Some days, social networking is the coolest invention ever--being able to connect with people around the world that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. And then there are other days in which I want to pull out all of my hair and pop a cap in my laptop (that's my Utah hood coming out of me). Seriously! Who can keep up with all of this? Things change and progress everyday. Thus is the world we live in--continually growing and improving. All I know is that I'm feeling overwhelmed and buried by a need to do EVERYTHING just in case I'm missing out somewhere. I have become a virtual Peeping Tom/Stalker checking all my sites every few minutes (no joke). I want to know what everyone is up to. I have a facebook account, a facebook author page, twitter, linkedin, goodreads, and now I have joined Triberr, where they speak of bones and bonfires and tribes (I'm still trying to figure out the ins and outs of that one). I also have google+ account, but I hardly use it. But that's it. I refuse to join any more. I can't. I won't. I'm tapped out *throws hands in the air in defeat*. I can hardly keep up with what I am doing, and I have to hope that it will be enough. Also, I have no idea if it is even working. I spend a lot of time tweeting, blogging, and posting and I have no idea if I'm simply just wasting my time or whether I'm actually making a difference in my little piece of the writing world. Everyone seems to say that it's pretty friggin' important for an author to have an online presence. But if we're all building these platforms, all attempting to do the same thing, then isn't it counterproductive? We're all trying to be "special" and in the end I think we're all ending up...not. There is so much white noise out there on all these sites that in some respects it has become a broken system. How many times have you looked at your twitter account and found post after post of, "Check out my book" or "Read this review", etc... My whole stream is full of these postings. Facebook is much the same. And for the most part, I tend to ignore them. It takes something standing out, being different and glittery, to catch my eye. But it's rare for that to happen. But what else are we supposed to do? We need some way in which to connect with potential readers and if we don't have a facebook account or tweet every hour on the hour, then how is anyone going to know we even exist? (I want to exist! That's all I have ever wanted! Just let me exist). And there you have it, folks. The catch-22. We need social media sites to build a platform, because for the majority of us it's all we have in which to promote our work. Most of us don't have pockets lined with cash to place expensive ads on hot air balloons or purchase a 30 second ad during the Superbowl or hire a monkey to sell our books for us (click here for more on that). We have to work within our limitations and with what is available to us. Even if what is available to us is kind of broken and rather annoying.What other options do we have? For me, I will continue to blog and facebook and twitter because: #1 I love it and #2 I still think having a platform of some kind is a good thing, even if it isn't the best thing. So what do you think? How important is a platform for an author? Is it a big ol' waste of time? And more importantly, do you think it is a failed system or does it have some benefit?
34 Comments
2/12/2012 09:04:23 am
I agree on the overload, and I'm pretty new to this! But the one thing I have done is kept my Facebook personal. I have no writers on it except the ones I'm friends with. I only want Twitter and my blog to be for writing at the moment. We'll see if that works...
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2/13/2012 12:38:55 am
I actually took your advice and went through and defriended some authors from my personal facebook page. For the most part, I didn't even recognize their faces or names, so we're not even interacting anyway. Those I do banter with I kept. now my personal facebook page looks SO much better and I can really interact with family and friends the way I want to. Also, strangers aren't seeing pics of my kids--that's uber important to me.
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2/12/2012 10:37:27 am
Overload can be a huge problem! I try to remember that the social media thing can actually be fun (I discovered Pinterest...and, yeah, it's cool!) And the neat thing is that I discovered it on Twitter. I'm not going to dive into Google+, and I tend to forget about Tumblr. But I'm thoroughly enjoying Twitter and Facebook. At the same time, life is life is life and my family and my writing come first, so I think it's important to prioritize and remember why you do the social media stuff. A platform, yes, but for me it's also the water cooler/break room. Now that I work at home, I think that social contact is important. And fun. And has the added benefit of building a platform.
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2/13/2012 12:41:53 am
Star Trek--that would be kinda scary :)
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2/12/2012 01:13:10 pm
I agree that networking and marketing in all the social media outlets can be overwhelming. I've been going through this overload lately, too. However, I do agree with you that having a platform and online presence is necessary...though sometimes it does seem like a lot of work with little results.
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2/13/2012 12:44:47 am
That's exactly the way I feel-- a lot of work with little results. But I do like the above comment in which she said to view it as a water-cooler/break room. I like that idea better than viewing it as platform building. It sounds funner that way :)
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2/12/2012 06:46:59 pm
I'm not new to this any more and boy, do I agree with you.
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2/13/2012 01:08:07 am
It's an endless circle for sure. We have to pimp, I don't see any other way around it, yet I hate the whole idea of doing the same thing everyone else is doing. But whatcha going do?
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2/12/2012 08:55:04 pm
So with you! It's so overwhelming. I've decided to focus on Twitter for a month (following advice by Scott Stratten (UNMarketing--a really useful book) and see how it works out. Spreading myself too thin when I have limited time is just, as you say, frustrating.
