There are so many websites and blogs for aspiring writers, and that is great, but meant I was reading dozens of conflicting opinions when the true answer to “How do you use Social media effectively as a new writer” is “It depends”. Part of the general rules apply of course, be interesting, interact, post visual material, post regularly, be thinking about the timing of tweets, re-follow people who follow you but even these are very hit and miss. There are very dull people who do nothing but re-post the same promo material about themselves who have thousands of followers, others who just drop the occasional wry comment who are brilliant but have a dozen people reading. I tried all the ‘right things’ and couldn’t get past 40, until a genuine chance tweet about aspirations for followers got picked up, gained 1k likes and I got 500 followers in 48 hours.
Numbers don’t mean anything I know, it’s the quality that counts of course, but on the flip side, it’s dispiriting posting good materials and phrasing it carefully for weeks when only a maximum of twenty people might see, and in all likelihood a quarter of that. I suppose how you use social media (I’m restricting myself to Twitter for examples but the same broad rules apply to other platforms) is determined by your expectations, and why you’re on there. For many authors (following the mainstream advice) it’s a necessary platform to help your book sales. In my experience that doesn’t really follow though, and speaking for other writers I follow as well, posting about your writing doesn’t necessarily mean even a single purchase (or even a single download when its free). There are a number of hashtags you can use, including #writingcommunity, #5amwritersclub, or #amwriting but it’s a little misleading. As someone rather bravely put on there, brave as you can get flamed for nothing, as an author you don’t want to have other authors following you. They aren’t your potential purchasers. And its true that before I discovered the beauty of muting accounts, my feed was filled with authors repeatedly asking me to buy their book, or do what they call a writerslift, which is essentially increasing numbers by retweeting and following each other, but I personally don’t like doing that, seems a bit pointless and for numbers only. The value of following other writers is in shared support when things get touch writing, re-assurance and research questions, and knowing you’re not alone, so it can be a great buddy system, but if you’re hoping to sell books, not so much.
One thing I do which I find useful, is to schedule a daily tweet, making sure at least half are nothing to do with writing, so I’m engaging, ‘liking’ what I genuinely like and interacting with what I find interesting. But that gets tough as your numbers grow, and gems get lost in the mire, hence the wonders of muting. I’m an anti-social bugger so find it difficult to wade through a lot of the repeated questions and cat pictures, and it amazes me the personal things people post, but everyone is different.
So to sum up, take advice, even mine with a pinch of salt, and don’t expect wonders from becoming a tweeter, it seems to be accepted wisdom that getting a good reaction or interest is more luck than judgement. On the bright side, there’s a real thrill when someone famous or someone you admire likes or interacts with a post.
Stay safe,
Kit