Social Media Myths

[Paul Whybrow]

2020 was going to be the year when I completed my sixth Cornish Detective novel, and when I was going to throw myself into self-promotion via social media. There’s a rarely visited folder on my desktop labelled 2020 Self-Promotion which is full of useful articles. I’ll be using the information it contains in 2021.

Thus far, my online presence is limited to a blog about writing culled from threads I’ve started on The Colony, and I also have a website devoted to my fictional Cornish sleuth.

As for social media, I have a Twitter account, Pinterest boards and two Facebook profiles—one personal and one business.

I’ve long been unsure of how best to combine them and how to automatically post from one to another. I’ll be learning how to do so next year, but I’ve always had doubts about how effective social media is in improving an author’s career. A lot of it feels like preaching to the converted.

There’s sensible advice given in this article by Judith Briles, otherwise known as the Book Shepherd.

Bashing the Myths of Social Media in 2021 - The Book Designer

 

[Eva Ulian]

I too have doubts about how effective social media is, however, if I am not there I feel as if I don't exist... in a not totally negative way.

 

[Steve C]

I only have email. It's enough for me but I am going to pay for some promotional work as others can do that 1000 times more effectively than I could ever do.
Tell a lie! I do have a Facebook page with maybe 30 or 40 'friends' but haven't posted anything there in ages. My wife recently asked if we could be friends! I wasn't sure if I'd inadvertently upset her or something then she waved her iPhone in the air.
'Face,' she said, 'Face.' They abbreviate everything here.