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Social Media Automation – Why I Don’t Use It

It probably would make life much easier if I posted to one account and it automatically posted to all of my other social media accounts. There is a way this can be done by enabling social media automation and I am sure the busier I get the more I would be willing. But for right now there are some key reasons I am just not attracted to this strategy.

They Are Different Platforms

I’m probably the only person in the world who does not want to link her social media accounts (including this blog). Those of you who follow me on IG, FB, and Twitter have probably already noticed that I use them as separate entities. I’m not into linking them at this moment. That would be slightly annoying to me actually. This is because for me, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram may be the top 3 Social Media sites active right now, but they are three totally different platforms. This means they require similar but slightly different navigation techniques. Let’s start with Instagram.

Instagram

Instagram is all about the image. This, in my opinion, gives it advantages over Facebook and Twitter in the promotional area when it comes to pictures. When you scroll through Instagram, each picture is shown one by one according to your followers most recent uploads. As you scroll through, you cannot help but see them even if you skip through the ones that are not interesting to you. This means there is less distraction here than on the other platforms. Instagram is a go-getter for attention because there is not enough space to browse through anything else outside of that timeline. People can also upload videos, another major attention keeping strategy. While Instagram allows room for wording and descriptions of the pictures, the most important thing is the photo itself. Bold and bright colors that capture and keep people’s attention is a must for IG which makes Book Cover designs and promotional flyers very attractive for authors and they garner lots of attention. Quotes and Meme’s have also become a favorite. Authors can upload pictures of books they are reading, screenshot Amazon reviews, or post quotes from the authors they love. Lots of wording in the form of an Image is not something I would want to upload to IG. Instead, I would much rather use images with wording that stand out. Far as IG is concerned, the most important thing to remember for me is the strategic use of the image.

Twitter

Twitter’s restriction on word count is a plus for me. In fact, it is what attracted me to this platform in the first place. It is a fun way to post constant updates and does not take up a lot of time. Twitter is the hub for short promotional shout outs and gives me the opportunity to be creative with words. People’s attention spans are short so its not necessary to be long winded. Instead, authors can boost the visibility of posts using the #hashtag, a social discovery mechanism that is actually taken from the tagging strategy of using keywords that others are also using and networking through those words. Twitter gives you the opportunity to upload photos as well, but it is not the platform for pictures in my opinion. When I scroll through my IG timeline I can instantly see the pictures. When I scroll through my Twitter timeline however, I will either see half of the picture or (via automation) I’ll see a link to the picture file that is uploaded. This is not very attractive or important to me in the moment I am browsing the Twitter timeline. I’d much rather read a short quote or click on a link to an article. Articles, this is another major plus with Twitter. It is so much easier to click on news articles and blog posts from Twitter. In fact, Twitter is the biggest hub for sharing news and taking advantage of real time information. Is there a crisis happening? You are sure to get real time updates through your Twitter feed. Re-tweets also make it easy to share and promote the work of others.

Facebook

Facebook is the place to be for a combination of all of these things: pictures, family, friends, quotes, news articles, etc. Facebook also does not have a word count limit which gives posts the opportunity to have a longer shelf life, meaning more people are likely to see your post last week on your Facebook profile than your Twitter timeline. Twitter is “What’s Happening Now?” and Facebook is just “What’s Happening?” For authors, Facebook is the place for storytelling, poetry, etc. Because you can write longer posts, you can really go in on showcasing your writing skills because FB is really great when it comes to longer conversations (You can give everyone a taste of your skills 🙂 ). When you publish a popular post (lots of likes, commentary, views) it will stay at the top of the timeline more which will give it lots of attention. In addition, old posts that have new comments will make their way back to the top which means new people will get to see it. Facebook’s major negative is that it is too crowded, or at least to me. There is a lot going on. People are chatting, playing games, watching videos, looking at pictures, and even listening to music through Facebook. Facebook is a large platform by which to expand a network and garner attention for a product but it can also be a show off. Because its such a large platform, people are sometimes less genuine than they should be. Everyone wants to prove that their lives are the best thing since sliced bread even if its not really this way in reality. People also tend to confide in Facebook more than they should, venting thoughts, actions, and family issues that should never be put on display for the world to see. For this reason, I find myself neglecting Facebook a lot unless I really have something important to share. However, I will not completely neglect it as a social media marketing strategy because together, with the use of Twitter, and Instagram, it can create one strong marketing dynamic if used correctly. Facebook is also great for connecting with family and friends whereas Twitter and Instagram opens the door for networking more with professionals and strangers. You are more likely to connect with a family member or someone you know by way of Facebook than the other platforms.

