Throw me your blogging and/or social media questions!

[Nikky Lee]

Hi guys,

I'm putting together a workshop for writers on blogging with some crossover into social media. To try and make it as useful as possible, I'm hoping to get an understanding of what people struggle with when it comes to either. What are your bug bears? What mystifies you? What aspects daunt you?

For those who already blog and use social media, what do you wish you'd known before you started?

 

[Barbara]

What mystifies you?

All of it, really. I'm trying to get a grip with Instagram, and .... *throws everything in the air and huffs off*

What aspects daunt you?

Again, all of it.

But my biggest bug bear is the amount of time is sucks up to create something. And what's the bloomin' point of having FB and Twitter and Insta if I have the same friends on all of them? And whatever happened to pigeons and the pony express and the kid who brought a paper once a week via donkey, and can someone please catapult me back to the 70s? Ta.



On a more sensible note:

How can I be heard in such a big pool? I have no idea how to reach more people.

What makes a good, effective post?

 

[RK Wallis]

What makes a good, effective post?

I agree with this. I'd like to know ways to connect. I don't believe I have anything worthwhile to contribute...

 

[Steve C]

can someone please catapult me back to the 70s?

Can I come too?

 

[Vagabond Heart]

I agree with this. I'd like to know ways to connect. I don't believe I have anything worthwhile to contribute...

Noooooo, you have loads to contribute. Xxx

 

[Vagabond Heart]

Blogging: I wish I’d known ... that what you think you’re gonna do at the beginning (and how often you’ll post) is not what you end up with once it’s got going and you’ve got more experience.

 

[Hannah F]

I'm with Barbara. All of it mystifies me. e.g, Why can't I work out how to have different thread headings on my blog and write as if it;s my site rather than adding by simply commenting to myself.

if i can't do my blog properly, does it even matter if no one finds it?

 

[Steve C]

What is the point of blogging, that's what I'd like to know? Everyone says you need your own website and a blog but why? I can't see the benefit. Okay if you are an established writer and people want to know more about you but as an unknown I can't see myself interesting anyone with my blogs.

 

[RK Wallis]

What is the point of blogging, that's what I'd like to know? Everyone says you need your own website and a blog but why? I can't see the benefit. Okay if you are an established writer and people want to know more about you but as an unknown I can't see myself interesting anyone with my blogs.

That's how I feel

 

[Barbara]

Could someone enlighten me please. In instagram, can I share other people's posts? Or does every post of mine have to be my own creation? Can I for example share a blogpost about cake that I find on a friend's site?

 

[RK Wallis]

Just sent you a test. It's the triangle thing next to the speech bubble. It's not like FB, you can't do a blanket share, but it does look like you can create groups (that's just my quick obs, I'll ask my carer when she's back unless someone else fills you in b4 then).

 

[Nikky Lee]

Yep you can. If you want to repost someone else's post, you'll need an extra app to do it (there's heaps and it's fairly straight forward). If you want to share a friend's blog post, I would take a screen shot of it and post it and direct people to the post (note: urls don't hyperlink on IG so it's best to just put the website and tag your friend on Instagram so people can find them, and so they're aware of the content--people will often share content they're tagged in on their stories).

 

[Barbara]

Yep you can. If you want to repost someone else's post, you'll need an extra app to do it (there's heaps and it's fairly straight forward). If you want to share a friend's blog post, I would take a screen shot of it and post it and direct people to the post (note: urls don't hyperlink on IG so it's best to just put the website and tag your friend on Instagram so people can find them, and so they're aware of the content--people will often share content they're tagged in on their stories).

Thank you Nikki, this is really helpful. How do I tag someone? Using the '@'?

Just sent you a test.

Got it, thank you. Now I know I can do it in a message.

 

[Nikky Lee]

What is the point of blogging, that's what I'd like to know? Everyone says you need your own website and a blog but why? I can't see the benefit. Okay if you are an established writer and people want to know more about you but as an unknown I can't see myself interesting anyone with my blogs.

