social media – Page 3

SFWC 2018: Reach Readers All Over the World without Leaving Your Desk

Some of these are pretty basic, but we can all use a refresher from time to time.

Claim your about.me page. Even if you don’t have a blog or other sites to link to it, it’s a place to start an online presence.

Use email signatures—but keep them short! Don’t list every link or form of contact. Use a picture of you rather than your book.

Post videos. Google gives preference to videos in searches. 80% more people will watch a video over reading an article. A good editing software for videos is Camtasia.

Buy your domain name. It should be your name, not the title of your book. If you do buy the domain name of your book title, have it redirect to your author domain. Remember that you are the brand; you’re selling YOU. If you have a common name, or your domain is already taken, try adding “-author” or “-writer” to your domain name.

Title your posts clearly so that they can be found in a Google search. That is, think about what people might search for and title your article accordingly so that it will come up in that search. Also, give names to your images so they turn up in image searches.

Join LinkedIn writing groups.

Blog consistently. Check your stats so you can see which articles get the most hits. That way you can write more of what people want. For fiction authors, some possibilities are: cut scenes that didn’t make it into the final book; cool research tidbits or facts you discovered while writing; info on your writing process itself.

If you’re targeting a teen audience, you have to go where they are: Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr. One suggestion is to have an online scavenger hunt.

Short and sweet, but I hope these tips help! I, for one, hope to try putting videos up sometime . . . maybe not “soon,” but soonish? Stay tuned!

False Hope

I think I’ve reached my breaking point.

On Twitter this morning I saw this tweet . . . I don’t want to name names here, so I’ll be somewhat vague, but the gist was that she had been close to giving up on being a writer but then her book or script or something was turned into a major motion picture! “Dreams really do come true!”

Gag.

I’m sorry, but I’m sort of done with all the false hope that successful people like to pedal. I’m a realist. Dreams come true—for some people. Not everyone. That would be amazing, but think about it: Are we all successful? Are we all getting movie deals and making big bucks as writers or artists or [insert personal passion here]? I can wish that for everyone, but I can’t promise that if I (or anyone) work really hard, I’ll reach my goals.

That’s the big lie.

Sometimes we try and still fail, no matter how good we are or how badly we want to succeed.

And it’s nice for someone who has “made it” to encourage the rest of us lowly wannabes. But it would be nicer and more helpful if she’d lend a hand.

That’s how the system works, if and when it works at all: People who’ve climbed up reach down and help someone after them, and then that person reaches down and helps someone, on and on in a chain.

But many times those who have reached the top, or even the penultimate level, are too worried about guarding their position. They’re worried about balancing themselves on that tiny pinnacle.

Words of encouragement are cheap, easy, and safe. They don’t cause the pendulum to swing.

ACTIONS, however, are the only thing that have impact. And this is true in every walk of life. Go ahead and post all your political anger on Facebook and Twitter, but if you don’t go DO SOMETHING, it won’t make a lick of difference.

So thanks, lady on Twitter, for the kind words. But until you prop that door open a little wider to allow more of us in, they mean very little.