Posting Second-Hand Stuff–Just Because We Can, Doesn’t Mean We Should

Welcome to WANA Wednesday, the day I dedicate to helping you guys rock it hard on social media. All these tips are based off my best-selling book We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. Today we are going to talk about blogging. What do we writers blog about? Can we use some of our unused material? Hmmm, we’ll get to that. Can we? Yes. No one will stop us. Should we? Maybe decide for yourself. But first, a parable.

I don’t know about you guys, but I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth…more like a KFC spork. Being a child of the 80s in Texas was not easy. The oil industry and defense industry collapsed. My dad suddenly had no job and my mom had always been a housewife. So what did we do? We learned how to shop second-hand and pay attention on trash day. I carried this into college. Virtually every piece of furniture I owned until I was 30 I’d found at a garage sale, a resale shop, or…okay, I cannot BELIEVE I am telling you guys this…near the Dumpsters on the first of the month.

I tossed papers in college. From midnight to 5 in the morning, I slugged up and down stairs at three MASSIVE apartment complexes…but they were the NICE complexes. I learned that the 1^st of every month and right after holidays was like winning the lottery. People would put stuff out near the Dumpster simply because they didn’t feel like moving it. The complexes’ offices would spend big bucks on fancy Christmas decorations, only to toss them away after the holiday because they didn’t want the hassle of storing them. I made out like a bandit. The key was location. Ghetto apartments might get you a free couch…along with a free infestation of roaches (as a fellow student friend of mine learned the hard way). But the fancy apartments? Silk flower arrangements, hardwood furniture, paintings, bookshelves. My apartment looked NICE…all furnished for $3.42. 😀 

Any of my fellow Dumpster-Divers will tell you that there is an art to shopping second-hand. First, target the Goodwill stores and resale stores in the nice neighborhoods to get the best stuff. Why? Because that is where the wealthiest people donate things they don’t want or can’t use. Translation? GOODIES! 

So what is the point of this, and what does this have to do with social media? A lot.

It has to do with value. Specifically the value of our content.

Last week I told you guys about being tossed into the fray on a Twitter chat (hash tag problem since fixed, btw). I was the “keynote” to be Q & Aed, but none of my hash tags were appearing, and this opened the door for others to trample me like a turtle in a stampede. As I was panicking and trying to figure out why none of my posts were showing, all kinds of people were chiming in to give “advice” to writers.

The moderator asked–Q: Kristen, what do you advise writers to blog about?

Before I could get out an answer, someone replied A: Writers can use chapters of their unpublished books, character backgrounds and pieces of the manuscript they’d cut, and any other “extras.”

Okay. Fair enough. Here is the problem, at least as I see it. When we post all this “unused stuff” how valuable is it? If it’s Stephenie Meyer’s unused stuff or Stephen King’s unused stuff, then that is like finding a Gucci bag at a resale shop. A treasure! But what about our stuff? I am not here to hurt anyone’s feelings but at this point in time, I am in no danger of a fan stealing my garbage to look for pages of my next book they can sell on eBay. If we didn’t even find this content valuable enough to put in a book, why do we think our blog readers want to read it?

Bear with me for a minute and let’s use some logic.

I assume most of you are like me and you want lots of people following your blog. More than just your mother and friends from your writing group, right? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t even like coming in halfway through a movie, let alone a book. How are we supposed to feel vested in characters we don’t know from a hole in the ground or get hooked on a story that may take months before we can read it in its entirety? Oh, and these characters might not even be in the book and these chapters, in the end, might mean nothing because they were just extra bunny trails that were cut and put on the blog so they could serve some purpose other than taking up space in the Recycle Bin.

Can we use this stuff once in a while? Sure. You can feel free to eat Pumpkin Peeps on Halloween, but I don’t recommend them as a food staple.

The simple hard truth is there are no shortcuts. Marketing is part of the 21st Century Author’s job description. Blogging is the single best way to grow a large following of people who like you and your writing voice. We are going to have to write blogs that connect to a readership. The big brand names can get away with hand-me-downs because they are….the big brand names. People will fight and claw over a Prada handbag donated to Salvation Army. But what about the no-name bag with no label? It could be just as lovely, but it doesn’t have the name. Same with us. We might be a better writer than Stephen King and J.K. Rowling combined. We might be the next big brand, but until then???? Our stuff will be valuable to us, our mothers and our dearest friends who love us even though we are nobodies who one day might be somebodies. But the rest of the world? Nope. We are going to have to do some work, first.

Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, and Tom Clancy can use their “unwanted’ and “extra” material for blogs because fans will scramble to scoop it up. The rest of us can’t really do that. We risk making our followers feel like we’ve re-gifted a Chia Pet.

