Are You Ready To Be A Social Media Superstar?

by Lisa Pietsch

Writers are generally introverts, yet they feel comfortable with the safe distance that communicating through social media provides. You’d think it would be a natural fit and yet, writers are the ones with the greatest complaints about social media.
The two things I hear most from writers about social media are:

• I don’t need a social media platform if I don’t have a book published
• Social media takes up all my time and I can’t write

Let’s discuss the first one: I don’t need a social media platform if I don’t have a book published.

Not true!

If you are writing then the smartest thing for you to do is to assume you will be published.  As a multi-published author I can tell you that first contract comes when you least expect it and once you have it, you will be swimming in edits and deadlines that will make it virtually impossible for you to have any time to establish a social media platform.

Another thing to consider is that prospective publishers will check you out before they offer you a contract.  If they have to choose between an author with a social media platform and a solid following and an author who does no form of self-promotion through social media, they’ll pick the promoter every time.

If you are unpublished, now is the perfect time to set up your social media platform. The setup can be time consuming and involve a steep learning curve. If you can take advantage of someone else’s expertise in social media specifically for authors, you can avoid the hard knocks of a steep learning curve. That’s one more reason to get a jump on your social media now, so you only have to concern yourself with basic maintenance when you get that big contract.

That leads us to the second complaint: Social media takes up all my time and I can’t write.

As writers, we become accustomed to working in the flow. Social media flows so well it’s like a raging river. Before you know it, you’ll have wasted those two hours you thought you had for writing just by getting involved in a fun conversation online. They don’t call it a conversation “stream” for nothing!

However, social media need not take up all your time. In fact, once you have your platform built, it should take you no more than thirty minutes per day to manage your social media and still have the opportunity to interact with friends and fans.

Can you give social media a quick try when others have been struggling with it for years? That’s not the important question to ask yourself. The real question is: Can you afford NOT to?
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Lisa Pietsch is a USAF veteran, a multi-published novelist and freelance writer, and a social media marketing consultant who specializes in authors and small press publisherss. She has a passion for foreign languages, world travel and hot guys with guns. Lisa will be teaching “How To Be A Social Media Superstar” from January 14-25 at WriterUniv.com.