For most writers, social media is an important part of building an engaged audience. If you’re unconvinced or unsure of how to use social media to reach your readers, Emily Ley, author and founder of Simplified, gives writers three valuable reasons to get started.

Social media builds a community around your work.

One of the best ways to build a community around your work is to connect with your readers online. Social media gives writers the opportunity to engage in a personal and informal way and allows readers to respond directly to your message in real time.

Regularly interacting with your audience online helps you create a loyal readership, which can be beneficial if you hope to publish a book someday. While the number of followers you have is important if publishing is your goal, Emily explains that engagement with your readership is a better measure of the effectiveness of your message. 

She says, “I would rather have a hundred followers who are engaged...

No matter what genre we write, chances are we’re using stories to illustrate our point and communicate with our reader. It can be tempting to save our best stories for a book, but if we’re on social media, we have instant access to our readers right now. We have the opportunity to develop our storytelling skills on social media every day, in real time, as we interact with our followers.

Carlos Whittaker is one writer who does this well; he’s a multi-book author who also creates compelling daily content on Instagram stories for his followers. Storytelling is his gift, and he hones this skill while also reaching out to his readers in a way that compels them to stay connected to his work.

“I continue to tell stories on a daily basis. I use my storytelling . . . to allow my [followers] to feel like they’re in my life. That’s the goal. Not only am I building my storytelling skill set, but I’m allowing my readers to feel this soul...