absence, preventing her from effectively selling her books, courses, and other products. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn't much different. I too used to take breaks from social media.
And I'm not alone. A quick Google search on social media breaks shows a number of queries from burned-out authors looking for a respite from the never-ending social media content generation grind. Questions like "Can you be an author without social media?" or "Do authors need social media?" reflect a growing sentiment that social media can be overwhelming for authors.
And listen I get why they and you feel that way.
After all, there are several benefits of disconnecting from social media marketing for authors.
Benefits of Social Media Breaks for Authors
Let's face it. Social media can feel overwhelming. Generating content, worrying about how your readers receive it, and the ever-changing game of keeping up with the algorithms, it feels like a full-time job! One that you don't want. After all, you are an author, not a marketer! And even if you can afford a marketer, you often find yourself wondering if you should as many just make you come across as markety and sleazy, which just doesn't feel true to the relationship you have with your readers. You've heard of AI tools that you could use but you fear it will make you sound like everyone else--and make you lose your unique author voice.
So you keep on keeping on, only to feel burned out. Social media breaks then become essential. Breaks give authors back what’s required to write and thrive. Here are some of the main benefits of social media breaks.
Reducing Stress and Anxiety
Not surprisingly, taking a break from social media can help you reduce stress and anxiety levels. Studies have shown that social media use is linked to increased levels of anxiety and depression. By taking a break, you can give your mind a chance to rest and recharge. This allows you to focus on your writing. And when you do get back to your social media marketing you will have more energy and creativity to apply to it. Something that counterintuitively helps you generate better content that does get more reach.
Increasing Productivity
Social media can be a major distraction, especially when you're trying to focus on your writing. Taking a break from social media can help you stay focused and increase your productivity. When you're not constantly checking your phone for notifications, you can focus on your writing and get more done in less time.
Improving Work Quality
Regular social media use has been linked to decreased self-esteem and increased feelings of loneliness and isolation, which can negatively impact your work quality as an author. However, taking a break from social media can help you improve your mental health and well-being. By disconnecting from social media, you can focus on building real-life connections and relationships, which can ultimately lead to improved work quality. Regular breaks from social media, help you can stay focused and refreshed and ultimately produce better work.
All that being said social media breaks are bad for your book sales.
Why Social Media Breaks Are Incredibly Bad for Your Book Sales
Authors should be wary of taking extended breaks from social media, especially if they are trying to sell books. Here are a few reasons why:
- Loss of visibility: Social media is a powerful tool for authors to promote their work and connect with readers. By taking a break, you risk losing visibility and momentum. Your followers may forget about you, and potential readers may not discover you.
- Missed opportunities: Social media is not only a place to promote your work, but also a place to connect with other authors, publishers, and industry professionals to accelerate your book sales. By taking a break, you may miss out on important networking opportunities or industry news that affects your goals.
- Decreased engagement: Social media algorithms favor accounts that are active and engaging. By taking a break, you risk losing engagement and falling behind in the algorithm, which can make it harder for your content to be seen.
If you are trying to sell books and build a platform, it's important to maintain a consistent presence on social media. And that’s where AI comes in. It allows you to maintain visibility and engagement all without the drain of constant social media content creation.
AI Tools Enable Author Visibility Without the Drain
Incorporating AI into your social media content creation workflow allows you to get all the benefits of a social media break without any drops in visibility and engagement. When done right by using AI for your social media content creation you save time, stay consistent, and keep your unique author voice.
Save time
Generating social content using AI is fast. Simply prompt AI to use your existing content like book excerpts, book descriptions, or blog posts to create whatever content you need and it will give you an excellent scrappy first draft to edit.
S. J. Pajonas, CTO and Coach, of Future Fiction Academy generates multiple Facebook posts and ad copy options from a single blog post or book blurb and chooses her favorites to schedule.
I copy my blog post into ChatGPT and ask for a specific number of Facebook posts that I can then schedule out through Missinglettr. For ads, I give it the blurb and any other information I can think of and ask for pieces 10 Facebook ad copy. I take the best of the bunch and use those. Yes, sometimes they need formatting.
