Social Media & My Visit To Hell To Understand It
“Sally, you’ve got to have a Twitter account!”
“Are you listening to me? GET A SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE, STAT!”
“What do you mean you haven’t heard of Instagram/Tumblr/insert-the-latest-social-media-networking-craze?”
When I was in college the biggest hype was Instant Messenger, dial-up internet access was still a thing, and flip-phones were the iPhone of the times. I get it. I’m aging myself…But all I did was have a few kiddos and BAM! The social media outlets exploded. Now, I feel like my grandparents - and I’m not even old enough to BE a grandparent (based on my children’s ages anyway).
My first step toward establishing a presence in the modern tech world was creating a website. For me, this was the easy part. A lot of writers I’ve met over the years have recommended WordPress and while I’ve learned it’s certainly a manageable format to master, for writers like myself, time and aesthetics are my number one priorities (translation: I don’t have time to take on the task of delving into designing my own templates and layouts). Squarespace and Wix are two of the most popular pre-fab web-designing companies on the market right now. I highly recommend writers that are looking to create their own site without sacrificing quality, professionalism, and easy access for changing, reformatting, and updating content, check either of these out. Yes, there’s an annual fee for maintaining your website and domain, but it’s been well worth the investment in my mind. Especially if you’re like me - short on time, but have an eye for savvy-sites.
Second, was a little trickier. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were the next series of hurdles. I really didn’t know which to address first - I had a private personal account on Facebook, but I wanted a professional writer page. So, I worked with what I knew: Facebook. Here’s what happened thought…For me, a professional author-page on Facebook gave the least connections to readership and a cross-promotional writer audience. After much content, redrafting designs, and countless hours sifting through social media articles about building a following, I’d landed a single follower: me. I didn’t give up though, I reached out to some other authors who still maintained their Facebook pages and funny enough, they had similar challenges. Ultimately, I shut down the Facebook page for now. Until I have more time and energy to devote to the site, I'm phasing my way into the social media world. Facebook will be something I re-visit later down the road.
Next up? Twitter! I had set up a Twitter account a few years ago under my given name, but never really did much with it nor understood it’s attraction until my presence had a purpose. What did I want? Followers of course! But I also wanted to surround myself and brand with people sharing in the same passions: writing. The first 100 followers took forever - I think 5-6 weeks went by and a lot of piggybacking and stalking on my part. However, what I learned most, is how quickly your fire takes hold once you have a regular posting schedule - I mean daily, at least 2-3x and frequent likes, retweets, and comments on random posts.
As of the date of this blog, I’m at about 850+ followers. Big deal, right? But lemme tell ya, those followers are either also writers as well or regular viewers of my postings. And here’s the kicker, getting followers with similar following numbers in your corner is easy. They’re chasing the same goal: building a community. But the ones that have really catapulted my popularity, are the ones who have a following of 10k-60k+ themselves. Irony? They only follow about half of their followers. Crazy? I thought so, but I’ve learned the more content, consistent posting, and interaction I’ve put into my account, the more hits I’ve gotten. The first couple of months were hard, sure, but now, it’s become a daily and weekly habit of dedicating 5-10 minutes for vital, loyal followers. And these are people I’m honored (NOT obligated) to reciprocate and support as well.
Instagram has been my latest Achilles. Since it became trendy, I’ve avoided it at all costs. Why the hell did I need to follow and build yet another portal of people who pretty much just share pics? Seemed a little ass-backward to Twitter in my mind. But then, another writer - D.M. Weade - laid it out in laymen terms: it’s for the younger readers you’ll need as you grow. And down the rabbit hole I went.
Let me preface by saying I’m STILL new to it. Instagram’s weird and not as easy as Twitter (IMO) when it comes to re-posting - I had to get yet another app on my phone and I HATE new apps most of the time. Still, I’ve found moments of solace and marginal success in building an even more concentrated following of writers and readers. A couple early followers from Twitter connected me with a group of women writing fiction on Instagram and within a couple of weeks I was connected to nearly 100 fellow writers instantly supporting each other. It was a great boost of confidence early one.
That said, I’m still way behind in my total followers ( little under 300 last time I checked), and I’m not exactly sure why. As I’ve learned, a lot of followers follow you, then, once you follow them back, they drop you. It makes no sense, but then again, I’m not the social media guru so, maybe there’s a strategy I’m missing. Point is, I’m still learning this outlet and feel that by the time I actually land an agent and pub deal, I’ll have enough street cred established that I won’t be reinventing the marketing wheel starting from scratch. That’s my hope anyway…
My last attempt at expanding social media awareness: LinkedIn. I’ve used it for professional work when I was in the thick of 9-5 career-climbing. But this time was a different. I created a new account to acquire clients in writing articles and blogs. But after chasing that unicorn for a month, I quickly discovered in order to build this new “job,” I’d have to sacrifice even more time and sweat for my novel. Guess what? I backed out and deleted the account. Last thing I needed was another “thing” to worry about or prevent me from writing the novel(s) I’d been so passionate about completing.
For now, I’m going to continue building my presence on Twitter and Instagram. Thus far they’ve been the most successful and while I’m still learning the ins and outs of both of them, I’m dedicated to making my goal by December 31st, 2019 (2,500 followers for each). It’s possible - even if I’ve gotta schedule another trip to Hell to make it happen…
Happy writing!
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Simply Sally