Faceless social media for writers: a tiktok solution for shy writers.

What is a writer's worst nightmare? Well, it depends on the person but for a lot of writers I've met, the idea of posting videos on social media would be pretty high up on the list.

Now if you ever meet me in person you'll quickly realise that I'm not shy and I have no issues posting on social media. I have tiktok and instagram, and I enjoy posting content and building a community of readers and writers. But I wasn't always like that.

Like most writers I enjoy solitude and the quiet writing time I get to retreat into imaginary worlds and bring my characters to life. But if you speak to literary agents or published writers you'll find that nowadays having a social media presence as a writer is isn't just strongly encouraged; its expected.

So what can you do if you're not comfortable showing your face on social media? Well, sit back and relax and I will tell you a story of how my most popular tiktok post currently stands at 489,000 views (and grows every day) and I don't appear it it at all!

First tip: target readers not writers!

Who is the ideal reader of your book? For my particular book that I was writing it was for people who like 1920s history or gangster/crime fiction so a lot of my content is targeting those potential readers with facts about the era. Slideshows are your friend

On both Instagram and Tiktok you can post slideshows and carousels of images. These are perfect for posting content that you do not have to appear in. For me I was able to post creative commons images from the 1920s with facts about the wives of famous 1920s gangsters. At the moment in 2024 Tiktoks algorithm pushes these slideshows. And once one gains momentum, it continues to push it to 'Just For You' meaning lots of viewers will be finding your account for the first time. So are trends

No one wants to try too hard but it was just sheer luck that #mobwife suddenly trended which pushed my post 2 months after I'd originally posted it.

Keep it short The algorithm is also based on how long a viewer stays with your post. Do they watch to the end? Try to avoid overly long posts. My original one had just six slides including the title.

A side note: I do now appear in my videos talking about writing and about my books but I still post slideshows and you can never predict when tiktok will decide to push one. I've recently had a slideshow from months ago get traction pushing up from 200 views to 8,000 over the past couple of days.

So post, and have fun. That's the most important thing.

If you're looking for more social media tips, check out my FREE download.