So what is a writer to blog about? I walk writers through how to blog to build their brand in my book, We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media.  I teach you guys simple ways to blog on topics that are going to connect you to READERS and always keep you bubbling with fresh material. Blogging can be the best part of this job and the most rewarding if we approach it correctly. If blogging feels like a chore to you, then something is dead WRONG, so make sure you pick up a copy of my book.

In the meantime, I would recommend you check out one of my earlier posts, Is it a Good Idea to Post Chapters of Your Novel On-Line to Build a Platform? And breathe. Calm down. Writers, in my experience, tend to make things harder than they really are. Hey, we dig drama. Please trust me. Blogging can be even more rewarding than the actual novel if we approach it properly. How is that? First, blogging lets us talk about subjects we like the most. Secondly, blogging prepares us for the self-discipline we will need to be successful in our long-term writing career. There will come a point that it’s no longer a hobby or a dream and blogging develops those skills necessary to be viewed as a writing professional. Lastly, blogging allows us to see tangible benefits. Blog regularly with great content and you literally can watch your following grow, which is a great boost to the confidence when you are wondering if you even have talent at all. When I began this blog a year and a half ago, I had a maximum of 15 hits a day. But then I watched that 15 become 30 which became 50 which became 65 which became 100 and so on and so forth. That is exactly the kind of soul food many of us need, especially when we don’t have a fat royalty check or a hardcover book to validate our talent.

So go easy on the leftovers. We didn’t like it when Mom tried to pass them off on us too often, so we shouldn’t do that to our readers. And the truth is, most of you reading this know you were born to write. Writing should be FUN. What other job in the world gives you the extra “chore” of doing something you already love?

So, after all of this. What are some of your fears, loves, hates, concerns, etc. about blogging? Or, for those more daring, what was the best/worst experience with a garage sale, a resale shop or a Dumpster dive? I want to hear from you!

Leave a comment and I will put your name in for a drawing, and you can win an autographed copy of my book We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. I’m going to gather all comments until Halloween and then the winner will be announced November 1^st. Trackbacks count as an entry, so you can double your chances to win by leaving a comment and then linking to any of my blogs.

Happy writing!

Until next time…

This Week’s Mash-Up of Awesomeness

Want to know how to use Goodreads to promote your novel? Great blog by Susan Bischoff

12 Dos and Don’ts When Introducing Your Protagonist by Anne R. Allen

Jane Friedman’s Best Tweet’s for Writers  has a list of the best articles, blogs and websites for last week (ending 10/22)

Bob Mayer’s Write It Forward Blog has a treat. The Borg, Jean Luc Picard, and the Future of Publishing Yeah, who knew Bob Mayer spoke Nerdese? He had me at “Borg.”

Social Media– 3 Easy Ways a Writer Can Build a Solid Platform

Social media is huge. No denying it. In fact, all of you reading this blog are participating in the new paradigm of human interaction and communication. Welcome to the future!

As publishing changes, writers too are being forced to evolve or go extinct. It’s nothing personal. Just reality. Arguing with it is about as pointless as arguing with a Category 5 hurricane that is about to make landfall. Writers are deluged with two words, platform and brand until they just plain want to bang their heads against the wall.

What? No, no, no, no, Kristen. You mean we have to market!??? We became writers so someone else would do this crap…..ugh.

I feel ya. Remember, I am a writer first. But hopefully I will give you ways to make building your platform a fun and enriching experience. Remember, attitude counts for a lot.

Social media is one of the best ways an author, even the not-yet-published can build a platform and become a brand. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of instruction how to do it. Thus, most of us bungle on to FaceBook or MySpace and stumble along and rely on dumb luck to do it correctly. Currently, I am in the process of finishing up a book on social media for writers. Why? Because there is a lot of misinformation out there that I believe can 1) frustrate a writer 2) yield little quantifiable results (in the end the small term for that is “book sales”) 3) can do more to harm a writer’s image than good.

How does that happen? Well, sometimes it is that writers gut through social media and rely on a lot of hit and miss. They join the sites their friends or their kids are on. Probably not the most efficient approach. Also, the most popular books teaching social media are teaching tools and techniques that work well in Corporate America, but have questionable value to an author. To make things worse, my experience has taught me that some approaches and applications that work well in traditional business, actually are ineffective and harmful when used in the world of writing/publishing.

I have been teaching social media for almost three years and have been blessed to work with hundreds of people in many different fields. Social media can be overwhelming and the tools and platforms change faster than most of us can keep up. Yet, by applying some fundamental techniques, my resume is filled with many successes. Thus, I hope to pass some of these techniques to you.

