Crazy Social Media - What to do? What to do?

While I’m trying to extend my social media reach and create a platform, Angela Scott a YA author is doing a Ninja slapdown on Twitter, Triberr, Facebook, and karma chains. On her Whimsy & Writing blog yesterday she said, “She was up to her eyeballs with crazy social media.” In extending her reach, she had developed new friendships with writers from all around the world, but with so many friends, she stopped chit-chatting with distant family members and important news had gotten lost in her stream polluted with promotional and random information.

When Angela joined Twitter her Klout score went up. Then she started using Triberr and joined 8 tribes and had 160 tribe mates. Her “Likes” increased. She had 6000 followers on Twitter, and the hits on her blog doubled. But while trying to get her name out there, she lost the interaction with people she cared about. She started hiding posts and cleaning out her stream. She’d had enough. Chop. Chop. Chop. Now, she just wants people to interact with her, not blast her with links and promotional junk 24/7. Quality is far better than quantity.

The question becomes, does all this crazy social media sell books? Yes. Some. With everyone else on FB, Twitter, etc., your efforts can become diluted. "Where are the readers?" Angela asks.

Emlyn Chand, Novel Publicity President, piped in and commented that they were at Goodreads, and that the number one way to interact with readers is to use the site like a reader. She posts updates about what she’s reading and writes reviews, which auto-posts to FB and Twitter and results in a lot of chatting about books. She’s done a series of articles about Goodreads at Novel Publicity Social Media Advice. The posts are on my list to read.

The bottom line here is to be smart and think long term. If you enjoy FB as a way to connect with family and friends, then don’t pollute your stream with spam. I don’t want to lose the connections I have, but I do want my social media efforts to be worthwhile. So my goal is to become a master of Goodreads. Like John Corwin says in his article Become a Master of Goodreads, “While Twitter, Facebook, G+ and the other social networks offer you a way to reach the masses (some of whom have questionable literary interests), Goodreads has already filtered out the weeds and offers you some of the most voracious readers on the planet.”

Today, make new friends who love to read and love to run (or walk). Just think of the fantastic conversations you can have along the way toward improving your health and fitness.

Happy writing and running, Kathy