Social Media for Writers

Social Media for WritersIt doesn’t have to be hard,

just sustainable. By Carol Doane

Social Media Strategist

Publishers no longer have budgets to send authors on book tours.

If you wait until you your book is published to start your publicity, you’re behind. Start now.

Social media is a practice with a little science on the side. Practice and make mistakes now before you’re famous.

Build your brand. Companies have brands. Celebrities have brands. You should have a brand, too.

Your future readers are lost in the ‘internet sea.’ They need to discover you soon so they can stop rowing aimlessly.

Place yourself in the online sea where people can connect with your personal brand. We’ll cover a handful of options.

What comes up when someone googles your name?

Exert control over your name, where it is found and what is associated with it.

Get a Gmail account in your name (caroldoane @ gmail.com)Use this email to query agents. You are controlling and branding your name.

Control YOUR name farther. Go to Godaddy and purchase your name as an URL. FirstnameLastname.com

Monitor your name. Get an account with Gist.comAlso, set up a Google Alert.

Ok, you bought your name, firstlastname.com, but you don’t have a website. What do you do?

Get a free blog from Blogger.Forward your domain name, firstlastname.com, to your blogspot.

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Place useful info on your blog via widgets: popular posts, followers, archive, RSS feed, option to email posts.

Write a bio.Share what you envision on a book jacket.

Capture a print worthy picture of your face. Make sure it doesn’t remind people of your mug shot.

Use Flickr.com for fav photos. Flickr offers RSS feeds to create neat widgets

Create floating pictures on your blog with code from roytanck.com

Add your picture and bio to your blog and other social media venues.

Put a Facebook LIKE button on your blog. As an admin, you can use that to create a like page.

Sign up for Plancast.comLog your plans to attend writers, author, bookstore, and literary events.

Feed your Plancast to your blog’s Google event calendar and create a plancast widget for your blog.

Know who visits your blog.Use Statcounter.com and add Google Analytics.

Wait! How do I get people to my blog?

Write something.

What do I write about? Themes that will make your writing look good. Do not overly self deprecate.

Write ten posts. Read one or two to your critique group. Make improvements, post to your blog.

Sign up for a Twitter account. Shorten your URL’s using a bit.ly service. Tweet your blog posts.

Link your Twitter account to FriendFeed.com

Use one site to post and monitor your Twitter and other accounts.Hootsuite.com is good and offers ow.ly service.

Tweet your ten posts, as in, ‘Here’s my TOP TEN posts!’ no one has to know they are your only posts.

Link your blog feed to sites such as BlogCatalog and Guerrilla-Media.com

Write more blog posts.

Interview someone who has a lot of twitter followers. Post that interview to your blog.

How do I interview?Read their bio, edit in your Q & A, and insert a couple of YOUR thoughts.

Say things like, “CAROL DOANE is AMAZING.”Send her a tweet about your post.

She will be so excited she will retweet it several times, and really brag about what an honor it was to appear on your blog.

Ask authors and writers to be guests on your blog.They’ll tweet and promote your website, too.

You will probably get some great followers from this experiment.How do you get more?

Follow everyone in a select twitter list—not someone famous, someone local.Many, if not most, will follow you back. Thank them.

When someone finds you and follows you, follow back. Keep standards, though. It’s okay to unfollow hard sellers, or foul language.

Check FriendorFollow.com or GoodbyeBuddy.com to see who is NOT following you. Dump the dead weight.

Drop them unless they are REALLY, really smart.If they are smart, they will eventually follow you.

Download and use the web browser Flock.com to monitor your social media accounts and post comments.

If you’re planning an event, create an Eventbrite.com page. It feeds into MSN and appears under local events.

Set up a Google Profile.Keep a log of wherever you appear: blog, Twitter, Plancast, Eventbrite, Facebook, Guerrilla-Media.

Get a LinkedIN profile – remember you are placing yourself where you can be found. Be professional here.

Connect. Compare. Share.How many quality Twitter followers, LinkedIN friends, blog followers can you connect with?

Connect with those people in real life.

Join Willamette Writers and become a volunteer at their annual conference.

Make friends with the agents at the writers conference.They make great connections and become your friends. Friends help friends.

Connect others.I linked a bunch of writers for a street fair. I queried one of their agents & wrote, “I put Bill Cameron in the street.”

Bill’s agent rejected me. BUT, when she eventually meets me, we’ll have a point of reference. Be memorable.

This is a numbers game. Write 10 manuscripts, query 100 agents, go for 1000 followers. Build a gigantic audience. Be friendly.

If anything sounds too hard, forget it, do the easy thing.A friend will help you with the hard things.

Join others learning.If you try a new idea and hate it, diagnose, fix it, or drop it and delete it.

This is a journey, if you’re not enjoying the journey you will not enjoy being published.

All you have is NOW.Enjoy now.

When you’re published, those you connected with will buy your books.

Now that you’re published you’ll need an Amazon Author page, and lots of other stuff—another session.

Do you feel lucky?Share your email for a FREE social media consultation.

Carol DoanePearlofCarol.com

Twitter: @TheFirstCarol

TheClassicCarol@gmail.com

360Convos.blogspot.comTwitter: @TheClassicCarol

Thank you.