Using Social Networking to Promote your Writing

Using Social Networking to Promote your Writing

Social networking can be a great way to promote yourself and your writing and, these days, most people will expect you to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkdIn and any number of other social media sites. But, whilst social media can offer you the chance to promote yourself and connect directly with your potential clients and customers, it can also be a very effective time thief. So, how do you get the most from being a social network butterfly?

Which social networks should you use? Obviously, Twitter and Facebook are the two biggest networks in the Western world, so you’d do well to start by getting yourself an account with both of these, if you don’t already have one. But here are another couple which may also be of use:

When you set up a social media account you need to make sure it works for you, or you’ll simply be wasting your time. Below are some suggestions as to how you can make the most of your time on social networks.

Firstly, you need to make sure that you present yourself as a professional. This starts with your screen name. For example, on Twitter you could call yourself writes4money or superwriter, but names like these tend to sound a bit gimmicky. When you are trying to build a following for yourself, it really makes more sense to use your own name, or the pen name you’ve chosen, this way you’ll be easy to find. This may not be so important for fiction writers, but if you are a non-fiction writer, it’s pretty important to look like you are serious if you want to attract new clients.

Now it’s time to write your bio. Make sure it’s an accurate description of your talents, experience and what kind of work you are available for if you are looking for clients. And make sure that it is free of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors – that would likely put off any potential clients.

So what do you post about once you’ve set up these accounts? Well, what you write and how involved with the community you’d like to get is entirely up to you. Some writers post every day, several times a day, about where they are up to in the writing process, how they are feeling about it and so on. However, this can become very time consuming and you may end up spending more time doing that than actually writing!

Other writers use social media to post small parts of their work online, offer tips or prizes, or just give simple updates about the progress of their latest project. How much you reveal really depends on how comfortable you are with telling people about your creative processes.

How often you post is, again, up to you. There’s no rule that says you should post a status to Facebook every day. But, if you want to keep your followers coming back for more, you need to be posting on a regular basis. If that’s once every day, fine, if it’s once every week or once every month, that’s great too, as long as your followers know the frequency with which you’ll be posting.

However, if you say you’ll be updating every day and then you don’t do it, you’ll disappoint people and probably lose followers who could be converted into readers or customers.

At the end of the day, it’s your call. But to return to the point I made at the beginning – make sure you don’t spend so much time on social media that you’ve none left for your writing and earning a living!