I know exceptions exist, but I think when someone follows you on TikTok and Instagram, they actually follow the TikToker you (or the Instagrammer you), not the writer you. They don’t care about your actual written piece in its natural habitat (your website or blog), they just like what you post on your TikTok. They are not going to open their browser and type your domain name and search for this particular article from the archive page. This is a huge burden. They are just here to ease the fatigue of their busy day. They have liked your post, followed you, and the best they can do is save your post (or forward to themselves) knowing full well they are never going to read it again. They already have a long list of saved items.
So what social media is good for writers then, if not the most popular ones in the world?
I think it’s not about social media. It’s about users. We must search for users who want to click, browse, and read. A better question then would be: in what social media platform do we mostly find these users? My answer: Reddit
But it’s not that easy, and there’s always a catch. One thing I like about TikTok is that there is nothing except the “for you” page. Videos are streamed automatically, you don’t have to click anything like on YouTube. So, if you create anything and post it, your video will definitely go in the for you page of some users. You don’t have to hope and wish that someone will get curious about your thumbnail and click on it, or get swooned with your title. Instagram reels and YouTube shorts are like this as well, but still these platforms aren't wholly just about the “for you” page like TikTok is.
So TikTok gives you an audience but not clicks to your website.
Now reddit has click lovers, but they have no chance of seeing your post. I mean you can post on your account or just have a dedicated subreddit, but who will join this subreddit? Where do you promote your subreddit? To work around this, you can actually try to be an active commentator and poster in some popular subreddits like askreddit, pics, beamazed, etc, and if you are lucky, you might get thousands of upvotes, which will lure some some curious redditor to your profile and they might see your website link and read your post. It’s possible. You don’t have to promote your blog explicitly and get banned, you just farm karma and invite people to your profile and they will do the rest. It is an option but very hard.
Other social media platforms where people like to click are X (twitter) and LinkedIn, but again you have to create your profile and need some followers for your post to reach people. Otherwise, you would just have to wish to be lucky. It’s not like TikTok where someone’s first post can get thousands of likes and comments. I have seen so many of those. Now, X and Instagram also do have this property of massive viralness without former popularity and tick mark on the platform, but this is not as sharpened as in TikTok.
I think Tumblr and Pinterest are good places too, but these platforms need visual content. What if that’s just not possible, that if you create visual content then the essence of what you mean would be lost? I mean what visual content would there be if you want to promote your book, except the cover page with book name in some big handwriting style fonts? But if you can create visual content that people want to inspect, then Pinterest has the most potential of all. In fact, Pinterest is what most folks recommend on r/blogging on Reddit.
What about the old man Facebook? Again, you need an established audience there. No one is going to randomly see your post, unless you pay real money for Facebook ads.
If one thing is clear, then there is no best social media for writers. And whatever you choose, you have to grow in that platform, invest your time. I really love TikTok and Instagram, and that’s where I focus more (although I know they won’t click). And these developers didn’t create their app so that the users can leave their app for some website. It’s engineered precisely to just lay in bed and keep scrolling and have fun. But I have seen people wanting to read more on TikTok and Instagram. I frequently see posts titled “articles I read this week”, and most of these are substack and aeon and some magazine articles. And I see people commenting and interacting, posts getting thousands of likes. Whether they really read or just pretend or want to, that's a mystery, but they surely sound interested. The best thing about TikTok, and I have said it already, is that your post can just go viral. Your new post doesn’t depend on how many followers you have or how old your account is. If you have a good engagement rate, then it might just take off real quick. Besides TikTok and Instagram, I am also thinking about Reddit. It has potential, and perhaps the most valuable kind of potential among all options. You just have to be nice and friendly.
In my conclusion, pick five platforms. Anything you like. My choice: TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Pinterest. Your choice can be different, it can just be two or one media.
I know how hard it is to maintain one social media, and here I am advising to aim for 5. I know it’s time consuming and when you don’t see the result, you feel like a clown and you lose interest. This is why I have no post in my accounts (you can see in the footer). I created them, posted once or twice, and then just stopped. These days, I am mostly active on TikTok and eyeing Instagram.
Whatever platform you choose, you have to be active there. You have to not just be a writer, but thatplatformname + er (like TikToker). You have to invest in creating and growing your community. But I suppose you didn’t hop on this path hoping it would be easy. You already know it’s hard. And you are going to still try, because there’s nothing else. Doing nothing won’t change anything. So do it your way. Make your own rules. Know that you can just fail, but do it still.