From and SEO perspective it helps your name pop up when people and/or agents search for you. It can also be used as a marketing tool to build brand awareness. It can also help you create a following before you have anything published and help drive traffic to your website (and hopefully to your book/sales pages) once you are published. However, it's also a long-term strategy. In the past we've told clients it takes about 18 months for a blog to get traction, and that's blogging 1-2 times per week and having a freebie to entice people to follow you/sign up to a newsletter. But once it's established it can be quite effective. To give you an idea, my work runs a blog and last quarter we had 35k views. 5 years ago it was getting just over 1000 views over a quarter. Another client started with nothing in 2017, last quarter they had 22k views.

 

[Nikky Lee]

How do I tag someone? Using the '@'?

Yep, just make sure the you tag the handle, not the account name. e.g. my IG handle is @nikkymlee but my account name is Nikky Lee - Author

 

[Barbara]

Yep, just make sure the you tag the handle, not the account name. e.g. my IG handle is @nikkymlee but my account name is Nikky Lee - Author

How do you know which is which? I have no clue what my handle is

 

[Nikky Lee]

How do you know which is which? I have no clue what my handle is

The handle is the name that shows up first in a profile--it won't have any spaces in it either The account name is underneath.

 

[Barbara]

The handle is the name that shows up first in a profile--it won't have any spaces in it either The account name is underneath.

So yours is Nikkymlee?

Can I change my handle ? Because this means mine is bandthebeast09 which in unmemorable.

 

[Nikky Lee]

But my biggest bug bear is the amount of time is sucks up to create something.

Yes, it is mine too. Batching blogs (writing several in a row and scheduling them to go out over several weeks/months) can help. My other trick is guest posting/author interviews. They do the bulk of the writing work while I do the loading and promotion. It means I'm able to have fresh content on my blog most weeks.

What makes a good, effective post?

Lots of things! Listicles (i.e. 10 things I learned while writing my first draft) and how-to guides do quite well. People also love personal experience stories and stories that give a peek into the creative process. For me, I love learning about the stories behind the stories. What inspired a certain scene, where the idea for certain characters came from. Now I think about it, I should go listening/watching the questions people ask authors at a few conventions to get some more blog ideas.

Blogging: I wish I’d known ... that what you think you’re gonna do at the beginning (and how often you’ll post) is not what you end up with once it’s got going and you’ve got more experience.

Yes, 100% true. I started off ambitiously thinking I could blog once a week around FT work and my projects. Then that became once a fornight, then once a month, then not for a while (before I started interviewing authors to get it rolling again).

Why can't I work out how to have different thread headings on my blog and write as if it;s my site rather than adding by simply commenting to myself.

It's an SEO thing and also an accessibility thing. Most blogs will have some SEO basics built in e.g. the title of your blog is always a Header 1 to help readers, screen readers and web crawlers know, roughly, what the topic of the content on the page is. I'm fairly certain blog comments don't show up on search engines or if they do, they rank very low down the list. So, say you wrote an amazing post about worldbuilding in a comment on a blog, search engines wouldn't pick it up. All that work wasted! Readers are also unlikely to look for additional full length blog posts in the comments and it could also be a bit jarring if the original blog title has nothing to do with the comments that follow.

if i can't do my blog properly, does it even matter if no one finds it?

No, not really. It comes back down to purpose. What do you want the blog to do? If you're just wanting to give it a go, trial a new medium, new writing styles etc, and aren't interested in getting viewers—at least not at this point—it doesn't really matter what you do*. Posting a blog doesn't automatically get you readers (unless you're a celebrity or have a website that already has high traffic). The only way people will find your blog is if you promote it (or by accident, and even then its pretty unlikely). So the upshot is, you can experiment as much as you want

*Caveat: until an agent comes to look at it.

 

[Nikky Lee]

So yours is Nikkymlee?

Can I change my handle ? Because this means mine is bandthebeast09 which in unmemorable.

Yes and yes

 

[Barbara]

Another question just to be clear in my tiny head, sorry: I'm doing the Short Story Hunter's Insta and I'd like to add the websites of the authors we feature in each episode to the corresponding posts. Erm... do I just type www.*insertauthorsite*.com into the text part of the post?