Social Media Automation combines these accounts into one, making everything you post on one automatically post to the others and this is cool (for well established businesses it may just be very cool) but right now its just not for me. It may save me time, but it doesn’t give the impression that a real person is behind the computer if every post is automatically generated. It can also get boring at times (at least to me). Right now I would like to continue to use my social media platforms separately. Why? Because they are separate platforms.

Be Good To Yourself

“Being good to myself allows me to be good to others. I can’t neglect myself and expect to be of service to anyone.”

I saw this quote on twitter a couple weeks ago and its sooo true. Always remember to be good to yourself so you can be a light to others. Sometimes you just have to be a little bit selfish and it’s nothing to feel guilty about. A little neglect ain’t never hurt nobody lol. If you neglect yourself however, you can never be there to help others. How you care for your own needs and tend to the perpetual refreshening of your own mind will determine if you have what it takes to spark a revolution in others. In the words of Maya Angelou, “be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt”. How can you love me if you don’t love yourself first? Growth is the key and love is always the drive.

Writing 101: Assignment #7 – Social Media Inspiration: The Best of Both Worlds

https://twitter.com/BluMarTen/status/605128443475456001

“Whatever”, Tasha spoke under her breath and logged out of her twitter account. It amazed her how exactly those few words had summed up her life. Technology was a trip.

Curtis
“Hello love”

Tasha
Not a good time

Tasha slid the smart phone under the covers as her husband entered the room.

“Hey babe,” he said planting a kiss on her lips. She watched him walk away. Completely compact with everything she’d ever wanted in a man. As he slipped out of his shirt she took the opportunity to admire the dark chocolate, toned physique of her child’s father. Standing 6’1 the man had beauty and brains and had swept her off her feet ten years ago and everything else had been storybook. In less than a year they were married, Carson was born six months after that and their combined salary afforded them the luxury of the two story house sitting comfortably between two large Oak Trees in Elmhurst Illinois. Tasha hated those trees. They had somehow become the mocking occasion of her perfect life. Attorney, wife, mother, and home owner and yet here she was, stuck between two men; both just as large and overwhelming as those trees. She’d have to remember to have at least one of them cut down. Their existence, how they mocked her very life, was too much to take.

“What time you getting off tonight?” yelled Anthony from the shower.

“Nine, this case is really kicking my butt.”

There it was. Another lie. It was her fourth lie this month. She knew because she counted. It was difficult at first, but whenever she thought about rolling around on the floor with her boss it became much much easier.

Curtis was nothing like Anthony and that reality was perhaps one of her greatest fears. More so than the betrayal, the lies, even more so than the sex was that these men couldn’t be any more different. It was that, their differences, that Tasha feared even more so than getting caught. She smiled wickedly. Why did the thought excite her so? She’d built trust with Anthony and now she capitalized on that trust. Taking advantage of their years she played the men like strings. Pulling and tugging on their position in her life and manipulating the occasion.

Tasha met Curtis when she was just an intern at Curtis & Law and he was well aware that she was married. Tasha preferred it this way and often beamed with satisfaction. If ever there was an occasion to sleep around she’d found it. If ever there was a secret to deceit, she’d cracked the code. Her life with Anthony was secure and she made it clear she would never divorce him. Curtis was OK with that and vowed that their time together was nothing more than a thing.

Curtis
Tash, you there?

Tasha scrambled to mute the text alert before it became noticeable. One downfall to cheating was extreme paranoia. Tasha was sure the muffled sound could be heard through the sound of the Shower and peeking down at the screen she rolled her eyes. This was starting to get old real fast. He knew he had no right to call her that. Only Anthony called her “Tash”. But Curtis had professed his love last night and somehow thought it gave him free reign to be the first man in her life. She thought she’d made it very clear that would never happen. “Maybe I should just call off”, thought Tasha. The dread of the workplace had become intense. Any occasion to which she had to see his face in public sent her cascading through mental turmoil and she felt she would explode.

“In our universe a star explodes and dies every single second..”

“Hmm,” thought Tasha, “Is this what death feels like?”

Anthony was her everything. Her love and her heart broke at the thought of what this would do to him if he ever found out and yet, the thought was quickly erased by another lie.

“Please, I’m tripping. Men do this all the time”, she told herself to soothe the bruise of adultery seeping from her pores.

Anthony walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist and another one he used to dry his hair. “Goodness, that’s a beautiful man.” Tasha said to herself.

