Social Media 101
Okay people, we all live in this online world and I know it can be hard to know what to do and as there are not really rules set up let's look at what to do and what NOT to do.
I am going to talk about what NOT to do first as it seems many of us are having a problem with this part of our online lives.
Comments on Facebook
You do not have to respond to every controversial comment or post. In fact you should avoid them if you can. We were not meant to know people this close and for some getting on FB or Twitter can be shocking. We go from knowing some things ab out our friends to knowing what they think about EVERY subject ever created. Our natural reaction is to comment and let them know what we think and thus the fights begin. Good rule of thumb, talk about nice things and if someone is just being a jerk do not follow or friend them, it is okay to unfriend people...even if you know them in person.
Marketing your book
Market yourself by being yourself. Not by pushing your book or health supplement on people. People buy from who they like, if I do not like you I will not buy your book. Get to know people, talk and post once every now and again, most people know you have a book as it is your profile picture.
Confrontation
So I pissed you off, now what? Well, you should not blast in public all about me and how I kill small kittens. You should send a email to me and deal with it that way before going off half cocked all over Twitter and Facebook. It just makes you look bad not me. If you do not like what someone is doing deal with it in private. There are people that I know online that are scamers and downright #lame. I want to scream from the TwitterTop and warn people about them or what they are doing with some publishing scam or whatever. But do I? No.
It is about control, try to control yourself. Send a email or make a call. Live above them, do right and all the others will work out by themselves. Most of us authors will not take the time to research what we are all mad about. Try stopping and looking at it all without your black glasses on. The only time I will name names and call out someone is if I am pushed into a corner and have to in order to defend myself. But that is the very last step and I do it with care as if i am going to name names I will do it with open guns and I am not messing around at that point. But like I said...last resort.
Twitter Auto Tweets
Come on peeps... be there... be here with us. Be present. I understand setting up auto tweets for time sake, but the same tweet over and over and over again? Really? And we read it? Nope...I gloss over and look for the real people having conversations.
Facebook Groups
Do not invite random people, it is rude. Follow the rules of the group. I can't count the times I delete posts from the same person over and over again because they will not follow the rules. If there is a no promotion rule, do not promote. Come one peeps...*note: if all you do is link to your book not one person will read it or follow the link.
Join the conversation.
Facebook Bleeding Heart's
I do not care about the poor sheep in Montana or the starving trees in Iceland. Most of it is just to get you all worked up and you re-post and share the sad picture that I have to gag over... again, conversation and what do you want me to do? Go over and feed some starving tree? I am not going to give money so what is the point? Oh...yeah, to put guilt on people for living in the US... got it... *small rant.
The main thing to remember is to be nice and do not do something that you would not want someone else to do. You know...like we learned when we were 6.
If you have a beef with someone don't go off on them, be an adult and hold your little Twitter fingers. Authors, I know we are all excited about books and reading, but be careful about who you hook up with. There are a ton of scams that look all good but all the scamer wants is to sell you their book. Ask yourself, do they push their book on you? Do they push you to follow rules that they made up? Do they blast others, cuz if they will kill another author if you cross them they will kill you as well. BE SMART...oh and be NICE!
That is all...
for now
Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.
Excellent!
ReplyDeleteGood tips, I could always use more things of what NOT to do!
Deleteyeah, I've learned some of this lessons the hard way lately. I found out that it's about being yourself, yes but also not behaving like the social medias were your living room. There is "yourself" and "your professional self", something that many people mix up with "grinning asshole". Behaving professionally is a huge plus, but being a "professional self" requires some trial-and-error.
ReplyDelete