 

[Nikky Lee]

Another question just to be clear in my tiny head, sorry: I'm doing the Short Story Hunter's Insta and I'd like to add the websites of the authors we feature in each episode to the corresponding posts. Erm... do I just type www.*insertauthorsite*.com into the text part of the post?

Yep you can do that. Another alternative is to create a linktree and put it in website link of your Insta profile. With it you can have a list of links to various places, such as a submissions link, litopia link, and the week's author site links, etc. The only think being you'd have to rememeber to swap out the author website links each episode.

 

[Steve C]

From and SEO perspective it helps your name pop up when people and/or agents search for you. It can also be used as a marketing tool to build brand awareness. It can also help you create a following before you have anything published and help drive traffic to your website (and hopefully to your book/sales pages) once you are published. However, it's also a long-term strategy. In the past we've told clients it takes about 18 months for a blog to get traction, and that's blogging 1-2 times per week and having a freebie to entice people to follow you/sign up to a newsletter. But once it's established it can be quite effective. To give you an idea, my work runs a blog and last quarter we had 35k views. 5 years ago it was getting just over 1000 views over a quarter. Another client started with nothing in 2017, last quarter they had 22k views.

Wow. That's impressive and I kinda get it now. The first sentence sounds a bit of hopeful thinking but I can see the rest of it. I guess it is just such a long-term project many people put of doing it. The thing is how on earth do you start a blog. It's all very well opening a website and writing some words for it but who the hell is going to ever see it to start things off. I could write loads of bits and pieces about my book as lots of it is true so about me as well but I can't imagine anyone stumbling across it with trillions of sites out there

 

[Nikky Lee]

The thing is how on earth do you start a blog. It's all very well opening a website and writing some words for it but who the hell is going to ever see it to start things off.

In a word: promotion. It's where social media comes in. When I write a post, I'll share it across my social channels and in my newsletter—as well as in any relevant writing communities (i.e. When I interview a writer from one of my Facebook writing groups, I'll share the post in that group). You can also share the same blog multiple times using different social media intros (different intros can engage different readers, some people like questions, some people like a quote from the article etc). For example, I have a blog post about writing Twitter pitches, so in the last #PitMad event I posted that blog several times on Twitter in the week leading up to it.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

From and SEO perspective it helps your name pop up when people and/or agents search for you. It can also be used as a marketing tool to build brand awareness. It can also help you create a following before you have anything published and help drive traffic to your website (and hopefully to your book/sales pages) once you are published. However, it's also a long-term strategy. In the past we've told clients it takes about 18 months for a blog to get traction, and that's blogging 1-2 times per week and having a freebie to entice people to follow you/sign up to a newsletter. But once it's established it can be quite effective. To give you an idea, my work runs a blog and last quarter we had 35k views. 5 years ago it was getting just over 1000 views over a quarter. Another client started with nothing in 2017, last quarter they had 22k views.

Everyone gives numbers like this (well, everyone who knows how to do this stuff), but the question is HOW? Creating a blog does not magically make it attract people. If you're like me, you can blog daily for years and still have little to show for it (doesn't help when you end up not writing the book you wrote the blog to attract a following for, I know...). I think for a lot of us, it's connecting the dots that is the sticky bit. Once you've got all those things--social media accounts, website, blog, newsletter--how do you make them generate traffic, engagement and ultimately sales? And how do you get over the block of doing something (like sending out newsletters, posting about stupid shit) that you as a reader absolutely HATE. I can't tell you how many times I've written a post, trying to emulate writers who I know have active followers, and deleted it, because it's unnecessary, vapid crap that would irritate me if it landed in my feed.

I'm really looking forward to your workshop, Nikky! If any of you other Litopians are interested, it's a virtual workshop that's part of SpecFicNZ's virtual workshop series. Workshops cost NZ$10 for folks who aren't members of SpecFicNZ, and are free for members (and membership only costs NZ$30, so it's a great deal if you want to attend other workshops). Here's the link to the lineup through July (we're still working on the second half of the year...). And if you just want to sign up for Nikky's, here's the registration link.