Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Emily Wenstrom on September 19, 2011 at 9:48am

I have a Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile and a blog (which I just started a few weeks ago!). I only use Facebook for personal connections, but the rest of it is all networking and platform.

LinkedIn, because of the format it is, I keep pretty professional (see my profile here). I connect to people I meet through business and networking and, as a writer, I post books that I read and keep my profile up to date. I also use it to collect references.

I show a little more personality with my Twitter account (@emilywenstrom), posting about my interests and tidbits from my personal life and responses to other people's posts when appropriate. I also do a lot of industry-related news, blogs and other resources for writing and my full-time profession.

I use my blog (Creative Juicer) to build a profile as an expert. I chose to focus on creativity for this because it is the common denominator between my writing and my full time job in the creative industry, and is of great personal interest to me.

In general, I think it's best to post frequently, focus on a specific area of interest, and be yourself. Don't think of it as building a silent audience for yourself, but rather like an ongoing meeting place to connect and share. With social media (and especially Twitter), I think the more you just get out there and do it, and observe other people's use of it, the more you get an intuitive feel for how to use it effectively.

 

Permalink Reply by C. L. Kay on September 19, 2011 at 10:56am

I like your blog.  It contains useful information.  I also dig the design, very clean and straight forward. 

My main hang up is always this: I have something funny or genuine or nonwriting-related to post and then I think, "does anyone really care?" I'm having trouble finding that balance between my author self and my personal self.

Permalink Reply by Emily Wenstrom on September 19, 2011 at 12:33pm

Thanks! Yes, post topics can be a tricky thing to figure out. It took me a few stop-and-go attempts before landing on Creative Juicer. And what it came down to, for me, was this: the blogs that I love, the ones where I remember the author’s name and go through the effort of subscribing and commenting on the posts … they’re all very deliberately focused on a specialty and they offer practical information that is of value to me. They have a casual voice that feels natural and shows a little of the writer’s personality, but the topic is focused and professional. One blogger I know recently started posting on her topic a few times during the week, but does a personal post on Sundays now, just to share more about her own life.

 

There are also people who take the more personal journaling approach or who use a blog to post creative writing pieces. I don’t think what your focus matters too much, as long as you care about it enough to post regularly and are proud of what you have to share so you can promote it well.

 

If you start to find you have other things you want to share outside of the focus you choose, you can always start several categories to your blog, or even start a second blog if you want. But I really do think a tight focus is one of the hallmarks of a successful blog. Good luck with it!

Permalink Reply by Fi Phillips on September 24, 2011 at 4:09am

My writing life is split between writing murder mystery plays to be used as fundraisers and the novel I'm working on. I therefore have a blog for each.

 

For my mm business, I have a website, blog (to inform of what's happening with the business, customer events, murder mystery related stories, am dram and theatre related stories), FB page and Twitter feed. The page and twitter feed mainly feature links to the blog but I also use them to further publicise customer events and talk about progress on plays as I write them.

In my role as aspiring novelist, I have a blog and Twitter feed. From my blog I post links to my posts via Network Blogging to my personal FB newsfeed so my friends see it. I also have followers through Network Blogging. Twitter tends to be for links to my blog posts but on occasion I will also discuss short developments in the writing of my novel. I also post links to my blog posts on writing communities like SW. I used my Twitter feed to links with other writers, aspiring or published.