Social Media Review 2014

Blogger. Facebook. Goodreads. Google+. Twitter. Social media platforms that take time away from our writing…but for a good cause. Multiple good causes, in fact. And definitely worth a 2-hour investment each week.

If I hadn't started this blog way back in the fall of 2009, I wouldn't have discovered how many of us are posting regular updates on our writing endeavors. I wouldn't have made the friendships that resulted in Write1Sub1, going strong for four years now. I wouldn't have learned about Duotrope (no longer free), Ralan's Webstravaganza (free), or The Submission Grinder (also free), which have led to paying homes for 97 of my short stories, not to mention a book deal. I hope that by sharing about my published stories, I've raised awareness regarding how many great publications are out there waiting for your work.

I probably spend an hour and a half blogging each week. Worth it? Yes indeed. Each of my posts averages 150-200 unique hits, and they're the readers I'm looking for. As far as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter go, I use them for advertising, plain and simple. I've gotten better at scheduling tweets ahead of time with Tweetdeck and retweeting (social media etiquette dictates a 10 to 1 ratio between retweets and your own tweets), but I haven't figured out Google+ yet. Even with close to a thousand followers over there, I'm not sure how many of them see what I post. Regardless, a daily investment of 5-10 minutes is enough to keep my Facebook/Google+/Twitter presence alive.

Oops, almost forgot Goodreads. Yeah, that one... Not sure yet how to use it effectively.

What do you think? Ready to school me on social media etiquette? Have you managed to hire enough bots/clones to take care of the social media time suck for you? If a massive EMP wiped out the interwebs tomorrow, I wouldn't miss Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. But I would definitely miss this blog. Because y'all rock.

As always, thanks for reading.
All Content © 2009 - 2023 Milo James Fowler