HOW I WRITE - SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS (Updated)

I originally posted this over a year ago in March, 2013. Since I'm currently enrolled  in a social media marketing class (hello #6M215 on Twitter) and because the Internet world is always changing, I thought I'd revisit this post to see if I've changed (note: new parts are in bold).

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, Instagram 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.

I now have two Twitter personas: my Wordsy Woman persona and my Literary Author persona. My goal with posting on Twitter for Wordsy Woman is essentially the same but with more of a slant toward business and marketing issues. For @AuthorJodieT, I'm connecting more with other poets, novelists, and those in the publishing industry, trying to attract readers. My posts, then, are related to books and what it is like being a poetry and fiction author.

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. I am beginning to use Linked In more by joining a few groups and trying to participate in them more. 

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. I have stopped posting the writing-related quote on Facebook as I intend to start putting these on Twitter and/or Instagram. I've also separated my personas with a Wordsy Woman page, a Jodie Toohey Author page, and pages for each of my books: Melody Madson - May It Please the Court?, Other Side of Crazy, Missing Emily: Croatian Life Letters, and Crush and Other Love Poems for Girls. I admit I'm behind on using this platform.

Instagram:

I recently opened an Instagram account, inspired by my social media marketing class. At first, I wasn't sure how to translate my "word" business into visuals, but the class gave me a few ideas. I have only one persona on Instagram: my author persona. I thought the platform would be a better fit for an author of poetry and fiction. I have only a few followers so far, but hope to connect with readers and other writers. Types of posts I've published so far and plan to publish include lines from my and other books over my original photographs, writing quotes and insights over my original photographs, updates on my own work through photographs, and fun writing or book related pictures (I'm thinking of a way to create a "Tale of Two Cities" photo collage). Thanks to the Over app, I don't have to abandon words for Instagram, but can incorporate them.


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.

Once thing I've learned in my class and using social media over this past year or so is that it is extremely hard to be consistently active on each one. And knowing I can't afford to outsource the work (and wouldn't want to being a service business), I just have to accept that I can only do so much. I focus on sharing quality content that I hope my followers will find value in, and keep keeping on.

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

Happy socializing!
-The Wordsy Woman

USING A CREATIVE WRITING FRAMEWORK TO DRAFT WRITTEN MARKETING MATERIALS

When leading creative writing workshops, I usually show the participants this graphic toward the beginning of class. It depicts my personal view of the creative writing process. This process can be applied to any type of writing, not just poetry, novels, and creative non-fiction. Let's say you have a marketing piece to write but you don't know where to start.

First, do some free writing. Get out a notebook and pen (or computer if that better suits you) and write down everything that pops into your head about what you want to say. Describe the ideal person who will read the piece. Where are they when they read it? What do you want them to think as they read it? Feel? What do you want them to do after they read it? Brainstorm as many ways as you can think of to convey the idea or message. Don't worry about grammar, punctuation, or even if it's written well. Just get everything in your head down on the paper or up on the computer screen.

As you write and re-read what you've written, you will start to formulate ideas. Do some additional free writing focused on these ideas about what form the writing should take (blog post, ad, article, etc.) and more specifically how to say it. As you can see from the diagram, this is a cyclic process. Writing leads to ideas which leads to more writing which leads to more ideas, etc. until you're ready to catapult down the line into the revision phase.

Think of the revision phase as the overall crafting of your piece. Put it in the form on which you've decided. Move things around, fix sentences, add in graphics, etc. You can also picture a cyclic arrow within this phase as you keep revising until it is almost just right. If you're working with a team or have someone you can share it with, go ahead and do it at this phase. You don't want to have them read it at the very end only to hear some great over-arching ideas for change.

Next is the editing phase. This is where you look at the piece on a sentence-by-sentence and word-by-word level to make sure there are no typos or errors. During this phase, you will want to read the piece out loud, at a minimum, or, if you can, have one or several people read it over for you to point out any errors you've missed.

Finally, is sharing. Post the blog. Run the ad. Publish the article, etc. And, like with creative writing, get started free writing for your next piece.

Want to learn another creative writing technique to help you connect with your target market (especially a service-based market)? Then click here to subscribe to my enewsletter and get my free report.

-The Wordsy Woman