In the age of technology, where a video less than a minute long can generate millions of views, it is clear social media holds great power.
Today, the millions of people on the book-side of social media have dominated the publishing industry’s marketing strategies. With content creators uploading videos ranging from 15-second TikToks to 15-minute-long YouTube videos, there is a plethora of book recommendations that can be easily found on social media.
One of the biggest book communities on social media is BookTok, a TikTok community filled with avid readers who review and recommend books on the app. The impact of the subcommunity on the app is astronomical with #BookTok amassing more then 180 billion views. According to the Rolling Stone, Colleen Hoover, author of the #1 best-selling book “It Ends with Us,” soon to be adapted into a film, has outsold the Bible by three million more sales.
The number of copies sold of Hoover’s book is largely due to the popularity the book gained on TikTok. Although the book has stolen the attention of millions of readers in part because of the prominent romance theme, elements of domestic abuse mentioned throughout the book has brought awareness to the serious matter many people encounter. Therefore, social media book recommendations not only include fun titles of talented authors, but also books that do not overlook the severity of real-life problems.
Along with BookTok, Bookstagram is the book community on Instagram. Bookstagram allows users to create aesthetically pleasing Instagram feeds to catch the eye of onlookers scrolling for their next book recommendation. Anyone can easily find a book recommendation on Bookstagram, considering the platform has almost more than100 million posts on the subcommunity of Instagram. Online book groups, like Bookstagram, have exploded because of the doors social media has opened for people all over the world the express their love or dislike for a book.
Another contributor to book sales is YouTube, the platform is filled with vloggers posting creative book videos. “Swapping my phone screen time for reading” is a trend YouTuber Haley Pham posted for her 2.89 million subscribers with the video amassing more than 790,000 views.
Additionally, YouTuber Jack Edwards’ innovative videos like “Books I’d save if my house was burning down in a fire” and “Every literary reference in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore, explained” posted for his 1.3 million subscribers, demonstrates original ways books are being recommended via social media compared to traditional book reviews.
While many see social media as a distraction, multiple social media platforms can be used to get out of a reading slump and find your next read. Genres ranging from fantasy to romance to historical fiction and many more can all be found on BookTok, Bookstagram, YouTube, and other platforms as well. However, if scrolling through social media is not your ideal way of discovering a new book, bookstores like Barnes & Noble have designated areas for people to peruse social media’s most loved books. Next time you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on social media be sure to check out BookTok and Bookstagram for your next read!
