Thursday, August 8, 2019

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media

Hey folks!

I've been notably absent from SFF Seven the past couple months, at first informally, and then an official hiatus in July when I had ALL THE THINGS happening, including launching some new projects, working a writer's workshop and being Toastmaster for ArmadilloCon.  And that all was great-- I even saw Vivian at ArmadilloCon.  And so all you fine SFFSeven fans don't feel like I abandoned you for nothing, here's the text of my Toastmaster Speech.  I think it went pretty well, many people spoke highly of my speech afterwards, so that's all very nice.

Anyway, don't know if things are Back To Normal, but I'm at least trying to be back to normal here.

So what's new here?  We're talking Social Media?

Here's my personal opinion on the value of social media for writers:

Facebook: Near pointless.
Twitter: The watercooler for people who don't ever meet in person.
Instagram: Still trying to suss it out.

Really, I think it's a valuable tool, not for promotion per se, but connection.  At least, Twitter is for me.  I don't think it's very useful for getting new readers, but it's a good way to broadcast things to the readers you have, like, Hey, New Book Coming.  But you don't need to constantly broadcast Buy My Book, because of the people who follow you, either they are already reading your work, or they're probably already not going to.

But forming connections with people over Twitter has proven valuable.  Not necessarily in terms of career or monetary value, but given me a way to feel part of a larger community when most of my day to day involves being at home, not talking to anyone who isn't immediate family.  So I quite like it, even if some days it stresses me out.

So drop me a line there.  Or here.  Or even on Facebook.  It's all good.  But in the meantime, it's back to work for me.

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