Groups / SheWrites/Twitter Connect / Tip Thursday: Why You...
Last week I thought Thursdays would be a good day for me to post discussions about Twitter Tips, but my, how fast things change! I decided, it's just gonna be Tip Thursday which is really just advice. :) As I have come to meet you guys, I see that we are all in the social ocean, and not just Twitter. Facebook, Goodreads, SheWrites, Tumblr, you name it, we're in it. But the one media that has reached me the most has been your blogs. Now...I love Twitter, I truly do, but I think following blogs is an essential part of growth for writers. I have spent the last couple weeks looking through all of your blogs and I am blown away by the unbelievable content. Reading blogs inspires. We don't feel alone. We get to know each other better. Blogs are so much more of an eye into the person writing them than a 140 character tweet. And I am so glad that I started this group. I have found people with whom I sincerely connect. So my question to you today is this: Are you making the most out of this group? Have you read other's blogs? If not, why? I often hear the excuse, "I don't follow that blog because we write different genres." Many of you write on completely different topics than I do, and guess what? It doesn't matter. There is still inspiration and wisdom, not to mention a few laughs and seriously helpful content, to be taken from these bloggers. So, go. Now. Get to know your fellow bloggers. The people in this group are amazing.
Hey Virginia! Thanks so much for responding. Nice to know I'm not talking to a great void :) I love the online writing community because my local writing community is sparse and I think it's important to surround ourselves with people sharing the same experience.
So many people are ON a social network but they don't actually use it to connect.The tough thing about connecting is actually doing it. Just like this conversation. It takes a few minutes of time, but now I know your face and I know your name and I'm more likely to to stop over at your site and say Hi. You know?
I'm all about writers supporting each other :)
Thanks so much for commenting!
Charissa ~ thanks for taking the time to look through all our blogs. You are quite right about blogs being the most valuable boat on the 'social ocean' and I've been remiss in not checking out more of the group members' blogs. What I've done so far - as I suspect several others have too - is connect with a handful on Twitter and Facebook. I find that links from those sites increase when I have useful new content on my blog, but I get more value from the return visits from people I've connected with in groups like this. My Google Reader feed list is getting longer and splitting into blog categories - industry advice, memoir tips, and so on - as a way of managing the volume of new blogs I'm finding.
Your point about finding inspiration and wisdom from people writing in different genres is spot on. It's a great way to find content that you can then riff off or add to for a new blog post of your own, and it's entirely possible that something said in the context of one genre can suddenly turn into a lightbulb moment for you in your own. I'm pretty sure some of the world's greatest scientific and artistic advances have been made this way.
Thanks for reading this far, and have a great weekend ~ Virginia