Social Media Marketing Ideas for Bookstores
If you run a bookstore, you know how important social media marketing is. You can have the cutest, most well-stocked bookstore in a 100-mile radius, but you still have to get people in the door to show them that.
In this post, I’m sharing 10 post ideas you can use to get people off of Insta and into your shop.
Staff Picks
This is a common post, but for good reason. People love to get to know their booksellers. You can even take this a bit further by offering personalized book shopping from the booksellers. People can choose the bookseller who has the most aligned reading taste to them, and can have them recommend a few options. You can offer this on social media but also on your website and in-store.
Local Author Features
If you have local authors, this is a great way to promote both your bookstore and the author! It’s a win-win. You can invite them to speak in-store, go live with them on Instagram, or even just do a collaboration post about them and their books.
New Releases
People love a new release — especially when it’s from a favorite author or series. Keep people updated on when they can place preorders and when they can pick the book up or get it shipped to them. If you’re offering a preorder bonus, make sure you share that, too!
Events
This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised by how often I see this not being utilized! I’ll see flyers in bookstores about upcoming events, but when I forget to snap a pic and I check their social media later, there are no details about the event! Make sure to include info about upcoming events, along with where and when they are and if people need to RSVP or purchase tickets.
Name Game
Every week, share a few names that get a discount on their order or a little gift with purchase, like a bookmark or sticker. This is such a fun way to keep your audience engaged and excited! If you’re going to require ID, make sure to share that in the post as well. People won’t want to show up and not be able to get their discount because they didn’t know they needed to show ID.
Customer Confessions
Keep a small box in your store, like a suggestion box, where people can share their reading confessions, like “I DNFed my most anticipated release” or “I bought 10 books last month and haven’t picked up a single one” and then share them on social. Make sure people know that they’ll be shared on social media, even though they’re anonymous.
Book Recs
You can’t skip the classic book recommendation post! You’ll simply share book recs based on a mood, a genre, or another book people like. For example, it could be, “Books That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud” or “YA Dystopian Books to Read When You’ve Finished Sunrise on the Reaping”.
First Line Friday
Every Friday, share the first line of a book and have people guess what it is. If you’d like, you can select one lucky winner to receive a copy of the book!
Bookstore Bingo
Have people interact by hosting a monthly or quarterly bingo challenge. This will get people on your email list or into your store to download or pick up their bingo sheet, and they’ll be in your store to complete many of the prompts as well. You can have prizes for bingos and blackouts!
Recreate the Cover
Have employees (and customers if they want to) join in on recreating popular book covers by posing and using props.
I hope these ideas have given you an idea of what to post on your bookstore’s social media. I also created templates for all of these posts that you can grab here.
