As authors, we’re constantly bombarded with promises of the next big marketing breakthrough. Social media platforms buzz with advice, and services emerge claiming to be the magic bullet for book promotion. Among these, The Social Cat has been making waves, particularly with its promise to connect authors with micro-influencers. The allure is strong: tap into engaged audiences without breaking the bank on celebrity endorsements. But does The Social Cat truly deliver for authors, or is it just another distraction in the already complex world of book marketing?
Like many authors eager to explore new avenues, I decided to test out The Social Cat. My goal was simple: to see if this platform could effectively connect me with relevant influencers to promote my book, The Novel Matrix. I approached it with an open mind, hoping to find a streamlined solution to influencer outreach. After all, anything that saves time and boosts book visibility is worth considering.
The Social Cat pitches itself as a bridge to micro-influencers – individuals with follower counts ranging from 1,500 to 100,000 who are willing to promote products in exchange for free items. The premise is appealing: send out your book, and in return, influencers create content showcasing it to their followers. A seemingly perfect win-win scenario. They entice users with a 7-day free trial, followed by monthly subscription plans ranging from $99 to $299, depending on the desired number of influencer connections. I opted for the free trial at the lowest tier to assess its value.
The concept itself isn’t revolutionary. Savvy authors have been forging their own influencer collaborations for years, manually reaching out to relevant profiles on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). The time investment, however, can be considerable. The Social Cat aims to streamline this process, acting as a middleman to connect authors with pre-vetted micro-influencers, theoretically saving valuable time and effort.
While the business model is understandable – paying a fee to outsource a time-consuming task – my experience with The Social Cat led me to a firm conclusion: for authors, it currently misses the mark. After my 7-day trial, I won’t be subscribing, and here’s why:
1. Poor Influencer Matching for Book Promotion
Perhaps The Social Cat works effectively for certain product categories. However, for books, the platform’s current infrastructure and algorithm seem ill-equipped. The initial industry selection during signup highlights this issue. There’s no category that directly aligns with books, publishing, media, or entertainment. The closest options are broad and generic, indicating a lack of specialization in the book industry.
Setting up my campaign involved offering a free copy of The Novel Matrix, along with author swag like stickers, in exchange for influencer-generated content. The resulting influencer applications were overwhelmingly skewed towards irrelevant niches: beauty, fashion, health, and lifestyle dominated the pool.
The vast majority of these “influencers” displayed no book-related content on their platforms. Conversations revealed a further disconnect; many seemed unaware of my book offer, suggesting they were simply applying to every campaign in their feed. This indiscriminate application process made it challenging to sift through the noise and identify genuinely relevant profiles.
Out of the initial batch of 15 applicants, roughly 12 were focused solely on makeup or fashion. Finding even remotely suitable candidates for a novel was an uphill battle. Rejecting irrelevant applications and refreshing the list to find better matches became a tedious and time-consuming process. Even evaluating the seemingly relevant profiles required clicking through each one individually, adding to the overall time investment.
In seven days, I managed to connect with only three influencers whose niches – tech and parenting – had a potential overlap with my book’s audience. However, these connections were far from ideal, representing a significant mismatch in target demographics.
2. Questionable Influencer Quality and Engagement
Follower count, often touted as a key metric, is a misleading indicator of influencer effectiveness. Engagement – the actual number of people who interact with content – is a far more crucial metric. Many “influencers” who applied to my campaign boasted high follower numbers but exhibited minimal engagement on their posts.
What value does a 50,000-follower account offer if only a handful of people actually see and interact with the content? Low engagement translates to limited reach and minimal impact on book sales.
The Social Cat claims to rigorously vet influencers before allowing them onto the platform. However, the quality of applicants I encountered suggests otherwise. Some profiles lacked links to any social media accounts whatsoever, raising serious questions about their vetting process. Blank profiles and irrelevant niches point to a lack of quality control and a potentially diluted pool of influencers.
