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On Being Social

Oh social media…how I have really mixed feelings about you.

One of the things that new writers continuously hear is how you have to market yourself and get plugged in via social media.

There’s Facebook: Do I have an author page? No, not yet. I kind of think that’s something I’ll do when I have a publishing contract. Maybe I should do it sooner? No clue.

There’s Twitter: Do I tweet? Yes. Is it anything interesting? Not sure – probably lands on the “no” side, because I think you have to find the balance between spamming people to death (I’ve actually unfollowed several people recently because I realized they had a week-long host of tweets that they spammed literally 40 times a day and then it just started to repeat.) and having the sound of crickets be all your account shows. Right now I’m mostly publicizing my new posts here – though I’m not sure how useful that is on the useful/annoying scale. I do also tweet little tidbits from life now and again, and free books that I think are worth grabbing. But I don’t tweet every day, and I kind of think I probably should at least get one out there each day, but, well, really…what do people *want* to see on Twitter?

There’s Google+: I have it. But I do nothing with it.

Then there are other things like Goodreads. The ACFW loop just had a really good post from a member on all the ways Goodreads can benefit you as a writer and a reader. It’s definitely food for thought, but in some ways it just makes me cringe…one more place to be sure and post. But I’ll probably spend a little time looking at it and see what I can see.

And you’ve got all manner of other things to consider as well – the Amazon author page, MySpace, LinkedIn, …there are probably more that I’m forgetting.

It’s enough to make your head spin. And I have to ask: how important is it to get all of those (or even some number of them) up and running before you’re published? I get that you want to create a buzz before your book comes out, but when do you need to start that (and how much will it hurt you in the long run if you’re slow in getting going?)

I think it boils down to one thing: I need a social secretary to handle it for me. 🙂

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Comments (4)

  1. My take on Twitter especially, but is applicable to most of the other social media tools, is that most people advertise but few read. In other words, there are a lot of people using them to spread the word, but no one is reading what’s being offered. Seems that way, anyway. 🙂

      1. Well, in that it helps you develop a network of likeminded (or similarly interested) parties, then possibly. Two heads are better than one and all that. And maybe it helps get the ball rolling. A few people will respond and help spread the word which will reach others you wouldn’t normally reach. So yeah, if done in moderation. But those who tweet every 5 min about their book, um, no. lol

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