Promoting a Book – Think #BookTok
TikTok is a mystery to me. I don’t have an account and it has little appeal to me.
However, recently I learned about #BookTok, a hashtag within TikTok that’s become a page turner.
The trend is having a seismic shift in promoting books. The #BookTok hashtag is the leading magnet for gaining Gen Z’s literary attention. Not a small feat.
TimTok has zero appeal to me except as a curious marketing tactic. But imagine a social media app driving young people to read. That’s hard to ignore as a marketer.
Who would believe it?
Over 80 billion (yes, billion) views of book reviews have come from #booktok in the last few years. And, sales of authors books promoted using #booktok are up 61% over last year, and that’s over a high growth rate from the prior year.
For those of us who still borrow books from the library, #BookTok-ers are folks doing short video reviews of books on TikTok, inspiring others to buy and read physical books.
Why did sales of “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover or “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas explode?
This subculture on TikTok is driving sales on the literary industry as few marketing tactics have ever done. And the industry has taken notice.
What is #BookTok? – A Page Turner!
Using the hashtag #BookTok. readers promote their latest read with a passion and fury that is hard to believe. These short videos are getting people talking about books with wild abandon. It reminds me of what MTV did through video about bands in the 80’s and 90’s.
Beyond likes and views, these BookTok-ers are getting consumers to pull out their virtual credit cards and buy books.
With over six billion views, some BookTokers reach one hundred thousand likes with a handful of videos.
This summer, ten of the top fifteen books on the NY Times Paperback Trade Fiction Best Sellers list are from #BookTok reviews.
When Alisha Keens posted on her TikTok account @beentherereadthat, she showed to cover of a book, and 700K people saw her clip. She promoted the book she had just read called Reminders of Him by CoHo – CoHo is short for Colleen Hoover, a 40-something mom of three from Texas, who was featured on the front page of the New York Times this past week.
Hoover has published 20 books, and she now holds 4 of the top 15 spots on the NY Times Best Sellers List for Fiction. Her marketing machine is #BookTok – and she had nothing to do with it.
A New Generation of Readers
New readers are learning about books like Where The Crawdad Sings not by reading reviews at The NY Times but by hearing consumer recommendations.
Through user-generated content about favorite books, #BookTok-ers have the power to promote their favorite authors and novels, influencing sales. It’s beyond a phenomenon.
What Can Your Brand Learn From #BookTok
Small communities are forming on TikTok on subjects beyond books like #cleanTok for cleaning products or kid’s products on #momTok.
- Consider hiring creators to generate content for you. Penguin Random House hired two content creators, @kimmybookss and @balloonbreath, to promote their brands. They are part of a content creation strategy.
- Think about tapping into networks of influencers who can choose your product to share with their audience. Companies like ApexDrop can help your brand attract influencers and creators who self-select your product. You can aggregate and scale buzz that they can help you create. You pay the agency for access to their curated network of creators and influencers. With this model, Influencers pick your products and promote your product on your behalf. Unpaid influencers are more genuine promotion about your products.
How could your brand leverage the reach and awareness that TikTok is clocking for consumer package goods brands from books to blenders?
Time to get started.
Seconds are ticking away.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash
Note: ApexDrop is a client and I like to share information about marketing resources that I think are effective tools and tactics to grow brands.
