social media

Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with Lady Gaga, so don’t get your hopes up.

Just when you finally figured out how to correctly use a hashtag, Google+ made its debut on the social networking stage. Perhaps you cheered the opening, quickly adding anyone and everyone on your Google+ radar. Or maybe you’re disillusioned with social networking and simply can’t take another alert on your smartphone, consequently letting out a resounding “Boo.”

Regardless of your relationship with social media—and before you either delete your invite or start posting dozens of photos of your grandma’s birthday party—consider using Google+ primarily as a networking tool.

Whether you’re a writer, reader, or presenter, Google+ likely has something to offer you. Read on for suggestions on how you can utilize G+ to your advantage.

G+ for Writers

G+ Hangouts is a great way to keep in touch with fellow writers, especially if you’ve attended a writers’ conference and want to continue getting feedback from participants you particularly clicked with. Hangouts is essentially a videoconferencing tool. You can connect with up to ten people, and G+ recognizes when someone is talking, focusing the video stream on that person until someone else speaks up.

The feature also offers excellent networking opportunities if you participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November), or any other sort of marathon writing event.

Hundreds of writers are already organizing cowriting events on G+, rejecting the solitary nature of writing in exchange for interaction and peer motivation. Creeped out by the idea of watching others write but still want the feedback? You can minimize your screen and mute your microphone while writing, and then rejoin your group during chat breaks.

Mary Robinette Kowal suggests the following steps to create a writing meetup on Google+ Hangouts:

1. Put up a post saying that you are going to have a writing date at [x] time OR just spontaneously open a hangout.

2. As soon as the hangout is open, place a comment on it that states that it is a writing date and what the parameters are.

3. Suggested parameters: "We’ll chat for fifteen minutes. Then at quarter past we’ll start writing for forty-five minutes. On the hour, there’s another fifteen-minute break for chat . . . Rinse and repeat. If you want to join in mid-way, that’s fine, but we’ll just wave at you until the next break."

4. Continue until you need to log off. If the other participants are still going, they will be able to keep writing after you leave.

If you’re at all nostalgic about your college workshop days of wacky writing prompts and open sharing, you should definitely find a G+ writer’s group to join.

GalleyCat is collecting a list of writers interested in connecting on Google+. If you want an easy way to find dozens of new friends, check it out.

G+ for Authors

Authors, consider using Google+ to organize initial readers of your manuscripts. Use your blog or newsletter to choose a group of three to ten beta readers and send them your piece. Ask them to read it over the course of the week and decide on a time to chat about their reactions and suggestions.

Google+’s main claim to fame is its personalized sharing features; authors should use this to their advantage. Unlike Facebook, Google+ allows you to easily group people and decide what you share with particular groups. This feature, called Circles, enables you to share a link with a specific group—say “readers”—but not with another—say “family.” Target your fan base by posting news to them without spamming your family and friends.

You could also organize virtual book events to interact more directly with your readers. If you have a good blog or fan following, announce a G+ “book tour” date. Encourage fans to post questions and connect with them via Hangouts or Circle posts.

G+ for Readers

Virtual book clubbing is another great way to use G+. If you have a club on GoodReads or a virtual club over email, migrate the group to Google+. Instead of simply messaging or emailing about the book, get onto Hangouts to have a face-to-face conversation.

If you are involved in any genre reading groups, fan clubs, academic conferences, literary holidays (like Bloomsday), or reading events (like  the thirty-hour reading of Moby Dick that happened earlier this year in Portland) you could also organize Circles to facilitate sharing of interesting research and articles related to your topic of choice.

G+ for Speakers

Professional speakers can also use Google+ to expand their reach. Use blogs and forums to identify influential people in the expertise circle you should be connecting with. Add them on G+ (unlike Facebook, it’s not taboo to add people on G+ you’ve never actually met) and position yourself as a pro by hosting workshops, webinars, or live tutorials to select circles through Google+ Hangouts. Offer cooking classes, marketing webinars, or personal finance workshops—whatever will build your online platform in the arena of your personal expertise.

Google+ may not be as insanely popular as Facebook yet, but it’s never a bad idea to get in on the ground floor of a social media movement. If you’re a little timid about getting started on Google+, check out this collection of fifty helpful get-started links.

Writing a book can be a lonely experience, and you don’t want to completely isolate yourself during the writing process. It’s important to get feedback, especially while you’re developing an idea. Not only does this help motivate you, it also helps you catch issues and address concerns on the front end rather than trying to overhaul a manuscript after it’s already complete.

It’s not difficult to find people to provide regular feedback. Here are a few ways of locating people willing to give you critiques:

1. Start by asking fellow authors. Though it’s nice to get a variety of opinions, authors within your genre are best. Not only do they know who the competitors are, they also have a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t within your genre.
2. Put out an all-call on social media. Put out a post asking for people to read your work. You’ll be surprised at how many will respond!
3. Ask colleagues. Ask people at work or others in your industry. This is especially good for nonfiction authors, as people in your industry represent your reader.
4. Locate a formal writers’ group. There are many writers’ groups already established by genre and location. Check with local groups such as the Writers’ League of Texas or with genre-specific groups such as Sisters in Crime—or go to Writer’s Digest and other forums to find groups in your area.

