Sunday, August 12, 2012

How high do my numbers need to get?

Practically everyone is talking about the need to grow your social network. I understand the rationale for that, the importance of reaching out to others and getting your name and your brand out there, but when does it stop? How many people do I need in my networks?

I have 259 friends of Facebook, 264 followers on Twitter, 77 connections of LinkedIn, 61 friends on Goodreads, 55 followers on Pinterest and somehow I am even on something called SchoolFeeds, which I do not even pursue, but I guess former classmates are finding me. 

I know that those numbers aren't great compared to a lot of people, but really? That all takes time and sometimes I feel like a pest asking strangers to friend me or follow me. I realize it is all about marketing, and I don't know if I told you this, but at one time in college I was working towards some sort of marketing degree. But still sometimes I wonder if it would be time better spent standing on the street corner.  

On the flip side, I am hopeful that the one-thousandth person I befriend on Facebook is going to be that literary agent who falls for me and wants to see everything I write get published. It could happen, right?

In the meantime, this past week, I scored a eight out of 16. I posted three times on my other blog, I researched my book for a couple hours, I wrote on my novel for two hours (that stinks) and I worked on the elusive social networks for two hours. 

8 comments:

  1. I think one of the biggest problems for people (not just writers) these days is the multitude of social networks. Sometimes it feels like you have to be on every single one to get your name 'out there', but at the end of the day it all takes time away from writing (I am so guilty of this lol). Even if you didn't get as much writing done as you would have liked, the research will help keep your head in the story. Good luck for this week :)

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    1. Thanks, Rebecca, for the comment. The whole social network thing does take a lot of time away from everything in my life. It is easy to get pulled into it and hard to walk away. I guess that is life, though. Thanks for the encouragement.

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  2. Keeping up with my social networks, and marketing myself in general, is nothing short of pure torture for me. I love the people I've managed to connect to, and have wonderful interactions with many of them on a regular basis, but every time I post, Tweet, or comment I feel like I'm committing a crime against nature.
    Do anything that smells like self-promotion makes me feel dirty, so I go for the real conversation. I follow people who are talkative, and try to build relationships based on more than just mutual back-scratching. As a result, my numbers suffer. Then again, this approach has filled my networks with awesome people, so it's a trade-off I'm willing to accept.

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    1. I agree, Jeff, I love connecting with people, getting to know them. But if I am doing all this for my own gain, that just seems wrong to me to.

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  3. I think if we look at all of this as a chore, and as self-promotion we'll not be very happy. Instead, maybe we just need to remind ourselves that as writers we want to be read. Since people don't know who we are this is the only way we can meet them. We're getting our writing out there to connect with our readers. The good news is that we don't need agents or publishers to do that for us. We can reach readers through these wonderful instruments of social media. I don't think there's anything wrong with "doing all this for my own gain.". You're gaining readers who you'll share your stories with. That's a winning situation for both reader and writer.

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  4. That! What you said! YES! YES! YES! Erm, sorry. But I know what you mean. Sadly, I don't think there is a magic number. If there was, I'd achieve it and get back to work. And the whole social networking thing gives mer butterflies in my stomach. A friend of mine told me a supposedly true story where a writer's manuscript was rejected because lack of "platform" (a.k.a. social network things). Friend is friends with said writer this happened to, but I take it with a grain of salt because obviously I don't have all details.

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  5. Maybe we can naturally build our social networks, just by reaching out and gradually building community. I'm just starting out, so it's all new to me but I'm determined to give myself time to learn. Otherwise, social media seems like a major chore, a huge time suck and I don't want to neglect my family and friends, or my actual writing and artwork, in the process. But I love connecting with people, and offering encouragement and support - well, that's something I can easily do and it doesn't feel like a chore...Thanks for bringing up this topic. I appreciate your honesty. It's tough, trying to figure all this out.

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  6. Thanks so much for all of the comments. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one suffering from social network confusion.

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