Curtis
Meet me at the spot, 1 hour

Startled, Tasha scrambled to answer her text.

“Tell Curtis you’ll be late this morning”, smiled Anthony, seductively approaching his wife.

Tasha smiled a wicked smile. Poor Ant, he would never know. It amazed her how color had such an impact on the way people saw the world. Anthony would never suspect a culprit in the proper, brown haired, blue eyed Caucasian that is his wife’s boss.

Tasha
I need a few hours. (wink)

Curtis

OK love.

Who needed worlds? Tasha had both.

Social Media: Balancing Off / Online Book Promo.

Close up of a social media results report with pen and calculator

Social Media is a different world from offline. As such, I think interaction on and offline must apply to book promotion and be fitting for each. I’m learning, and trying to better implement, a well-balanced combination of both off and online tools because each is so different, yet similar too. Now the following are just my personal thoughts and opinions and are by no means that of an expert. These thoughts are not supported by any advanced data or statistic aside from my own experience; they are just my thoughts because, well, I was thinking about some stuff.

Me and Offline supporters from Canada and Philadelphia at The Pearls Before Swine release, The Double Tree Hilton Hotel, Chicago IL 2014

In my opinion, offline offers opportunities not always present online and online offer its benefits as well that are not always present offline. There are things I would do online as to appeal to this community that may not be required offline. Or that may not attract as much attention to offline supporters. For instance, I think offline activities are great to share with your online friends in the form of pictures. It’s always exciting to see photos of book signings, public speaking engagements, and varying social engagements with offline supporters. I think these, pictures, are far more engaging to your online supporters than ads and constant promos concerning updates of what is done offline because it gets boring after a while.

Online communities want to engage online whereas offline communities who are not as into “internet-ting” want to engage offline. Offline supporters and readers want to hear your voice and see your face. They can care less about how many Facebook Likes you have. As such, I believe balance of both on and offline activity is good but that there also need to be a limit to merging the two. Its OK for them to be separate. I believe, for instance, that a social media presence should rightly fit the online community.

I know this looks good, but Social Media is very deceiving. While numbers such as is in this photo is exciting it can mean absolutely nothing or it can mean everything. You will probably never know for sure. This is where offline activities come into play. Offline book promotion handles much of the foot work. It is the physical act of pushing the book.

Social Media on the other hand, in my opinion, is not necessarily about selling books as much as it is about building; though through building come sales, social media is best utilized to help generate buzz about a book without blatantly asking people to buy it. Its purpose is to serve as a networking platform that helps connect writers to other writers, readers to writers, digital marketers and professional experts, editors, book groups and workshops, reviewers, beta readers, and gives authors room to connect with readers who enjoy the genre in which the writer writes by way of a platform. What I hope to accomplish as an author in general but especially online, is to show my support for the books content itself. I aim to raise awareness concerning the social or political message behind the writing. Why is this topic relevant today? How does it help people to grow? What value does my subject hold and can it start conversations that lead to greater understanding? By striving to answer these questions, it will help garner offline attention and lead to radio interviews and social engagements. In short, I try to forget for a moment literally selling the book, and to instead focus on why my book is different from the next and thus why it is even worth your time in the first place.

Social media is about connections and should be used to reach the people you can’t reach offline (because they will become offline supporters). It should be, not merely an advertisement of the book, but a presentation of the books message and an introduction of the author on a personal level. By focusing on the content of the book and getting to know the author, I believe readers become interested in the book itself because of their passion for the topic and their trust of the author. In this way, I think we Indies have the potential to reach lots of readers and to be more productive in our service to the online literary community.

What’s Your Poison?

OK people, just for fun, which are you in this techno world?

a). Facebook Junkie
b). Twitter Bug
c). InstaCraZe
d). Wallflower

Blogging is not included because we are all obviously addicted to blogging. OK well, some of us. I’ll choose B for 200 Alex. Before I got involved with any social media, including blogging, I was on twitter. What attracted me is the limitation. I love having to say just a few words to get the point across, re-tweeting articles and quotes. Facebook is OK but I can really do without it. To me it’s kind of noisy and crowded whereas Twitter is a lot more laid back. Then again that could be due to the awesome people who follow me. I do think without cell phones people wouldn’t be so addicted to social media but that’s another post.