Last week on the Warrior Writer blog, we discussed social media and how authors, particularly fiction authors, would be wise to begin thinking of their content as a product. That, I feel will be a HUGE step to authors beginning to connect to readers (which is code for customer :D). Blogging about writing and networking with writers has it’s place, but it is not how an author builds a platform and creates a brand…unless one is writing about writing and for writers.

Today we will discuss some of the best ways a writer can build a platform.

Understand that your SMI (Social Media Influence) Campaign is About the Customer (Reader)

1)      Content for the Customer—This is of course a reiteration of last week’s blog. I often hear “Well, so long as you are having fun and it is a platform that you enjoy.” Um…a friendly reminder. This isn’t about you. Remember, we as writers must serve the reader. If we don’t, readers will gravitate to authors who do. This is true in fiction just as much as non-fiction.  

 Fiction authors provide entertainment and escape. Readers like you for your content, and that isn’t just a finished book (although ultimately it hopefully will be). If you write mysteries set in the 1800s and you blog regularly about that time period and mystery-information-factoids or whatever regularly, you will be in a great position to already possess a following of mystery fans who respect your authority and talent to write on this subject. You will move from an unknown quantity to a known quantity much quicker than if you blog about writing or don’t blog at all.

 2)      Location, Location, Location—Yes, it is important for you to enjoy the social media platform you choose, but a wise author sets his preferences aside and goes where the readership is most likely to congregate. You may looooove Twitter, but if you write Young Adult, it is simply the wrong platform to spend a lot of time with expectations of finding readers. Is it a great place to network with professionals in the publishing industry? YES! But doing your homework and finding where your demographic (readership) is likely to spend a lot of time, will save you a lot of frustration.

 One of the things I have learned over the years is that it is often our own ignorance that makes us dislike a certain platform. If you have a hard time on MySpace or FaceBook, go get a Dummies Guide or ask a friend in the know. Sometimes we just avoid what we don’t understand. That aversion can cost us countless Man-hours building a platform on the wrong site. And if we are building in the wrong place, we are less likely to succeed and more likely to get frustrated and give up.

 Think ice cream stand in Alaska, hot coffee in Tuscon, mountain bikes in Wichita, KS. A tough sell and a very limited customer base. Just because everyone is saying FaceBook is hot and MySpace is passé in no way means you should listen to them. If you have to choose between going with your friends and going with your fans, I advise that you choose the fans if you desire to build a platform.

 3)      Quality Beats Quantity Even When It Comes to Friends—Now, if you are on Twitter, I highly recommend you follow anyone who follows you (unless they look like some kind of SPAM bot or porn bot). There is a great site called Twitter Karma, and it can help you make sure you are following whoever has been kind enough to follow you. You also have the ability to unfollow people with little or no activity, but I highly discourage this for reasons I am not going to discuss here. http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/

 The number of friends one has, whether MySpace, FaceBook or Twitter is really irrelevant when it comes to the world of social media. In social media you aren’t just trying to influence an individual, your goal is to influence that reader’s community as well. Your goal is to identify and then connect with the expert influencers.

Think of high school. There was always that group of girls and guys who seemed to control the opinions of the entire school. Most often they were the cheerleaders and jocks. If you became friends with one of them, then popularity naturally followed suit.

Social media is the same way. You can spend your time one of two ways. Follow so many people that you eventually have influence. Or you identify those in your social network whose opinions hold the greatest sway. A person with 3,000 regular followers cannot accomplish what one person with a handful of expert influencers can.

I recommend www.technorati.com for locating expert influencers in your area of expertise. Technorati keeps track of the most influential bloggers by authority ranking at any given moment. I advise you search in your “subject area.” If you are writing about diets, search for those bloggers influencing that area. If you are writing about space aliens, find the most popular bloggers. Learn from them. Link them in your own blogs about space aliens. Do all you can to integrate these individuals into your network. It will enrich you and serve to help your image as an authority in your area.

 The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is also another invaluable resource for anyone trying to create a brand and generate buzz. http://womma.org/main/

In the end, remember:

1)      Give the Customer (Reader) the Content She Will Most Enjoy

2)      Go Where the Customers Are—Ski shops do far better business in Colorado than they do in Galveston, TX.

3)      Surround yourself with Experts in Your Field—That is just good advice no matter who you are.

And at the end of the day, social media aside… write a darn great book.

Happy writing! Until next time…

By the way! If you loved this blog and just want MORE? My book, “We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media” is now available. Buy one today and take charge of your writing career! My book is designed specifically for writers. I want to change your habits, not your personality. Harness that same creative energy used for writing and use it to build your platform.