While The Social Cat offers paid promotion options alongside free “gifting” campaigns, it’s unlikely that paying for promotion would significantly improve the quality of matches. Given the fundamental matching issues, a higher payment tier would likely only result in a larger influx of irrelevant applications, further increasing the time spent sifting and sorting. While managing applicants through a platform is arguably easier than cold-messaging influencers directly, the sheer volume of unsuitable profiles negates much of the intended time-saving benefit.
3. Unfavorable Cost-Benefit Ratio for Authors
Even with the aforementioned issues, the service might be justifiable if the cost aligned with the potential benefits. However, the economics of The Social Cat don’t currently make sense for authors.
The $99 per month plan allows for deals with up to five influencers, averaging $20 per deal – a figure highlighted in their promotional materials. However, this “per deal” cost is misleading. For authors promoting physical books, the true cost per influencer is significantly higher. Factoring in book production, packaging, and shipping, getting a book into an influencer’s hands costs approximately $11 per unit.
This brings the total cost per influencer deal to around $31. To break even on this investment, I would need to sell roughly ten books per influencer collaboration. For a highly targeted influencer with a genuinely engaged audience of 5,000 followers, this might be a reasonable expectation.
Industry benchmarks suggest that even with excellent content and a receptive audience, a conversion rate of 1% is considered exceptional. In such a best-case scenario, an influencer promotion could potentially generate around 50 sales (1% of 5,000). While theoretically appealing, achieving such high conversion rates consistently is unrealistic, especially with mismatched or low-engagement influencers.
The reality is that the influencers I encountered through The Social Cat were, at best, industry-adjacent, with mediocre follower counts and questionable engagement. Investing $31 per deal in such collaborations is simply not a sound marketing strategy. Even at a true cost of $20 per deal (ignoring book costs), the potential return on investment for authors remains unconvincing.
4. Minimal Time Savings Compared to Direct Outreach
The core promise of The Social Cat is time savings. However, due to the poor influencer matching and quality, the platform ironically ends up consuming more time than anticipated. Navigating the platform, sifting through irrelevant applicants, and communicating through their system all contribute to a surprisingly time-intensive process.
While direct outreach to micro-influencers is undoubtedly time-consuming, it offers a crucial advantage: targeted relevance. By manually searching for and contacting influencers within specific book genres and niches, authors can ensure that their outreach efforts are focused on genuinely relevant profiles. The time spent on targeted direct messaging, while potentially yielding unanswered messages, is arguably more productive than wading through a sea of irrelevant applicants on The Social Cat. The time “saved” by using the platform is effectively offset by the time wasted filtering out unsuitable candidates.
Conclusion: For Authors, The Social Cat Isn’t Worth the Hype
Ultimately, The Social Cat fails to deliver on its promise for authors. While the underlying concept of connecting businesses with micro-influencers is viable, the current execution falls short for book promotion. A worthwhile service should save time, reduce hassle, and deliver better results than manual efforts. The Social Cat, in its current state, achieves none of these for authors.
If you are in a different industry, particularly one aligned with beauty, fashion, or lifestyle products, The Social Cat might offer some value. However, for authors seeking effective book marketing solutions, it’s advisable to steer clear. The platform’s advertising, while pervasive, overpromises and underdelivers for the specific needs of authors and publishers.
Any platform like The Social Cat faces the inherent “chicken and egg” problem of building a valuable network. They need a critical mass of high-quality influencers to attract customers, and they need sufficient paying customers to incentivize top-tier influencers to join. The Social Cat‘s business model has potential, but currently, the value proposition for authors simply isn’t there.
Ignore the enticing advertisements. If micro-influencer marketing remains a strategy you wish to pursue (and it can be a valuable tool when executed correctly), stick to the tried-and-true method: slide into those DMs and build genuine connections with influencers who truly resonate with your book and target audience. Direct, targeted outreach, while requiring more manual effort, will ultimately yield more relevant and effective results than relying on The Social Cat in its current iteration.