Enough about me, which are you? Don’t forget to follow this Twitter Bug by the way @ahouseofpoetry. It’s the best way to keep up with me, since I do like to fly and all. (No, seriously, I have wings)

3 Reasons I am Not a Professional Author

I strive to implement levels of professionalism in everything that I do whether it includes monetary compensation or not. In which case people who know me are already familiar with my level of organization and from that end, professionalism. However, I do not consider myself a professional author in the traditional sense of the word. Here’s why:

I’ve heard my share of advice from author blogs, books, tweets, Facebook, Twitter, articles, the list goes on and on (and on). I’ve taken valuable advice under my wing and even incorporated some into my day to day schedule and strategic writing techniques since it is, after all, wise to consider the advice of others. But the truth is that I will never be a professional author because my writing process is not the same as what is perpetuated in the mainstream.

The professional says:

Use the same business name across all accounts. This is the easiest way to brand yourself and to get people used to associating you with that name.

Makes sense, but I totally transgressed this rule! My blog, author website, and social media sites, for the most part, all have different names which I heard is bad. To balance this, I have taken to using one picture to represent every account. This photo you see associated with this blog will probably never change because it’s attached to all of my accounts: My personal Facebook Page, Twitter, Blog, IG, You Tube, LinkedIn, etc. I believe images are a strong form of communication and that many people have already become used to seeing this picture and associating it with Yecheilyah Ysrayl. I have also taken to using the same email address to represent these accounts across the board (with a few exceptions).

The professional says:

Plan out your book before you write it. Create an outline for your new masterpiece.

Umm, I think I’ll just go ahead and skip this step. I do not write outlines before each book. I just write and organize as I go along. Once I start to build on a story idea and start to write and develop some kind of form to the story, then I know what it is I need to research or the books I need to read for better clarity of this particular genre. It only makes sense to me that you write something down first and get an idea of how the story will develop, only then will you be able to clearly see what kind of information you will need for this story and can thus move on from there. For instance, its not until I start writing the story that I am able to create a Family Tree of my characters.

I know, I just said something else different didn’t I? Yes, a family tree. I found it easiest to organize my characters (after I’ve written about them) using a Family Tree. I’ll speak more about this in a separate post, but after I’ve written the characters into the story to some extent, I sit back and think about how to better develop them as real people. Not just by way of physical attributes (ethnicity, hair, eyes, relationships, persona, etc.), but also lineage. Where did this person come from? I do this by using a Family Tree, which can be created easily using Microsoft Word. The reason I choose this method is because the one rotating around blogs and professional websites is boring to me. (You know, that long list of questions you ask yourself about the people in your story: Hair:__________ Eyes:_________ Nose Shape________ …just kill me now). Not to mention I’m a visual learner. I have to see it to better understand it and laying out the family in this way helps me to accomplish this. Far as outlines go for the entire story, the first draft is the outline.

The professional says:

Stick to one specific genre.

I write in whatever genre the story that just popped into my head falls in. I heard this is a no no. According to the rules, in order to brand yourself it’s important to stay within a certain genre because it’s easy to become known for it. But in my opinion, brains don’t work like that. Well, at least mine doesn’t. What am I gonna say, “Sorry totally awesome story idea, I can’t use you right now because your Sci-Fi and I only write Romance”. That’s like telling me to write one kind of poem. Yea, that’s probably never going to happen. I mean sure, every idea is not meant to be built on. Some of them should just stay ideas until it is time for that idea to be brought forward. However, because the creative mind is not one dimensional, I find it hard to believe that I can force my thoughts to only create stories that appeal to one category.

The truth is that I will probably never do exactly as the professionals say do. If the world says this is how it is to be done, you can rest assured that chances are Yecheilyah’s over here doing something completely different…and maybe even a little weird. 🙂

#Ronovan Writes Weekly #BeWoW Blogshare – Be Good To Yourself

Be good to yourself.

It’s easier said than done, but extremely important to remember. Humility does not ask that we think less of ourselves, just that we think of ourselves less. Many of us spend our days constantly looking out for others and it is a great work. We encourage, inspire, share, and overall put others above ourselves. But we have to remember to give this same kind of love to our own selves too. People who are good to themselves are strong enough to be good to others. On the other hand, there’s a saying that says to beware when a naked person offers you a shirt. What kindness can I offer you if I don’t first have the same kindness for myself? We have to learn to humbly accept compliments, rest when we need to, and treat ourselves every now and again. It’s not asking too much to implement some kind of exercise routine for your physical body, reading for your mind and prayer and reflection for your spirit. Our worlds can be so chaotic at times that we may even need to pull away for a while to tend to ourselves. This is not just a suggestion, but we need this. If you can’t function you can’t perform. We need to take care of ourselves so that we can continue to be of service to others. So take some time today and be wonderful to yourself this Wednesday.

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