Social Media--What's the Point?

Elizabeth Riley Adams (filling in for Kim Malo)

I spend a lot of time online.

Most of this online time is spent doing promo work.  But sometimes it can be hard to tell exactly where the promo is happening because I’m not doing any direct marketing.  I’ll have Twitter set up to automatically tweet once an hour each day and I’ll blog daily (actually, I’m on several group blogs, so I end up with an average of more than one blog post a day), and I’ll update my three Facebook pages with status updates every couple of days.

Through all this?  I never once say, “Hey!  I’ve got a book for sale! Go buy it.”  

So the question I get asked a lot is, “What’s the point?”

And the answer is different, depending on which form of social media we’re talking about:

Personal blog:  The point of having a personal blog is that it functions as a home base for writers online.   Because it’s updated more than a website (usually), it’ll rank higher on Google results than a static webpage.  Personal blogs are a great way to connect with other writers and your readers.  Now nearly every blog hosting service offers the ability to put different pages on your blog.  So you could treat the blog like a web page—have an “about you” page, a press kit page, and a page filled with links of places where your book is available.  In your blog’s sidebar, you can also put a buy link as an easy way for someone visiting your blog to purchase your book. 

Twitter: Ultimately its point is to funnel eyes to your blog and give guests an opportunity to learn more about you, increase awareness about your book or release, and purchase your book.  The best tweet to direct someone to your blog is one with a catchy headline that links to a well-written blog post.

Facebook:  Its point is to provide interaction and networking in a more relaxed format.  This is where you really get to know people—whether the people are journalists who write reviews, book bloggers, other writers, or readers.

Sometimes I see writers doing things on social media that just don’t make sense to me.  They’ll set Twitter to auto-tweet what’s basically a commercial for their book four or five times a day.  They’ll exclusively talk about their book on every blog post—how they wrote the book, the inspiration for the book, etc.  They’ll Facebook a countdown for their book’s release and not interact on Facebook at any other time or write on anyone else’s wall. The number one point of being a part of social media?  It’s to provide meaningful content…which, ultimately, means bringing more awareness of your books.   And subtlety is huge! Because we all know how to unfollow and unfriend and unsubscribe to blogs or people that are non-stop commercials.

Social media can be a huge time suck, so we have to monitor the amount of time we spend doing it. How long it takes depends on how much online presence you’re looking for.  I’ve used Twitter for as little as 10 minutes a day (scheduling a few helpful writing-related links to post), and I’ve used it as much as an hour a day (the current amount of time it takes to find the links that I post and schedule them to run.)  The same goes with the other forms of social media—it needs to be worked in around the other things that you’ve already got on your schedule.

Organizing social media time:

Timers are really helpful to help you know when your allotted time is up.  I also like to try to set a routine for social media.  Facebook is great to update in the mornings.  Twitter peaks in the early morning and late afternoon (US time zones).  Blogging is really best earlier in the day (Eastern time) because a lot of people will check or comment on blogs before they head off to work. 

If you end up subscribing to a lot of blogs (usually the blogs of people who comment and interact with you on your blog), then you can save some time by organizing the blogs in your Google Reader.  You’ll add each blog’s RSS feed to Google Reader, then divide the blogs into folders—you could have a M/W/F folder, or a T/Th folder, or one that you check every day.  This helps you keep track of which blogs you’ve visited over the course of a week and help you maintain your connections to your different online friends.

And, of course, if it’s a choice between writing time and social media time, writing comes first.  Otherwise?  There’s nothing to promote. 

What’s your favorite social medium  and how do you keep track of the time you spend updating it? 

And…thanks so much for letting me guest blog today at Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room!

 

Elizabeth Spann Craig (Riley Adams)
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
http://mysteryloverskitchen.com
Twitter: @elizabethscraig

Comments

[Robert Guthrie]

A timer! How fantastic.

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

And it doesn't have to be a kitchen timer, Robert, although that does add a certain atmosphere to my social media time. :) There are a ton of online timers and you can bookmark one you like to pull up in a second.

Somehow, when I open my browser, I just lose all track of time.

[Noelle Pierce]

This post is so relevant to me right now! I'm an online addict!

I like the idea of the kitchen timer, because when I'm on Twitter, I tend to get sucked into conversations an then I'm waiting on a reply, then replying to that reply, then waiting for another...and then someone new jumps into the conversation and I reply to them, and...well, you see my problem. It also never fails that an Ask Agent conversation starts as I'm ready to sign off for the night (usually 12-1 am my time on the Eastern side of the US, while the agents are on the West coast.)

The only time Facebook becomes a time suck for me is when I play Bejeweled. It starts out innocently enough, when I'm on the phone and want to do something mindless while I have the conversation. But then the phone call ends and a half-hour later I'm still hitting "Play Again" without thinking.

