Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Article: social media and success

Publishing and Marketing
#1

I read an article that’s about musicians, but I think it applies to writers, artists, actors, everybody creative trying to get noticed these days.

Executive Summary: Thanks to social media, it’s not about creating great music these days. That by itself isn’t enough anymore. Now you have to be an interesting online personality. You have to be entertaining online in some way. Everybody is expected to be a little celebrity in order to sell music, and this is hurting a lot of people who just want to make music.

That change means less emphasis on music and more emphasis on things unrelated to music. It means that an artist with a vibrant, thriving social media profile and personality and “so-so” music may have a better shot at getting signed or achieving success than the artist with no social media presence and amazing music. It means that I don’t actually know if that person in my Twitter timeline composed that tweet, or if it was written by an intern at a social media management company.

It’s a critical topic for writers, as well. Thoughts on this? I think we’re all guilty of looking to the great successes of the past and trying to do as they did, but none of them had the internet or social media to deal with. Are potentially great writers silenced simply because they don’t have an interesting personality online? Should we all plan on trying to be entertainers as well as authors?

I’ve been aware of this reality for some time, and I have a twitter and Facebook page and I try to be entertaining on it, but my posts and tweets don’t produce any results. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, so I just keep writing, keep trying, hoping something sticks eventually.

#2

While I don’t think this is bad advice, I think it’s very easy to take away the wrong message. For a start, nobody needs to be on Twitter or Facebook to start with. It is, however, definitely an advantage to have a visible Internet presence. Forgive what’s going to sound like marketing-speak here, but here’s my observation. (Note that I’m not a role model here, but I try.)

Be engaged and be authentic.

To unpack those a little: what people are looking for is a connection, maybe even a conversation. What they’re not looking for is someone who uses Twitter, Facebook et. al. as a one-way street. You don’t have to get so personal it seems like you’re opening a vein, but it helps if it seems like you’re talking about your work and talking about real things, asking questions, genuinely interested in what people have to say. Retweet people. Favorite things. Point to things your readers might like.

Also, keep in mind that people following you are already your fans. They want to know what you’re working on, they want to know when you have new stuff out–but they do not want to see ads for stuff that you already have for sale unless there’s a compelling reason to let them know about it. As a general rule, anything that an “SEO” (search engine optimization) firm would tell you to do is something that you should avoid like the plague. If you set up a script to tweet about your three novels every few days because you think somehow somebody’s going to discover your work that way, you’re doing it wrong.

But wait, strange coyote! Isn’t the whole point of this exercise to expand my audience?

Yes. But no. Not exactly. The whole point of the exercise is to build a community around your writing. You’re trying to get the 1,000 True Fans. You’ll probably bring in new fans this way, too–because your whole Web Presence makes a good impression on them.

The big advantage social media provides to writers (and musicians, I suppose) is that it lets us engage fans during relatively long stretches when we don’t have anything new to show them. This is something I’ve always thought that furry writers tend to unconsciously undervalue when they lament how much more visible artists are in the fandom: most artists are not only putting stuff out at a regular pace, they’re sharing a lot of that stuff for free. (Yes, I know all the reasons we can say they’re not directly comparable–but I think there’s still some important things to learn from those who do that. That’s another post, though.)

#3

As a counterpoint:

http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/3-myths-and-2-truths-about-social-media-marketing-for-authors

#4
Social media is not a way to grow your “fame”, it’s a reflection of your fame.

I think that’s very true. Far too many people try to claim building social media audience is how you get book sales, but it often is the other way around.

#5

I don’t think that’s too contradictory to my take. Being on social media isn’t about using it to sell books, it’s about using it to keep fans engaged. People don’t come to John Scalzi’s books – or Maggie Hogarth’s or Kyell Gold’s – through their Twitter feeds and blogs, it’s the other way 'round. But if they do follow them on Twitter or RSS or whatever, that means they like that writer enough to want to stay connected with them.

One side note, about the original piece: when Wolfgang Gartner, the article’s author, talks about artists who “assumed identities, lost their identities, and made up imaginary identities as part of their strategy for success,” he’s writing from the perspective of a guy who has over 300,000 followers on Twitter. I don’t know about you, but I have around 700, and most of them are following me because of my tech blog. I just don’t feel a lot of the pressures that Wolfgang does. (Granted, a lot of us make up imaginary identities.)

#6

People seem to confuse cause an effect a lot. Are people successful musicians or writers because they’re popular on Facebook, or is it the other way around. Perhaps it can work both ways.

Everyone’s looking for the magic formula for success. We don’t want to admit that we all just throw material out there and hope it reaches the right people.

#7

I second a lot of points here.

I’m in it mostly to build a community (or gryfon pride, as it were… :wink: ) make writer friends, and so on. Also, so that if someone googles my author name, I actually appear on the first page of Google. I like to float around the internet, meet people, and learn, and if someone finds me and say OMG I love your books… bonus XD

The people that I see who are using twitter like a magazine ad and only posting pictures and excerpts from their book… I would just be curious to see how it’s working for them, because I rarely click, which tells me they’re not targeting very well. I would click on something that looked up my alley.

I’m rambling. I should probably not be posting now, since my sinuses are still funky and I’m not quite thinking straight :o

#8

I kinda wish it wasn’t so, not because I’m uninteresting, but because I’m a jerk. XP

#9

I generally unfollow these people. I want interaction with a real person, not an automatic advertising machine.

#10

as well as the ones who make ten posts an hour, most about their work, or twitter-sized stories.

#11

I almost make it a game to see how many people/bots I get random favs or follows from anytime I use a hashtag like #AmWriting. I’m more interested in people who want to talk, or have a comment to say.

#12

I look forward to the day when the majority of my followers are actual readers :slight_smile: