Jana Richards: I could probably live without social media quite happily. I’m not on Twitter and I haven’t looked at my MySpace page for months. I am, however, on Facebook and I admit it’s fun to hear the latest news, and check out people’s links. But really, just send me an email, and I’ll be fine.
There’s no doubt social media has had a significant impact on society. You only have to see grainy video coming out of Syria to understand that. As far as promotion for writers, the impact is less clear. I read a very interesting article written by indie writer Lindsay Buroker who believes that writing her next book, writing books in a series, and having lots of work available for readers, has far more impact on sales than promotion on social media. I’m starting to believe she’s right. But the thing is, if nobody knows about you, how are they going to read your books? J.A. Konrath, promoter extraordinaire, says social media such as Facebook and Twitter will get you more sales than if you didn’t do anything at all. But they may not be the best way to get sales.
I occasionally find myself getting lost in Facebook as I check out interesting links that others have posted, so I can certainly understand the time sink it can become. I know some people are obsessive about checking FB and Twitter, and if you have a smart phone (which I don’t) it’s easy to do. But posting that funny cat video isn’t going to get your next book written.
Karyn Good: Oh, mercy. Social media. For personal stuff, I enjoy Facebook. I loved wasting time on Pinterest, until the whole wait a minute, what are the actual rules thing came to light. I find it handy and entertaining to be on Goodreads. I like knowing there’s a list of the books I’ve read somewhere. As a writer, honestly I don’t think I’ve gotten the hang of Twitter. I haven’t been on there more than a handful of times in the last couple of months. I prefer Facebook and like posting and sharing there. I can see the advantage of Goodreads. But that’s it. I’m taped out. That’s absolutely all I have time for, and not even then.
A friend recently landed an agent, and one thing she had to supply was her social media stats. This worries me. I’m pretty sure mine would classify as ‘low’. If I knew them and could supply them!
Joanne Brothwell: Social media is something I equally love and hate. Facebook has been something I've grown to enjoy, mainly because it is fun to have the instant feedback of friends and family. Is this a useful marketing tool? Not sure. I think it helps, little by little, seeping our names and books into the consciousness of everyone we know.
Unfortunately, I simply do not have time to do all of the things that would benefit me as a writer. For example, I heard once that for twitter to be a useful marketing tool, a person needs to tweet twenty or more times a day! I don't have time for that, nor do I have anything interesting or funny to say!Me: We've all heard that as writers we should be out there in cyberspace - interacting and creating a following (readers). Even well before a book is published it is recommended that you start to build your platform. Well, building that platform requires time - and that's where I have issues! I have a Facebook page - I rarely sign in because once I'm in there, I'm busy catching up on friends and family. I signed up for Twitter and tried to be a good little bird - gained some followers, tried to use # to expand, tried to be 'available' all day. I got bogged down in creating lists to keep track of all my varying groups of friends, columns for my interests, and daily 'trends' in the publishing industry! But the little box keeps popping up in the right hand corner of my computer screen every time someone tweets and then I have to go and check it out! Talk about time consuming - and headache inducing!
The Husband thinks it's crazy - all these people needing to know what everyone is doing every minute of the day. The impact on society is amazing - I hear the word "Tweet" or "Twitter" or "Facebook" (and don't get me started on the use of 'facebook' as a verb) every day. We are run by social media! Does it help with promotion? Perhaps if you had a book out! I know that it ends up being hugely time consuming for me - I'll stick with my lowly blog as my means of social media...for now!
Your turn! What say you, People of Blogland?
:shrug: I have a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter acct, and I'm on Goodreads. Those are the places I try to update and visit (although I have a tough time remembering the whole Twitter thing). I'm slowly gaining followers, friends, buds, etc. but I'm not breaking any records here. Gack, I hope a perspective agent never asks me for my stats.
ReplyDeleteReally, though, I just use them to stay in contact with friends, network where I can, and keep up with industry info. Oh, and last week I was approached by a fellow author (and RL acquaintance) to become a Goodreads 'librarian', so I've got that going for me.
*yes, that last part was thought in a Bill Murray / Caddyshack tone.
I've seen some people on Twitter with thousands of followers, B.E. and what do I think? I wonder how they organize the twitter feed so they can keep track of all those people! I'm a conversationalist - if I'm going to follow someone, I want to be an interested follower, maybe even weigh in on something if I find it interesting. See, its the organization that gets me - and the lack of true connections, I guess!
DeleteSorry, bit of a rant there...industry info is the biggest plus for me (I found a lot of new-to-me agents through twitter for my 49 days of hell)! Hey, congrats on the 'librarian' thing - you'll have to blog about that because I'd love to know what that entails.
Love Bill Murray (well, the actor, well, I love my brother, Bill Murray, too - and my dad was a Bill Murray...)
Rumor has it that's the normal, B.E. I don't know how much those stats influenced the final outcome, but I admit the whole idea depressed me.
DeleteI'm not sure what it means to be Goodreads librarian?
Goodreads 'librarian' status just mean you have the ability to edit book listings to make sure they're correct (which for me will probably mean fixing typos because I'm anal sometimes), and adding new books when someone asks. I did it as a favor to my self-published friend who hadn't been on Goodreads long enough to list his books himself. Now, though, I'm drunk on the power. LOL
DeleteCool, B.E. - try not to get too drunk on that power, eh? I really need to go check out Goodreads since I'm a avid reader!
DeleteI have had my persuasive writing students think about this very question for the entire semester. You won't be surprised to know that they couldn't find a one-size-fits-all solution. We did, however, compile a list of universal "truths" from our readings (those things that seem to pop up across the range of books by experts, opinions by writers, rules by publishers) which I can share if you like but should be taken with exactly the same large grain of salt all advice about social media should be seasoned with.
ReplyDeleteAs for my own use of social media, it isn't very social. I blog mini-lessons for my writing classes (1) to make information available to my students and anyone on Google who cares to find it, and (2) to prove to a hiring committee somewhere down the road that I am the kind of teacher I say I am.
I had a Facebook account for a couple of months (deleted) and have a Twitter account that I still occasionally remember to use, but I find myself in a conundrum. I'll tell anyone almost anything about myself, but only after I have a connection (and standing together in a grocery store line is enough with me). However, social media as a platform means everyone, connection or not, gets to know everything you share with or say to anyone ... and despite being an extrovert, my reaction to that is "um, no."
I'm keeping an ear to the ground, and I teach my students how to think about their digital personalities, but comments to blogs are as close as I get to "social" in media, for now.
Hey, is this Lynn, the color 'geek'? Great to 'see' you here - and welcome :)
DeleteWould love for you to share the universal truths (or some, if the list is long). And thanks for reminding us to take all of this with a grain of salt. For every success story that touts social media as the median that garnered the success, there are two or three stories of authors who just kept writing and built a following by simply telling great stories! I need to remind myself of that!
As I said to B.E. - I, too, like a connection to those that I 'follow'! I'd like to think I'm building friendships, not just playing voyeur with celebrities :)
Hi Lynn! Thanks for socializing with us ;) By all means - share. I'd love to read the list! I need all the help I can get. Like you, I'm not sure how comfortable I am sharing in space.
DeleteSomeone made a comment the other day that when Twitter started it was more about the conversation but now it's seems to be more about promoting one's self. We're all talking at people not with people.
Sorry for the delay. My day got so hectic (and without my permission!):
DeleteBlogs: only one blog. Train your various audiences into looking for regular postings. Use a repeating title/theme like you all are doing for this Thursday series and divide the number of posts you write per week into the various topics you blog about (photography, writing, book reviews, personal reflections, etc.). In theory, each regularly scheduled topic day will develop it's own audience. When you have big news (published! reading! new agent!) you can mention it across all your audiences, "Sorry running friends, no post two weeks from today because I'll be in Paris signing copies of my latest book, Canadian Calm. I'll pretend I am missing you all!" When you return from your triumph, you say things like, "I'm back / Paris loved me, now about the training schedule..." The selling should be left to happen in the post's comments amongst your audience. Answering comment questions about your work is polite, not smarmy.
Twitter: no more than 1/3 as self-promotion, whether subtly crafted or blatant -- the trick seems to be not how you word it but how often. The remaining tweets get split into two kinds (1) observing the world around you at whatever scale suits the day (it isn't always the Sudan, sometimes it's the sofa), and (2) retweets and convo. The recommendations for (1) are to be brief enough that others have some character space to comment as they retweet and to be only inspirational or humorous. As for (2), thanks and retweets should happen fairly regularly. Finally, don't do all your tweets at once. Spread them across your day, but never two self-promos back to back. Every time you are retweeted, you are exposed to new audiences.
Facebook: it's meaningless to pretend all those people are your friends. Do it anyway. However, stop focusing on other writers. Writers need bigger audiences than each other. Research the demographics of your preferred readers and make friends with those people. (True for blogs and Twitter, too.) Police officer hero in your book? Follow some police officers for background on how they talk, etc. People love to help so you win short term and if they later buy your book (for their sisters, of course), long term, too.
(Yes, I'm the color geek.)
(My students will be thrilled to know their research work might benefit "real" writers!)
Thank you so much for coming back and sharing this information, Lynn. And please tell your students that their research is incredibly valuable - for this writer, at least! There are some great tips in here (especially since I'm focusing on the blog - those tips really hit home). Excellent points in all three social media categories!!