My social networking is usually restricted to the daytime, in between work (I'm a part-time, online professor), and writing is most productive during the night hours when my kids are asleep.

I think the worst of the social networking is the blogs I subscribe to (and I LOVE Google Reader!!) because so many of them are good and it takes me a while to catch up on high-post days, like Tuesday or Friday. I try to allot no more than one hour to read/comment on these and move on. They give me a lot of great ideas for my own posts, though, so I wouldn't trade them in for anything.

Excellent post! I enjoyed reading.

[Margot Kinberg]

Elizabeth - Thanks for these ideas about social media. I've found that my blog occupies most of my online time, but as you say, it also generates quite a lot of attention to me and my writing. Another that I use is Friendfeed. With Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and my blog, I, too am online a lot. I admit I don't use a timer to control the amount of time I spend online. I do limit myself, though. For instance, I don't go online while I'm busy writing my blog post, so I can concentrate. I find myself energized by all of the writers and other folks I've met online that I'm happy for an online presence.

But I agree with you; Tweets that are just commercials for one's books are annoying, and I've heard from book-loving friends that they're also very off-putting. So is a blog that's little more than a running set of commercials for one's books. It's a tricky balance...

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

Noelle--I think if we schedule times of the day to check in with Twitter or check in with Facebook or emails then we really can keep a lid on the amount of time we're online. It's hard, though!

I've *heard* about the addicting powers of Bejeweled, so I've stayed away! I know I'd get sucked in like everyone else. :)

I agree with you about the blog visiting--it's definitely time-consuming, but so interesting! I do divide up my friends' blogs into folders marked by days of the week so I can divide up the blogs that I read. I try to always comment, but sometimes I just can't --but I might tweet their post instead and bring them traffic that way.

Margot--You've made a good point about mono-tasking. And you're so right--if we're writing a blog post, then we should JUST write the blog post...not check emails or Twitter or Facebook. Then we'll be finished writing the post faster and can devote our time to other things and knock *those* things out.

[Alex J Cavanaugh]

That's some really good stuff, Elizabeth. I promise I won't become an annoying commercial.

[Michele Emrath]

These are great, great tips. I especially love the bit about not using social media for a countdown or just and advertisement. It's called "social" for a reason.

I would add one more...if you don't have time, understanding, or energy of ALL social media--just pick a few to really get into and utilize.

I facebooked this article!

Michele
SouthernCityMysteries

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

Alex--Like you would ever do that! :)

Michele--I think that's a great tip, Michele. If someone feels like they don't have the time to use all these different things, it's better to focus on one or two exclusively than to spread yourself too thin (and not ever update the blog, Facebook, etc.)

[Jemi Fraser]

Great tips, Elizabeth. I still haven't joined Facebook - one of these days I guess... :)

I spend most of my time on blogs. I like the interaction with other writers. I use Twitter mostly for the chats.

I don't know ANYTHING about RSS yet - and I didn't know you could auto-Tweet. Thanks for the tips!

[Helen Ginger]

Elizabeth, what program do you use to schedule tweets? I didn't realize you could do that.

Helen

[Radiance_dream]

My clients ask me all the time, "What's the point?" I found your answers spot on. I agree that Twitter can get eyes to your blog. It think it's one of the most important things you can do to increase traffic.

[Heather Webber]

Great tips, Elizabeth. Love the timer idea--I sorely need one.

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

Jemi--I think I need to write a post on RSS because it can REALLY make your life so much easier! And the auto-tweeting does, too. :)

Helen--I use SocialOomph and really enjoy it. It helps me reach folks in other time zones or parts of the world.

Radiance_dream--I think that once I *got* Twitter and how it all worked, it became my favorite social medium. :)

Heather--It can help out when we lose track of time online, for sure.

[Patricia Stoltey]

Hi Elizabeth, I think the best way for me to manage my social media time is to log off Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail when I'm ready to write or work on revisions. Leaving the tabs or windows open and logged on is too much of a temptation to go back, just to see what's going on. That's when I get sucked into the activity and time passes...

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

Patricia--It IS easy to get sucked in, isn't it? And then, if those windows are left open, it'll show on the tabs when we get new messages--it's just too tempting to check them. :)

[Simon L.]

You're, like, the queen of social networking. I can only aspire to your level of discipline, good lady.

And now I must research auto-tweeting. Sounds like it might save me some time if I could concentrate my stupidity all at once and then spread it out over the day via the wonders of technology. Yay! :)

[Elizabeth Spann Craig]

Simon--And the nice thing with auto-tweeting, using an application like SocialOomph, is that our pearls of wisdom get exposure in other time zones. :)

[carl brookins]

Thank you
How nice. I got some fresh ideas.
I agree with you about more or less rigidly controlling time spent in socializing activities.

I'm sometimes amazed that the number of books published keeps rising in the face of time sucks like Twitter and Face Book.