What about it? Well continuing on my blog posts about what makes a good blog, I just wanted to write a quick post about the importance of social media and how good it’s been for me and my writing, as well as to tell you what I’ve been considering in relation to it.
I guess technically blogging and blogs are a form of social media, but in this post I want to focus on how I’ve found that other forms of social media can support it.
Personally, I wouldn’t be without social media. It’s transformed the way I write. Although I don’t use a whole load of different social media sites (I only really use this WordPress blog, Twitter and Facebook), through it I’ve been able to connect with many other writers around the world.
Social media as we know it is relatively new. Ten years ago, say, there weren’t all these blogs around. There was no Twitter and Facebook had only just started. So when I was first experimenting with writing longer stories, there wasn’t half as much support available to me from other writers as there is now.
My husband was the person who suggested to me that I start a blog to promote my writing and then do a search on the internet for other writers’ blogs to connect with. I’ve said what I’m about to say before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again: I started a blog and then I did my searching and I got nowhere.
I did a Google search on other writers’ blogs and came up with very little. I was discouraged – how could I possibly connect online with other authors if I couldn’t find anything on the net? Then my sister suggested I try Twitter. I joined it a couple of years ago and I’ve never looked back.
Joining Twitter is one of the best things I’ve ever done; through it I’ve been able to meet a number of other writers face to face, as well as connect with other writers all over the world. My blog is starting to take off – I currently have 181 followers – and it’s enabled me to promote my writing a lot more easily. I use my WordPress blog in conjunction with Twitter and now and then with Facebook and it’s really helped.
However, having said all that, I have had some comments that I only have Facebook and Twitter share buttons on my blog. The thing is they’re the only social media sites that I’ve signed up to. Now I’ll be honest here – as much as I want to promote my blog and for it to be as visible as possible – I don’t want to have to sign up to a load more social media sites, such as Google+ (which keeps trying to sign me up anyway!!), Pinterest, Instagram et al.
The reason is that I already struggle to keep up with the demands of writing, working, housework (yes I do some!!), looking after our dog, church and everything that goes with that, socialising, reading, reading and commenting on others’ blogs, Twitter and Facebook, to name but a few. And so I just don’t want to burden myself with yet another thing on the list that I should be doing, when I can barely keep up with what I’m already doing.
So my conundrum is this: how do I or can I promote my blog via other social media sites without officially joining them? Now to you that might sound like a daft question. Maybe it is, maybe it’s obvious that it’s not possible. All I had in mind was that people who visit my blog might be able to click on one of the share buttons – if I added more – and share my work if they were on those sites themselves. A bit like, say, me sharing an article I’ve read online on Facebook.
And that’s my parting question for you: is it possible to be more visible on social media as a writer WITHOUT signing up for dozens of sites that I might not have the time to use anyway?
As always, your comments are very welcome. 🙂
Elaine Jeremiah 
I joined google+ and starting using the WordPress share button for that, and I have to say, since I did that it has increased traffic to my blog. I don’t know if it’s possible to share with social media sites without joining them – I don’t think so? I’m on Pinterest but not very often, I must say. I use twitter the most and have found it the most helpful, and I’m also on Facebook.
It is impossible for most people to be a big presence on all social media sites, so I was advised by some fellow writers to pick a couple and be very visible on them – hence Twitter (my fave) and FB. As I said, posting to google+ seems to be working – I think it helps with that whole ‘search engine optimisation’ thing.
That was a bit of a ramble, sorry! Hope it’s helpful. 🙂
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Hi Karen. Thanks for that, yes it is helpful. I think you’re definitely right that it is impossible to be very visible on lots of sites. What you said about Google+ is interesting. Maybe I’ll look into it. Have a lovely evening. 🙂
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If you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your blog, then they’ll get your posts. I recently joined Pinterest. That was one site I was not going to join, but I went there last week out of curiosity and enjoyed looking at the photos. I love photography and have a photo gallery on my website. As far as Twitter and Facebook, I really don’t do much on there except have my blog posts routed there. When I signed up with Twitter I was on there reading tweets and following people quite a bit. I haven’t done anything in a few months though. Every now and then I check it out. I’m on Goodreads and Wattpad too. I find Wattpad to be primarily a site for YA authors. That’s my impression. I’ve read YA, but I don’t write it..yet. Maybe some day. I don’t do much on Goodreads anymore. I know that I should probably at least try to do more, but it’s just not easy to do a lot of social media. I really don’t want to, either. I’m trying to make an attempt to post on my blog more though.
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Hi Danielle. Thanks for your comment, it’s interesting to hear your thoughts on this. I will look into linking my Facebook and Twitter accounts to my blog – that sounds like a really good idea. When I’ve found out how to do it that is…!
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Good question, but you could always join them solely to connect your blog to it. I’m rarely on Google+, LinkedIn, and a few others that connect to my blog. I might go there once a week to see if I have any messages or look for things to interact with. Pinterest is one where I made an account and I never went back because you can ‘pin’ things from outside of the site. All Amazon products have a ‘Pinterest’ button along with FB, Twitter, and e-mail (why?).
As far as the blog buttons, I think it’s worth having all of them on because they aren’t about what you’re connected to. The buttons that are at the button of a post are what visitors can use to spread a post that they like. So you can have one there for ‘Stumbleupon’ or ‘Reddit’ without being a member on there.
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Thanks Charles, that’s really helpful. I will definitely sign up for a couple more sites to begin with. It’s interesting what you say about the blog buttons – I thought they were for visitors to share a post that they liked. I’ll keep you posted as to how I get on. 🙂
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You’re welcome and good luck.
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Thank you! 🙂
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As others have said, there are a few places that you can connect your blog to so as posts show up without you having to go onto them. I have my blog connected to Tumblr, Goodreads and even my Amazon account 😀
Social media is useful but can be exhausting with so much around, so it’s good that you concentrate on only a few that would be of the most use 🙂
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Yes I’ve connected my blog to Facebook and Twitter now – will connect to some more sites too I think. Thanks for your thoughts – it’s great to have different people’s opinions. 🙂
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With social media increasingly pervading our everyday lives, it’s hardly surprising that couples are going to great lengths to make sure it doesn’t ruin their relationships.
A particularly popular new trend is the ‘social media prenup’ – a contract stipulating that couples cannot share incriminating photos or posts about one another, at the risk of having to fork out thousands of dollars.
Social media is a phrase being tossed around a lot these days, but it can sometimes be difficult to answer the question of what is social media
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I hadn’t heard of the ‘social media prenup’. That sounds a bit drastic, but maybe it’s necessary nowadays!! And I agree with you about defining social media – to me Facebook and my WordPress blog are two very different things.
Thanks for your comment. 🙂
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I feel the same as you! Although, I am pretty sure I belong to Google plus but I couldn’t tell you what it does. I am also pretty sure I don’t know what half the buttons on my WordPress blog does either lol. I’m learning :))
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I’m the same as you when it comes to technology. I’m learning too – gradually! It’s certainly a slow process for me. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
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