She keeps her engagement up and her name in front of readers, all while saving about an hour a week.
Stay Consistent
Another popular author I talked to, gives ChatGPT the current month and asks it to generate a specific number of promotional posts with hashtags and image suggestions for various social platforms and then manually schedules them on the planned day.
At the beginning of the month, I tell it what month it is and ask it to create the posts for me, one for each day of the week. I tell it to keep promotional posts to 4 for the month at most. I ask it to include relevant hashtags and to suggest photos to go along with each post. Then I pull all that into an Excel spreadsheet, so I can filter by platform (Instagram, readers group, Page, Profile). I pick one for each day and post it. It would save me more time if I was actually scheduling them, which is what I want to get to eventually.
Using AI this way keeps her consistent--she's been posting something every day on all four of her chosen platforms since the beginning of the year.
Keep Your Unique Author Voice
The most effective AI generated social media content keeps your unique author voice. You cannot just press a button and have AI make decisions on what to post (even though that is what a lot of the AI tools promote). Doing that will just make you sound like everyone else on the internet and ultimately not give you the social media returns you want.
Instead authors that succeed use AI in a way that keeps their unique author voice front and center. Fortunately, there are many simple ways to do this. One author I spoke to shares Midjourney interpretations of passages from her books on social media. Talk about a great way to engage with lovers of her book! Used smartly she can use this to get readers excited about gifting her books and rushing to buy new books as they launch.
Another way to do this is to get AI to generate what I call an author why tweet. This tweet is all about sharing what motivates you to write in a way that builds a connection and sparks conversation with your audience. Here is an example below:
Check out the engagement this tweet received!
BTW…
So What Should You Do?
Simple, use AI for social media generation to get all the benefits of taking breaks from social media without comprising on book sales. All it takes is setting up your social media content generation system in a way that saves you time, maintains your unique author voice, and keeps you consistent. This means you can get all the benefits of being a social media content machine without actually being one. You then get the freedom to disconnect, recharge or write your book without any negative consequences to your platform or sales.
Next week, I will reveal the secrets to crafting powerful yet personal tweets. These proven tweets are used by bestselling authors to drive significant traffic and engagement. I will be showing you how to create your own versions of these tweets in a matter of minutes by leveraging AI. Done right this system will allow you to have less social media upkeep, more uninterrupted creative work, and rest. And the best part is these ideas will work for any author. All it takes is the right guidance and tools which is what the live talk will provide.
In case you are curious about why I'm doing this--helping authors market less for better results rapidly is my jam. I provide fast easy and actionable tips and tools for marketing so you can shift your focus back to the writing and creative work that's at the heart of your passion and career success.
See you next week!
Additional Resources
To help you get started with using AI for social media content creation, here are some recommended tools:
- Missinglettr: This social media management tool uses AI to generate an entire year's worth of social media content with just a few clicks using your existing blog posts.
- Lumen5: This video creation platform employs AI to create eye-catching social media videos from written content (again your blog posts are great seed content to create these videos).
- Canva: You may already know this popular graphic design tool. Canva is increasingly adding AI features to speed up your content generation. Examples include text-to-image generation, magic edit, magic eraser, and many others.
- Buffer: This social media management platform uses AI to suggest content and optimize post timing for maximum engagement, helping you reach more readers and grow your following.
Whether you're just starting out on social media or looking to take your content to the next level, these tools can help you achieve your goals and connect with your readers in a more meaningful way.
Wrap-Up & Next Steps
In this post, we
- explored the benefits of taking social media breaks for authors
- discussed the drawbacks of taking an extended break from social media
- how AI can help you get all the benefits of a social media break without actually appearing to take one, helping you maintain that consistent social media presence (talk about having your cake and eating it too).
To summarize, social media breaks can help reduce stress and anxiety, increase productivity, and improve work quality. However, taking a long break from social media can hurt your visibility, cause you to miss out on opportunities, and decrease engagement. AI can help you avoid all this.
Until then, remember with the right guidance and tools, you can use social media to build your brand, connect with readers, and promote your work without sacrificing your mental health or creative productivity.