Before I go any further, I wanted to thank Janet Lane for her wonderful handouts from the Crested Butte Conference and also for allowing me to post so many of her suggestions here. If you all haven’t already done so, please head over to Janet’s site and see her take on the Crested Butte Conference and if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, run, don’t walk. She’s personable and about as helpful as they come.
As promised, here are the notes of the last “Twitter Handout.” I know I appreciated the last remark the most and have obeyed it the least. 🙂
1. Get published. Janet Lane, the author who gave this talk, mentioned that she new one person who got published as a result of her Twitter presence. It’s also true Diana Gabaldon found her agent through a literary chat group during the early days of Internet chat. But are these likely events?
2. Find people who can help you. Need a good editor, critique group, writer’s group(s)? Use Twitter (and other Social Media) to find such groups and get connected.
3. Make new friends. You can meet and befriend anyone from beginners to industry professionals out here. The professionals will share useful information about how to get published, the hottest trends, what’s selling. Janet mentions on her handout how she found a friend with a hearing problem who loaned Janet a book to aid in Janet’s search for information regarding a hearing-impaired character. This kind Twitterer lived in a different COUNTRY.
4. Gain readers for your blog. Tweet about your new posts, and ask your friends to tweet about it. Take advantage of the viral nature of news.
5. Get feedback. Ask for help and invite people to make suggestions on your website, scene development etc. Make your twitters about this specific and easy to respond to.
6. Notify your readers of events where you’ll be appearing, new book releases, or share wonderful news if an agent or editor requests a full manuscript.
7. Develop your brand. Your followers will get to know you, perhaps come to rely on your updates about a particular area of interest or expertise, and if you can find a way to engage them in your writer’s journey, you can develop a presence.
8. Give your followers 98% useful content and 2% promotion and never Tweet when upset or angry. Share interesting aspects of your writing life, but not your personal life.
Here’s the part I mentioned earlier that I love, but don’t follow well: Set a limit on your social media marketing! Set a timer. Half an hour a day. Don’t sacrifice your writing time to Tweet. Or blog. Or Facebook. Find a way to integrate marketing into your life without letting it take control.
That said, what are some of your best/favorite Social Media Moments?
Hi Victoria….loved the post. Though I am not on Twitter, this post has tempted me to join.
I agree with you that we must set a time on our social media marketing, else no writing will get done. On no condition should we sacrifice our writing time.
Yes, I agree that we should not sacrifice our writing time. My problem has been, this becomes my writing time if I'm not careful. I'm writing when I respond to folks AND I'm working on my web presence I'm writing when I post the blogs. My internal whiner says, "Isn't that good enough?" My cheeks should be red from the mental slapping, but not yet….
Self-flagellation (even mental) not allowed, Victoria! Thanks for summarizing my workshop and sharing it with others. It's hard to follow those guidelines because SM is so interesting! So fun reading your blogs. Now, go write! -Janet
Yes, Ma'am! LOL
You'll be happy to know I'm only up at this unGodly hour because I foundered upon a nearly complete story while trying to sleep. I had to get up and write it down. After that, I thought I'd see what else was happening…. ;D
Great ideas to follow. Someday I may succeed in being a competent tweeter. Until then, I live vicariously through my writing buddies.
Hugs and thanks for the great info.
Yeah, still working on that "competent" part, Cat. I did try Twitterfeed.com, but I can't tell if it ever posted anything on this blog to twitter or Facebook. I thought I'd set it up, but then it seemed so easy…. LOL
Definitely need to focus on reducing the amount of time sacrificed.
It is a fine balance between letting people know you do actually read their stuff, and not having any time to write your own.
Thanks for the summary of the workshops. You must have been taking great notes!
I've been dipping my toe in Twitter and found that I actually really like it. I had to download Tweetdeck before finally "got" what Twitter was. Tweetdeck organizes your posts and mentions and helps you filter out all the other noise so you tune in to what you want to pay attention to.
I like it for the ability to connect to people who would actually not go to my blog or website. I follow several topics of interest and am a bit of a sucker for clicking on interesting article and video links.
I've had interesting conversations with people in different countries that weren't writers or romance readers. I think that's the best thing — getting outside of your usual internet circle.
Thanks for dropping by, Misinterpreted, and for the increased understanding of Tweetdeck, Jeannie. I'll have to go check it out now. I did try to take good notes, but I have to confess, Janet was this organized. Everything was given on handouts! My notes on her talk consisted of me underlining things and writing suggestions to myself.