A big-publishing communications chief says Instagram can work well if you’re able to frame and sustain your messages in a visual context
You’ve probably heard that Instagram is where younger readers hang out. While it may be your first social media stop as a YA author, others may find it difficult to determine Instagram’s effectiveness for them. So we’ve turned for insight to a publishing executive charged with finding the right digital pathways to paying consumers’ hearts.
Sara Lloyd, the director of digital and communications for Pan Macmillan UK in London, was among the first in the business to include videographers and YouTubers in her own staff. She developed Book Break, a YouTube channel for the company (the British side of Big Five publisher Macmillan). As long ago as 2014, Lloyd spoke to coders at a hackathon produced by The Bookseller in London, saying, “We’d like to see how all the forms of data around a brand author or a genre or a category could be pulled together in interesting ways to deliver something different and/or special to fans in a way that will pull in new readers”—pretty clear marching orders.
When we asked Lloyd about where she and her team today stand on the effectiveness of Instagram, she went right to what she’s found are the key opportunities and challenges.
- As with any social medium, you need to be sure you’re “both platform- and audience-appropriate.” Because Instagram is primarily a visual medium appealing to a younger demographic—and skewing more female than male—Lloyd says, “We’ve found particular success promoting our richly packaged books. For example, we find great success with a weekly Macmillan Collector’s Library promotion and also a campaign we run regularly shooting our most beautiful books with matching outfits.” (Browse Pan Macmillan’s Instagram account.)
- The visual factor can support users’ concepts of their own relationships with books. Lloyd says: “Instagram also works for audiences who see books not only as part of their intellectual lives but as a lifestyle choice, part of their visual aesthetic.” For example, for Macmillan’s recent campaign for Elizabeth Macneal’s book, The Doll Factory, “We shot books in situ in a lifestyle setting and used these across all platforms. It worked particularly well on Instagram and helped on Amazon, too.”
- Instagram, unlike Facebook and Twitter, is not so much a direct-selling platform. “It’s more about awareness and engagement with brands,” Lloyd says. And her team at this point is looking closely at Instagram Stories. “Stories is of increasing interest,” Lloyd says, “because it’s enabling us to engage readers in a new way, involving them in a story for longer and encouraging deeper engagement. It also allows for experimentation with video because a high proportion of users are watching with sound on. We find behind-the-scenes footage is particularly popular.”
Bottom line: Lloyd sums it all up by saying, “Instagram is a good platform for a more bookish audience that’s ‘nerdy’ about books and wants to know everything about the making of a book. We also use Instagram Stories to show a short video promoting our longer YouTube episodes on our Book Break channel.” Judith Curr, president and publisher of Harper imprints including HarperOne and Amistad, recommends looking at Anthony Williams’s Instagram account, Medical Medium. Curr sees value in how Williams is parsing his material and delivering prompts through his Instagram content.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
