HOW I WRITE ... SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

As someone who has always been much more comfortable with the written than the spoken word, I love social media. And email is one of the best inventions of my time (the other being MP3). The social media world in the realm of marketing is exciting because it is ever-evolving with nearly limitless opportunities to create new ways to use it. At this time, I use Good Reads, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, and Facebook. Just like when writing anything, when deciding what to post on these various outlets, I consider my audience. Regardless of which outlet I'm working in, however, my goal is always the same: to provide value through information, entertainment, or insight. Here is a breakdown of how I approach each:

Good Reads:

The audience, of course, for Good Reads is readers. I have an author account so I can link my blog, provide free giveaways, and track my reviews. But Good Reads users don't want to see only my books, so I make sure to periodically update my reading list, rate books I've read, and find new books to add to my "to read" shelf. This allows my Good Reads friends and others to get to know me as a reader and book lover.

Twitter:

Most of the people I follow and who follow me on Twitter are also writers or people in the publishing industry. Therefore, they are not going to be impressed with anything "instructional" I might post. So I try to limit my tweets to insights, thoughts, and feelings about the writing life, including things going well, challenges, and what I'm doing in my writing life like holding a book signing.

Pinterest:

Pinterest is completely image-based which can be challenging for people working strictly with words. Most of my Pinterest followers are other writers or aspiring writers so I try to pin items that might interest them. Of course, I have my own products but I also have several other boards that writers may find helpful, including writing-related quotes, books about the writing business, reference books, and funny pictures of writing mistakes.

Linked In:

Because Linked In strikes me as more formal, I keep it all business and, frankly, I forget to post updates there. Mostly, it is a place where people can view my resume, peruse my work experience, and see what endorsements I have.

Facebook:

In order to gain "likes" for my Facebook pages beyond my friends, I ran an ad and now have around 350 likes for my Wordsy Woman page. I'm not sure of the characteristics of my following, but I suspect, like with Pinterest, it includes people interested in writing but who may not be as entrenched in the business as in Twitter. Therefore, I can be a bit more instructional. Every Wednesday, I post a writing-related quote and whenever I think of it, I post a link to my blog. I also use it to post insights about the writing life, lessons I've learned, and what I have going on.

Social Media is powerful and, like others, I am still learning how to best use it. In addition to adding value, another rule I follow regardless of which social media outlet I'm using is to reciprocate when I can. On Twitter and Pinterest, I follow anyone who follows me unless their interests are not related to writing at all. On Good Reads, I try to add books written by other local authors to my book shelves, and on Linked In, I endorse people who endorse my skills if, in fact, I can attest to their skills. And on Facebook, I "like" the business pages of my friends who like mine. I guess this is the whole "network" part of social networking. Regardless of which sites you use, social media is here to stay and I, personally, am anxious to see what the future holds.

Do you have any insights about or tips for the power of social media? Feel free to share in the comments section.