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2/12/2012 08:59:14 pm
I have the requisite FB Fan Page, Twitter, Goodreads, and my own blog on my website. Does it help? Who knows. I also have a FB page in my real name that is for friends and family. A think I sold more books on that FB page than the others combined. We need to stop marketing to each other (although we probably buy more books than most of the general public), and find a way to reach more of the non-writer readers. But until we hit it in the big time, with a book tour, we're stuck with what we have. It's better than nothing. Although I'd rather spend my precious time on writing the next book.
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2/12/2012 10:52:52 pm
Definitely overloaded. Twitter moves so fast and has so many links that I can barely keep up. FB just sucks in general. I've never really "gotten" the social side of goodreads (I just use it to track my books). I love Google+ to bits and bits and bits and that's just about the only social network you can find me on anymore. And my blog, of course, but sometimes that feels more like yelling out into the ether than actually have a discussion with anyone.
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2/12/2012 11:18:13 pm
I think it's important to have a platform so that your readers can find you online, but the real success seems to happen when the platform is so distinctive that it stands out.
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2/13/2012 12:46:47 am
You are reading my mind. I had this exact conversation with my wife last night.
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2/14/2012 08:53:04 pm
I hear you Christopher, I really do. We're all pimping our books to other authors (who are usually big readers as well) but that's not the best strategy. I love your real estate analogy. It's perfect--I wish it weren't true.
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2/13/2012 01:09:45 am
Authors, many great points and social overload is an issue. What I did not read was what is your goal for you platform or marketing plan.
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I spend most of my time on FB and Twitter and I try to update my blog twice a week. I drop by Goodreads once or twice a week to update my reading list/post a review. That's where I spend the bulk of my time.
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2/13/2012 03:17:22 am
I think platform is important no matter what stage you're at, getting yourself out there can never hurt in my opinion.
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2/13/2012 03:19:22 am
It can be easy to get overwhelmed. I just blog and use twitter. That's it.
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2/14/2012 08:55:24 pm
And it seems to work well for you.
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2/13/2012 04:15:30 am
I am definitely on social networking overload. I can't keep up these days. My twitter list hit over 10,000 and even with list management, I'm missing friends that I want to RT. Add facebook, Tribber, Goodreads, and google groups and I honestly just want to go back to the days of doing normal book signings.
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2/14/2012 07:15:10 am
I decided a while back on a couple of things:
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2/14/2012 11:19:12 am
Platform is pretty important.. I was originally tooting my own horn way too much. These days, I toot my own horn once and then I go on and toot as many other horns as I can.
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2/14/2012 01:11:17 pm
Looks like you struck a social media nerve with this post. I do think there is a point of diminishing returns in using social media. You seem to have found a good balance. Thanks for a thought-provoking post many of us self-promoting authors can relate to.
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2/14/2012 09:07:34 pm
You called me a pro! Thanks :)
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2/14/2012 10:31:38 pm
You're right. Sometimes it's overwhelming. And then there's the political "stuff" on top of this goopy topic. For instance I live in Germany, where SOPA is reality. So is consumer data protection. At the moment FB and the national data protection agencies are having legal battles at users' expense over FB fanpages, so quit FB because I already got "deep-fried" by some nameless lawyer for uploading private photos from my own camera that I failed to copyright. That's right: if you fail to copyright your own photos in Germany, you can get sued for that.
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3/3/2012 07:26:55 am
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! When I only have a couple of hours a day (at best) that I can devote to writing, it really can sting to have to keep up on the networking side of things, too. I did recently have a Twitter clear-out - if more than 50% of tweets I saw from anybody was them promoting their own book, they were out. It keeps me on my toes to prevent me doing the same thing.
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3/3/2012 07:46:46 am
Who would've thought that good ole' fashion email is now heading down the path of the horse and buggy. Oh...so quaint.
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4/4/2012 11:22:37 pm
I'm certain that social media helps (I'll find out for sure next year when my novel is published). It is clear to me that being on Twitter (my favorite) drives traffic to my blog. Some days I love this fact and others I hate it. But love it or hate it, I think its here to stay.
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4/5/2012 12:09:38 am
I love twitter and yes, it does drive a lot of traffic to my blog. That's the number one traffic driver by far. But I've got to figure something out between all the promo stuff and whatnot. There has to be a better balance.
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Nadine Singel
7/9/2012 01:45:50 pm
Twitter is sort of a double-edged sword for me. It'd be nice to tweet something out of the realm of "buy my book", but the personal and candid fun stuff ends up on search engines. So if you don't care that you just tweeted that your weird Uncle Al just won a hot dog eating contest...then have at it.
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Nadine Singel
7/9/2012 01:46:03 pm
Twitter is sort of a double-edged sword for me. It'd be nice to tweet something out of the realm of "buy my book", but the personal and candid fun stuff ends up on search engines. So if you don't care that you just tweeted that your weird Uncle Al just won a hot dog eating contest...then have at it.
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Nadine Singel
7/9/2012 01:46:22 pm
Twitter is sort of a double-edged sword for me. It'd be nice to tweet something out of the realm of "buy my book", but the personal and candid fun stuff ends up on search engines. So if you don't care that you just tweeted that your weird Uncle Al just won a hot dog eating contest...then have at it.
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