3 Steps to Social Media Domination for Writers
Author and social media afficionado Jeff Somers shares his three steps for social-media success.
As a bonus to his book excerpt on self-promotion in the September 2018 issue of Writer’s Digest, Jeff Somers, author of Writing Without Rules, shares his three steps for social-media success.
3 Steps to Social Media Domination***
The easiest, cheapest, and often most effective self-promotion involves social media platforms. They’re (generally) free, have a theoretically infinite reach, and often take very little effort to utilize; anything I can do without standing up or putting on pants is my jam these days. My wisdom on this subject is, however, limited more or less to what doesn’t work. Which is: Everything. Nothing works. Why is social media all the rage, then? There are a few reasons: No one understands it; It’s (largely) free; and the audience is (potentially) huge.
If you want to make an impact with your social media on whatever platform or platforms you enjoy, do these three things.
1. Post Every Day.
Being active is part of the whole deal; no one comes back to a blog that’s never updated, and no one follows a Twitter account that behaves like an ancient volcano that may or may not erupt at some point in the near future.
2. Have a Persona.
Do not, under any circumstances, believe for a moment that your social media should actually represent you as a person. You should have a persona and a brand that you control and can shape it at will.
3. Avoid Conflict.
Again, you shouldn’t be using your social media as a way to express your personal opinions and inner feelings, although for some people, that is their brand and so it works. But even if you think it’s your brand, remember this simple fact: No one has ever won an argument on the internet. Ever.
*** As long as we agree that, in this context, the word domination translates to “mild success,” we’ll be fine.
Know someone who needs to see this? Feel free to share these tips far and wide as a graphic:
Learn more in the online writing course Social Media 101 with Dan Blank.
Jeff Somers began writing by court order as an attempt to steer his creative impulses away from engineering genetic grotesqueries. He has published nine novels, including the Avery Cates Series of noir-science fiction novels and the Ustari Cycle series of urban fantasy novels. His short story “Ringing the Changes” was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories2006; “Sift, Almost Invisible, Through” appeared in the anthology Crimes by Moonlight, edited by Charlaine Harris; and “Three Cups of Tea” appeared in the anthology Hanzai Japan. He also writes about books for Barnes & Noble, and the craft of writing for Writer’s Digest which published his book Writing Without Rules in 2018. He lives in Hoboken with his wife, The Duchess, and their cats. He considers pants to always be optional. Follow him on Twitter @jeffreysomers.
