Behold, the newest Instagram Stories updates are the stuff of dreams!

I jumped on Facebook Live and did a broadcast on these three new platform additions and how you as an author can harness the power of them in your social media marketing strategy! Check it out here:

 

Update 1: Masks (a.k.a. the attempt at finally putting Snapchat out of business)

Take advantage of these, but sue the sparingly within your author brand…Instagram is a far more professional platform than Snapchat and you need to keep your posts, albums, Stories, and Live broadcasts more curated.

These will definitely be used by our younger readers a lot, and bookstagrammers will especially jump on this bandwagon, but remember, you are a professional…and they are doing it just for fun. Keep it on the professional side of things and don’t go overboard with the masks. Use them strategically and you’ll do just fine!

Update 2: Hashtags within Stories

You can now add hashtags the same way you add @ tags. These are awesome for directing your fans to your book hashtag feeds. Don’t use these for big hashtags like #bookstagram, but rather focus on book-specific hashtags like tags for your series or ship names so that fans can learn more about your books without getting overwhelmed or distracted by other people’s feeds.

I used these for my books on my author platform (@kmrobinsonbooks) The first is the shipname for my characters in my first series and the second is one of the hashtags I’m using for my other series.

When fans click on these, they’ll see a feed that is dominated by my posts and they can learn more about my books, read fan quotes, see bookstagram images of my books, watch videos I’ve done, etc.

If I used a non-book-specific hashtag they would get overwhelmed with other people’s content and may not come back to my feeds.

Update 3: The Erase Tool

Fix up your Story post drawings without having to “undo” all your work OR paint over your entire image and give sneak peeks of things by erasing.

The first has my expanded book cover behind it and the second is a sneak peek of my manuscript for my upcoming release.

Simply use the pen or marker tool to color over the image, then erase away your words to reveal the image through the color.

 

How do YOU plan to use these platform additions in YOUR Instagram marketing strategy! Share your ideas in the comments!

Stay inspired,

-K.M.