What’s on the iPod: Kinda Fuzzy by Eels
Yesterday was a bit slower for me. I was still feeling the effects of what I now suspect was a virus. I was able to get a little marketing and a little writing done, but the majority of the day was devoted to taking it slow and getting back to healthy.
I had time to hit my favorite blogs. Over on All Indie Writers, Jenn Mattern has a 10 Twitter Tips for Authors post up that had me saying “Oh hell yes!” to many of the points. Give them a read — you’ll probably recognize much of the behavior she talks about.
As I read through the list, I realized much of her advice could be applied to nearly anyone who uses social media. As writers trying to attract clients, we have to be cognizant of how our communication approaches are coming across. While you may think anything goes on Twitter (how could you screw up in just 140 characters?), Jenn shows us even Twitter has boundaries.
That got me thinking about how we use social media incorrectly. Here are some of the sins I’ve witnessed:
Never retweeting or interacting. I have this simple process I use to decide if I’ll follow someone on Twitter: I look at their last ten tweets. If they’re all one-sided, I don’t follow. This isn’t someone inclined to interact — it’s someone looking to talk without hearing.
Not one link to anyone else’s blog. Big mistake to think readers don’t notice when a blogger won’t share the love, but I’ve seen plenty of this sin being committed. It costs you nothing to build a rapport with your writing friends and your blogging community. While this is a pretty lame practice, worse is
Not linking to the source of your idea. This post has a link to Jenn’s post, which spawned this idea. That’s what’s fair. It’s also courteous and right to let others know where your ideas come from. If you don’t, it sends the message that you think you know it all, or worse, that you’re covering up some lack of knowledge or expertise. None of us have all the answers. If you pretend you do, you’ll lose the respect of your followers.
Filling blog comments with self-promotion. You know who you are, and you think you’re not obvious. News flash — everyone sees it when you talk about all you’ve done and brag as you attempt to look like you’re continuing the conversation. Any post with one or more links or with at least three instances where you talk about your accomplishments is self-promotion. And you’re blatantly obvious.
Not responding to blog comments. Ever. A long while ago I stopped following a “top blogger” because there was no response at all, not even to a direct question. I wasn’t surprised to learn another writer had stopped following that same blogger. Years later, that top blogger no longer exists. That’s proof you can’t ignore your community. If you build it and they come, you have to be a good host/hostess.
Promoting on LinkedIn groups. Want to get yourself banned quickly? Post promotions on the Discussions page of your forums. Nothing devalues a forum like slews of promotions and no interaction or conversation that isn’t “Look at me!” variety. I know on the group I moderate, that’s grounds for getting booted. Put yourself in the place of the readers: would you want to sift through a ton of promotion to find advice or conversation? Of course not. Act accordingly.
Faking it until… I’m a proponent of faking confidence until you make it. What I don’t advocate is for writers to fake a better resume than they have. Don’t embellish your online portfolio and don’t tweet over and over your overly optimistic background or successes. I’ve never known a client to reward a writer for being creative with the truth.
What social media sins do you see writers committing?
What do you think is a good ratio of promotion to interaction?
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