DeleteSo glad you are the color geek - I was worried I had got it wrong...or offended you. And thanks again for taking time out of your busy day to add much to this conversation :)
Thanks, Lynn. And thank your students. It helped me! It definitely reinforces my plan to have...well...a plan. I work better with a schedule, so that was reassuring. I had to smile over not tweeting all at once. Guilty. Now, I'm off to make friends with police officers :D
DeleteJana - you are so right about 'getting that next book written'! And surfing the web doesn't do it...I know ;) Thanks, too, for the links - interesting to see two very different opinions on social media for the writer!
ReplyDeleteKaryn - Goodreads? Pinterest? Oh, my! Actually, I've been tempted by Pinterest, but I refuse to even go have a look-see because I know I'd get caught up in it and there would be more hours of my day shot. What's this about the rules? I'll have to Google that! And stats? Oh, my!
Joanne - It all boils down to time, doesn't it? And I hear you about being witty on Twitter - sometimes it takes me just as long to 'craft' my 140 characters as it does to write a blogpost!
I've been thinking I'd like to try Goodreads. I was reading an article last night in RWR about Goodreads and one interesting thing for authors is to offer free copies of your book. That might start a bit of interest for it, hopefully. But it's all about readers, and so authors don't go into Goodreads just to promote themselves. I havent' been doing near the reading I've wanted to lately, so I wouldn't have a ton of books to put up on my bookshelf. Bad writer!
DeleteJanet, I won't even tell you the name of the new one someone mentioned the other day. All about home renovations, design...where to put your furniture!
DeleteI've seen on a couple of blogs I follow freereads from authors! I guess that's better promotion than retweeting the name of your book over and over again, eh, Jana?
DeleteOooh, Karyn! You know I want that name - you know it! Am itching to do a Google search, but I'll try to stay strong ;)
People who know stuff about marketing say free reads really do help sell books. Best advice I've read on promotion is from J.A. Konrath. He says don't do any promotion that doesn't work on you. So ask yourself, have you ever bought a book because you saw an ad for it? A review? Read a blog by the author and read an excerpt? Received a bookmark? If you've never bought a book yourself after seeing a tweet about it maybe it's not worthwhile.
DeleteGood advice. And I'm glad you linked to his site in your opinion piece, Jana - he sounds like he has some great thoughts on promotion!
DeleteBTW - best way to get me to buy a book? Word of mouth! Hey, possible Carivalesque topic!!!
I think it would be a great topic! Because I think that works well for the better known authors. But for new authors or even mid-list authors, it's still about getting a larger number of readers to pass that word-of-mouth message around.
DeletePut it on the list as one of our topics, Karyn - I love learning how others choose the books they read!!
DeleteAnd good luck with the reading tonight!
I guess I'm just a hermit. Or something. I have a personal FB account and a Fan Page (or whatever it's called) for my pen name. I try to remember to go there once a week. See...I don't like FB. I had the games and the invites and the demands for "connections" that range from my birthday to my possible 4th cousin ten times removed. I blog daily. It's hard. I visit a whole list of blogs daily. Time suck but a connection to those I care about and like or who have good advice. Twitter comes in spurts. And now I'm a member of Tribrr. Which is a way to expand your social network reach, when it works. Twitter is not for selling though I tend to put up bits and pieces about my writing life. I do connect with friends and industry acquaintances which I hope will help the ol' career in the long run. I have a Pinterest but I'm not on there much. I "pin" from my tool bar and use it as a way to wrangle images and "models" I come across.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I've spent almost an hour and haven't written a word on the WIP. Bye, y'all! *whistles Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work We Go*
[EDIT] Re: FB - I HATE the games, etc.
DeleteYes - get to work -*cracks whip*! You have a trilogy of epic greatness to release to your adoring public soon! Ooh, I'm still so excited for you, Silver.
DeleteConnection! See, you said it, too! And I'm so glad to hear that you're not promoting your work ad nauseum on Twitter...I'm going to have to 'unfollow' some people because that's all they tweet (and I hate to 'unfollow', it just feels so mean).
The blog drain is the biggest for me - I follow a lot of blogs and try to read them all (because if I've added the blog - it's a good one) - only comment daily on a select few - and then try to wrangle this Journal on a daily basis! It is time-consuming, no doubt. Even though I heard recently that blogs are on their way out, I'll stick with them - I enjoy more than 140 characters of advice, opinion, and humor!
Tribrr? Will have to Google that!
Janet, I think the key to social media is sticking to the stuff you like and ignoring the rest. If you like to blog, go for it. If you're into FB, have fun with it. But don't feel forced into things because writers are 'supposed' to be there.
