IWSG – Swim The Social Media Pool... Without Drowning

Modern authors need to feel confident about more than just writing. Marketing and social media participation is a must, and we need to be conscious of our online persona. For my IWSG post this month, I decided to address social media venues and habits, with an emphasis on things to do and things to avoid. I hope you’ll find something helpful.

I’ll start off with Twitter.

Much has been written about Twitter—what it is, what it isn’t, and what we should and shouldn’t do—so I won’t belabor the fine points. Suffice it to say you should be interacting on Twitter, not spamming. Automated messaging and constant self-promotion are out. Personal replies, re-tweets and chats are in.

As with all your social media links, make sure your Twitter handle—hopefully a form of your author name—is easy to find, and consider adding a ‘Follow me on Twitter’ button to your blog. 

Some tools that can help you manage Twitter and get the most out of it are: Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tweepi, and Tweetchat.

Email

It’s best if your email address is some form of your author name. And it should be professional. You don’t want to query a publisher or agent with something like honeybuns@kissme.com.

Facebook

I don’t use Facebook much, so I can’t offer advice. To redeem myself, I’ll provide links on setting up an author page. Here’s one by NathanBransford from 2/2011 and one from TheDavid Black Agency updated 1/2012.


Blogs

Ah, blog design. My favorite. Let’s go down the list.

#1 – The blog’s title. For writers, it’s best if our blog title includes our author name. We want visitors to know who we are and remember us.

Placing your picture and bio near the top is also important. I’m surprised by how many blogs don’t have this readily visible. Some don’t even have it at all! We need to make it clear to visitors who we are and what we’re about. And they shouldn’t have to scroll until they get carpel tunnel to find it.

Your blog’s follow options should be easy to spot and be plentiful. The most popular (according to a poll I did) is Blogger’s Follower gadget. Second to that is ‘follow by email.’ This is another thing I find missing from many blogs.

I’ll tell you a secret. Although I follow many wonderful blogs, I never make it to my Google Reader as often as I’d like. If I want to be sure to visit a blog often, I follow by email.  And I’m not the only one.

If you don’t give your visitors a follow by email option, you’ll lose blog traffic.

Something else that will hinder blog participation is requiring word verification for comments. I am NOT a robot. Please disable your Captcha! If you have a Blogger blog and you haven't turned off word verification, it's on. Trust me. 

For more info, click here: What isword verification and how do I turn it off?  If your blog is Captcha-free, advertise that with a sidebar button. :)  There’s a link to instructions for button installation right on the page.

Visitors should have a way to contact you besides leaving blog comments. Can you believe I’ve found blogs that didn’t have any way to contact the author! No email when I clicked on their bio and no contact form anywhere on their blog. Not good.

Another item that should be easy to find is your Blog Archive. (That’s the linked list, grouped by month, of all your blog posts.) Why? Because visitors need to be able to search for things easily.

I use Hootsuite’s Hootlet—a tool that lets me tweet right from any web page. When I tweet this way, I like to have a clean, post-specific blog address in the address bar so that anyone who clicks on the link will go directly to the post or page. Having an easy-to-spot archive on your blog helps me do this.

You do want my Twitter blog luv, don’t you?

You should also have a ‘search this blog’ gadget. This allows someone to search for a post even if they don’t remember the title. They can search by topic.

If you have more than just a home page, you need to have a page index that’s easy to spot and navigate. You can choose tabs at the top or put one in the sidebar like I’ve done.

As far as formatting, color and design go, that’s up to you. Your blog should reflect your personality and your writing. It should also be professional and appealing to the eye. Avoid disorganization, clutter, and light, bright font on dark backgrounds. Excessively small or large font should be avoided as well. 

If you insist on light font on a black or dark background, at least tone the font down a little. Don’t make it stark white. And don't place text on a translucent page that allows objects on the background to show through.

(Ugh. My bifocal prescription increased just from posting the pic.)

And lastly... Post length and posting frequency.

Truth? The more involved I get in blogging, the more I appreciate short posts. If your post (like this one *blush*) is longer than a few paragraphs, I’ll probably skim it to save time. Or as another blogger said, 'read on the diagonal.' :D

Aim for keeping your posts between 300 and 600 words (less than 250 decreases SEO). If you’re nearing 1000, consider breaking it into two or more parts and doing a series.

Hint: Type out your post in a Word document first so you can see how long it is. After a while, you’ll get a feel for it. ;)

To keep readers on track (and keep them from going cross-eyed): 

• make paragraphs short 
• bold titles and key statements, or place them on a separate line
• and use bullet lists when appropriate

Regarding content, visitors like variety. It should go without saying, but keep your posts kind, considerate, and professional. Unless it's part of your brand (e.g. you're a Christian Fiction author), divisive topics like politics and religion should be avoided.

If you encounter a troll, don’t engage.

As to post frequency, 2 to 3 times a week won. For me, daily is too much (to post or to visit), and less than about once a week gives the appearance of an inactive blog. Visitors seem to like a schedule but don’t mind if the blogger varies it some.

What do you think?

Did you discover anything helpful?

Do you have a tip I didn’t list?

Oh, and

 Carrie Butler 

:D