How to Use Social Media to Support Your Writing Career

Dorri Olds Far too many freelancers say things like, “I don’t have time for Facebook; I don’t care what somebody had for lunch,” or, “I don’t get Twitter.” Here’s the problem with these comments, they sound dinosaurish like latecomers who said, “Why would I ever want a cell phone?”

Saying you don’t have time for social media is the same as saying you don’t have time to tell anybody who you are and what you do. You’re probably accustomed to attending networking lunches, handing out 20 business cards and making connections that lead to work. Think about that for a moment. First you must dress up, travel to the event, find out where the bathroom is, etc. With social media you can stay in your jammies and let 4000 people know what you’re up to in less than five minutes.

What If?

Writers worry about the future of books and if they can earn enough to avoid begging in Times Square. You worry about getting your books published and then worry about marketing them. If your book doesn’t sell, will that mean your career is kaput?

Take positive actions every day.

Agents, editors, publishers and writers are much more accessible on social media than email or phone. Successful people to pitch may be inundated with emails but tend to respond to retweeting their news and sharing their Facebook posts. Like the ASJA Forum, LinkedIn groups bring people together and lead to work connections.

Here’s how it works

You write an article and post it to Facebook. Your friends like it. One of your friend’s friends sees it, reads it and shoots you a private message, “Hey, I know an editor looking for someone with your expertise.”

Schmooze

Everyone loves compliments and in social media “speak” that means share, repost, Google+ it and blog about it. People remember Facebook “friends” or “fans” who wished them a happy birthday, as do tweeters when you RT. Use Twitter hashtags to research quickly for an article you’re writing about #zooanimals or #sciencenews. Every day there are trending topics to join on your Twitterverse. Google+ is a plus and YouTube channel, even better. Did you know that YouTube has become the second largest search engine on the web? (Google of course is still the big kahuna.)

If you have 10 followers and somebody retweets the link to your book for their 2,000 followers you don’t need to know math to see the value in that. If you walked into Philip Roth’s book reading of 100 people and yelled, “I’m here!” it would be annoying and you would seem very weird. But, what if Philip Roth said, “She’s here!” There are so many tips and tricks you can learn quickly to build your online world.