But getting someone to read your work is only the beginning. In order for the feedback to be useful, you need to keep the following in mind:

1. Distance yourself. It's not a critique of you. It’s an honest opinion about your work, so don’t take it as a personal affront to you or your abilities as a writer.
2. Maintain veto power. You don't have to accept every suggestion or change made. It is ultimately your work, and it should reflect you and be something you are proud of. If you truly want to keep something, then keep it, but do consider the reader’s reasons for suggesting changes.
3. Recognize patterns. If more than one person says the same thing about your work, take notice. If on every critique you hear that your characters are flat, you may have to accept that your characters are flat and strive to correct it. If several people say a passage is confusing, you may want to consider rewriting it. The point here is to improve as a writer.
4. Respect their opinions. Show the one who critiqued you the same respect you expect by acknowledging and thanking them for their time and feedback.
5. Have them focus on the big picture. Most readers are apprehensive about critiquing because they feel you want a complete copyedit. Unless they’re an editor, ease your readers by instructing them to focus on feedback related to the overall feel and goal of the book. Have them point out what works and what doesn’t work in relation to plot, narrative arc, usefulness of information, and style rather than addressing issues such as misplaced commas and word usage.

Remember, you don’t want to write in a vacuum. Despite all of your genius, in order to truly understand what your readers want and how to give it to them, you need to engage them from the beginning. Not only will it make you a better writer, your advance readers will have a vested interest in the final project and will do everything they can to help you succeed.

Twitter is a powerful tool. It allows you to connect directly with people of similar interests across the globe. Still, for many people it remains a confusing social media void shrouded in mystery.

In reality, Twitter really is quite simple. This fun video shows you how easy it is to get started and how it works.

We also found this one that explains twitter keywords and hashtags, which are important for targeting your reader.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to utilize twitter, it’s time to focus on what you should actually say or “tweet” about. Like with anything you do to build your author platform, you need to be answering the reader’s question—“What’s in it for me?” Even at 140 characters, readers are still looking for value. You can provide it through:

News: What’s hot and trending in your topic right now.

Links: What resources are available to educate, inform, and entertain your reader.

Tips: Quick tips and insights to help your reader improve or enhance their lives.

Throughout your posts full of news, links, and tips you also want to sprinkle in some self-promotion and engagement with your readers. A good rule of thumb is to keep promotion to about 20% of your content and focus the rest on providing value to and engaging with the reader.

A few quick tips:

• To add links and still keep your posts to 140 characters, use Tiny links or Bity links
• Add keywords designated with hashtags (mentioned in the video above). This will allow you to get your post in front of people outside of your network. If your tweets are interesting and informational, they’ll start following you.
• Don’t worry about mass. It’s not about how many followers you have, it’s about having the right followers who are interested in your topic and view you as a great resource/expert.
• Social media is a two way street. Engage with readers, answer their questions, and share other people’s informative posts.

Here are some popular hashtags related to writing and publishing:

#dearauthor: Notes and tips from industry professionals to authors.

#dearpublisher: Notes and questions from authors to publishers.

#publishing: News, trends, and information on publishing.

#pubtips: Tips on getting your manuscript picked up by an agent or publisher.

#writing: Information on the craft of writing.

#amwriting: Updates on what you are writing now.

#WIP: Work in progress.

#writegoal: Share your daily writing goal.

#womeninpublishing an #meninpublishing: Focus on the men and women in the industry.

#books: All things related to books.

As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

Now that you’ve set up your blog, developed your content, and shared your posts, you’re probably wondering why you’re doing this in the first place? Does it really help you sell books?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Blogs are one of the best ways to create a community of followers. Still, you want to know your time is worth it and that your efforts are working, so it’s best to track your blog statistics. Luckily, there are a couple of free tools out there that make it easy to do so.

Google Analytics:

This free tool from Google lets you track how many visitors come to your site, how they are finding you, and what content they are viewing most. This is a great way to see what’s working, what’s not, and how well you are doing.

Spredfast:

Spredfast is a social media dashboard that lets you post and manage multiple media channels from one portal. There are several packages available, but you will need to contact them directly for pricing as it varies on a case by case basis. The depth of reporting changes with each package, but even the basic package lets you see which users are sharing your posts, how many people are viewing them, and what your total engagement with your audience is like.

How do you use these stats?

1. Share impressive numbers with your publicist or publisher to show demand.
2. Identify which content people are interested in—or not interested in—so you can adjust new information to meet those needs.
3. Track how offline trends affect online trends.
4. Work with your publicist to improve your overall marketing strategy.

Check the stats frequently so you can easily see the correlation between trends and content and adjust accordingly. Above all, don’t get so caught up in numbers that you ignore what people are actually telling you. Comments, also, are a great way to track your progress and get ideas for new content and books.