DeleteThat said, I share Karyn's concern about agents wanting a serious platform before offering representation. I took a class from Writer's Digest that agent Sara Megilow hosted, and she said platform is definitely something she looks at when considering representing a writer. But she said if the writing was great but the platform weak, the writing would always win. The writing trumps everything.
Hi, Silver! I actually like Facebook. That's the one place I feel comfortable sharing. But do not get me started on those games. Ugh. And Twitter is great for some things, isn't it. I enjoy Donald Maass's tweets. And when Eloise James tweeted during her year in Paris, I loved her clever updates. And I love reading tweets from other writers like you, Silver, that way I feel like I'm kinda, sorta in the loop.
DeleteBut I agree, with the not for selling thing. And I think about 'cleaning up' my Twitter list, because at the beginning I went with the follow everyone back philosophy. I regret that now.
I agree, Jana. I think it's a matter of making an actual social media plan. One you can live with and enjoy implementing.
I just wish putting myself out there didn't remind me of so much of high school.
Making a social media plan - great idea! And enjoying what you do - also very important! I guess Social Media works if you make it work, right?
DeleteKaryn - you hit the nail on the head...I feel like I'm back in school (and I really didn't like that feeling very much). Oh, and I also did the 'follow back' thing - now I have to 'unfollow' :(
Holey moley, Joanne. Twenty tweets a day! That number exhausts me.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all, I used to have a facebook but really can not be bothered with it. I guess it just boils down to me not wanting people to know my business. I watch my kids on it and am just blown away by what people post. WHY???? I don't get it. If I want to talk to anybody I still pick up the phone and actually talk.
ReplyDeletePintrest did someone say pintrest? OMG! Totally addicted. I can waste hours on there. They give me good ideas on crafts and such. Do the crafts get done, mmmmm no. But still love to look :)
You have no idea how many times I want to delete my FB account, Richelle. Yes, I love keeping up to date with the kids, but I get in there and I spend hours catching up...or fuming over what some people post! And I made some great connections with long lost cousins - very cool - that I would hate to lose...but, man, is it time consuming!
DeleteWill.Not.Go.To.Pinterest.
Hi, Richelle. I love pinning stuff I'll never craft, cook, or wear. It's kind of like being part of an interactive magazine!
DeleteWhat an interesting topic and comments. I don't know how I feel about all this social marketing stuff. It seems I waste so much time online now not accomplishing much.
ReplyDeleteI get a lot of "buy my book," "buy my friends book" tweets and Facebook posts but it doesn't move me to buy the book. And I wonder if we're all just reaching other writers? And the readers are somewhere else, having a good time...
I hear you, Anne - I couldn't believe how much Twitter took up when I finally dove in! I had to remind myself that I had a day job - and it wasn't reading Tweets all day (just so you know, I could totally do that - read tweets all day - sad, but true).
DeleteAnd I wonder about the reach we have as writers - like you said, is it just other writers? Perhaps all the readers are hanging out at Goodreads in their own chat room...talking about the authors ;)
Thanks for stopping by and adding to the discussion.
Exactly, Anne. I think it's true, most of the time we're preaching to the choir. I shouldn't confess to how long it takes me to come up with 140 letters worth of cleverness - way to long. And I don't think I've ever bought a book from a mention on Twitter. But I'll be honest, I took one off my to-buy list because I got SO sick of seeing the author EVERYWHERE I just couldn't bring myself to buy the book!
DeleteGood discussion. I too am in a quandary about social media. I can socialize by hanging out with friends or hanging out on facebook and not write at all and that isn't really what I want to do. It is more of a procrastination technique. My facebook is a list of authors posting, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. I don't have time to visit them very often. But then I'm going on a blog tour and I really would like someone to visit me. But as Jana or Karen said one time, we really might be singing to the choir. I have bought a book because of a facebook post but by writer that I know. I like FB for local events in my writing group.
ReplyDeleteTTYL
Hey, Annette - good to 'see' you here! I think Jana said it best...find something that works for you and that doesn't take time away from your ultimate goal, which is writing! But it is overwhelming - and then to listen to all the advice and rumors (I get anxious just thinking about it all).
DeleteGood luck with the blog tour! And, just popped over to your blog, good luck to you and Karyn tonight at your reading in Regina Beach! I think that's a good way to go...connect with the readers on a personal level and then hope for that word of mouth to take over!! Looking forward to an report on the event :)
I agree, Annette. It can very much be a procrastination technique. Things aren't going so smoothly. Wait, I think I'll head to Facebook or Twitter or where ever! I'm hoping blogging at reviews sites on the tour will at least get our name in front of readers. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
DeleteAnd I like Facebook for that kind of stuff to. This morning I shared a call out for Auditions for Regina Summer Stage. I love hearing about those opportunities and passing them on.