What’s the difference between blog tours and influencer tours?

To blog tour or to influencer tour, that is the question!

The biggest hurdle when promoting your book is getting it into the hands of readers who will enjoy it. And where else to turn to but the wonderful World Wide Web?

There are thousands of voracious readers on the internet posting reviews to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Some dedicated reviewers have started their own blogs to house their long-form reviews.

It can be hard to narrow down which platform and which reviewers are the best fit for your story with so many platforms out there. Here’s a quick breakdown of the differences between blog tours and influencer tours.

First things first: What is a blog or influencer tour?

A virtual book tour is similar to a traditional book tour (heading to bookstores to meet and greet readers). Still, it is much more accessible because it’s done entirely online. Nowadays, there are so many wonderful bloggers, bookstagrammers, and booktokkers who can champion your book online to create additional buzz!

Organizing a blog or influencer tour can be a lot of work — there are a lot of moving parts. That is why an experienced publicist at Books Forward can help coordinate on your behalf!

What is the key difference between a blog tour and an influencer tour?

A blog tour is a collection of bloggers who post about your book on their individual blogs. Below are some examples of blog tours:

An influencer tour is a collection of social media reviewers who post about your book on their platforms. This could be on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, etc! Here are some examples of an influencer book tour:

A note that some blog tours might incorporate influencers in some of their tour stops. If you want to limit tour stops to blogs only, read the fine print or speak with the company directly about who participates in their tours.

What is your main goal?

Before booking a blog or influencer tour you need to think about your main goal. Here are some guiding questions that can help narrow your focus:

Are you looking for more reviews in general?
Do you want reviewers to cross-post their reviews to Amazon?
Do you just want more exposure for the book?
Are you looking for quality, thoughtful reviews? Or do you want there to be a lot of online buzz?

If your answer is “yes, all of that!” then we’d encourage you to prioritize 1-2 things that matter the most to you. Not all tours are of the same caliber, and there are pros and cons to every company.

Who is your target audience?

This is one of the biggest questions in book marketing. You should always think about and prepare to have your “ideal reader” in mind when considering a tour! There are a few genres that we have seen do incredibly well with online book tours.

For example, YA novels — particularly YA fantasy — receive an overwhelming amount of exposure on social media. Additionally, romance books (especially romantasy or smut) perform extremely well in the Bookstagram and BookTok communities.

We recommend booking a Facebook influencer tour or a blog tour if you gear your writing toward an older audience. Older readers are more likely to have a limited presence on social media (Facebook is the most popular platform among Boomers and older generations) or they might follow specific reviewer blogs if they are avid readers.

Where do you spend your time on the internet?

You also want to factor in what you like to do when you’re on the internet! If you don’t have a TikTok account then you might want to organize a tour on a platform that you’re more familiar with, that way you can repost, comment, and share reviews or spotlights from the tour hosts.

If you don’t have social media but would love to spotlight reviews on your website, then a blog tour might be a better option for you.

How will this affect my SEO?

Both blog tours and influencer tours will help boost your SEO because tour hosts will include your name and book title in their posts. These tours are a fantastic way to get a concentrated amount of buzz in a particular online community to help spread the word about your story straight from the source: a credible book reviewer.

I want to organize an influencer tour, but I’m not active on social media!

Don’t worry, we have a service for that! If you’re interested in Books Forward helping you out with social media, then get in touch with us about our social media management opportunities.

Key takeaways:

Influencer tours are likely to “go viral” because social media apps have been designed for engagement, sharing, and a wide reach of content. But blogs can be harder to find organically because there is no “for you feed” for bloggers — just your Google search results.
Bloggers tend to write longer-form reviews. If you’re looking for a platform that will have more space to discuss the book in a written format, that might be the avenue for you.
Do you have ebooks or physical copies available for the tour? Booktokkers and Bookstagrammers operate on visual platforms that require images or videos. They likely will want physical copies of the book to make content with. Bloggers are usually more amenable to digital copies because they tend to focus on written reviews rather than aesthetic photos or videos.

Ready to get started?

To learn more about which blog or influencer tours might be a good fit for you fill out our contact form and get in touch with our sales team!

Already a part of the Books Forward family?

Reach out to your publicist or digital marketing strategist to learn more about which tours will be the right fit for you and your book.

Layne Mandros

A literary omnivore and influential Bookstagrammer, Layne applies her vivid creativity for every title we promote by deftly coordinating news coverage and events for authors, writing and editing diverse content for social media, and assisting with Books Forward’s social media engagement initiatives.

As a former special education teacher, Layne firmly believes in the importance of literature and accessibility. This unique point of view is an asset in her publicity efforts as she works to reach readers across various platforms and demographics.

Layne received her Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing and Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and her Masters of Art in Teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education. She lives in New Orleans with her loyal, but sadly illiterate cat, Macaroni.