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Photo Courtesy of Billy Nata via Creative Commons

Over the past couple of years I’ve spent a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook. As a writer, my original intent was to build a platform by marketing myself and my work. I’ve tried a number of different approaches based on what I’ve read on hundreds of blogs and books on social media.

Like many engaged in social media, I’ve made lots of mistakes and sometimes—rarely, thank goodness—I’ve alienated followers. Some of you are just starting out, so I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned over the last two years. Don’t worry, this won’t take long. What I’m proposing is pretty simple.

1. It’s Not About You

Surprising? Many people—not just writers—get into social media with the idea that the world is just waiting to hear what they have to say about themselves. Once they’ve set up their Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, they proceed to bombard the world with come-ons to buy whatever it is they are selling.

Well, guess what. It’s not about you—it’s about your audience. Assuming you have already targeted your audience, what is it they really want to hear about? If you follow Patton Oswalt, you’ll notice that he rarely talks about himself. But he’s happy to share his opinions on any number of other topics, and we love him for it. That’s why we follow him. Oh, and did I mention he has over a million followers?

2. Helping, Not Promoting

Admittedly, we can’t all be as brilliant as Patton Oswalt. You’re supposed to be building your own brand anyway, not copying someone else’s. So what should you tweet? Just remember to be helpful. Remember who your audience is and give them what they want—interesting information that will make their lives better.

What I’m really talking about here is curation. Want to know who rocks at curation? Guy Kawasaki. Again, over a million followers.

So what is curation? Here is a definition that works for me: Social curation is collaborative sharing of Web content organized around one or more particular themes or topics (from “Social Curation”). Essentially, you find the things that you—and your audience—care about, and you share them. Whenever possible, you should also offer an opinion.

I care a lot about movies and television. Apparently, so does my audience. Here is an example of what I am talking about:

Save the Movie! http://slate.me/15zkHnD via @slate A structure—not a formula. #Screenwriting

In this tweet, I summarized what I felt was the main thrust of the article—namely, that some critics blame bad movies on a book whose intent is to explain screenplay structure and not promote a magic formula for success. I could go on about this for hours but I’ll leave it at this. Good dramatic structure has been around since at least Poetics. All studio movies follow the same structure. It’s just that some are badly written. You shouldn’t blame that on a book.

So by now you’re asking yourself, “So when should I promote my work?” It’s a great question. Of course, it’s important to leverage Twitter and Facebook to gain new followers who might just buy your work. But first you have to build trust. And how do you do that? By adding value.

I used to promote my writing every day—especially on Twitter. I bombarded the Internet with cute little 140-character slogans that told people they needed to buy, buy, buy! Well, I did have some success but to be honest, it was tiring. I was frankly getting sick of listening to myself. So I changed tactics.

Now I spend a lot of bandwidth curating. Every so often, I throw in a blurb about one of my short stories—maybe a quote from a five-star review. But mostly I curate.

So sales have shot through the roof, right? Not really. Keep in mind, though, that I haven’t published a novel yet. That’s coming soon. And traditionally short stories don’t sell as well as books—at least that’s what I’ve read. Nevertheless, I’m sticking to the plan. I feel better too.

3. Don’t Thank Someone with “Thank You”

This is pretty minor but a thorn in my side. Just because someone retweets something of yours doesn’t mean you have to clutter the Twitter stream with half-hearted thank-yous. You want to thank me? How about retweeting something of mine? That’s the best form of gratitude.

4. Don’t Whine

It was true in Aristotle’s time and it’s true now—nobody likes a whiner. I’ve run across this weak phenomenon more on Facebook than Twitter. Authors who complain about the bad things that happen to them. “I got a bad review today. Waaaaaah.” Or “I can’t write today, I’m tired! Waaaaaah.” Here are a few more:

I drank too much coffee
I didn’t drink enough coffee
I can’t get this song out of my head
I went out with friends and they put me in a bad mood
I don’t have any friends and that puts me in a bad mood
I look fat in these sweat pants (oh, sorry, that one’s mine)

Which leads me to my final point.

5. Shut Up and Work

You can’t get more basic than this. If I had to leave you with a single piece of advice that will serve you well for the rest of your life, it’s this. There is no substitute for hard work. Embrace it.

Related articles

10 Effective Aspects of a Social Media Marketing Campaign (socialmetricspro.com)
How to Find Great Content to Share on Twitter (socialmediaexaminer.com)
How Content Curation Attracts Audience & Powers SEO (prnewswire.com)


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