Hi everyone! For some, the war cry of Join Twitter! Network! Engage & Share! Create a Facebook Page! Get Yourself Out There! can seem a bit much. I know a lot of writers who are confused and frustrated because they don’t feel they are suited for the noisy mosh pit of online socializing, yet they are told repeatedly that they must do it to succeed.
I do believe that social networking is one of the best things you can do to create discoverability for yourself and your books, but completely understand how intimidating it can be for a person standing on the edge of it all. So if you have misgivings about these networking platforms or know someone who is struggling with how to connect with others, I am discussing this exact topic over at The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective blog: What To Do…If You Feel Social Networking Isn’t Right For You
After all, I think that’s what we need sometimes–a view from high up where we can see the big picture and not be scared off by the misconstrued noise of social networking at ground level.
Also, some of you probably read Roni Loren’s Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog – My Story. I know most people put pictures with their blog posts and link them to the sites where they found them, thinking this is the right thing to do and will protect them from liability. IT WONT. Roni’s story is a ‘it could happen to you’ situation, so I strongly encourage you to read about her experience if you haven’t already.
Kristen Lamb has stepped up to help in this regard, however! If you need pictures for your blog that are free from copyright, you can join WANA Tribe and use her Flickr group built for this purpose. From WANA Commons:
Here’s another post on Where To Get Photos For Your Blog that might help. Becca and I will be changing how and what we post for pictures to make sure we’re not infringing on anyone’s copyright, and I strongly suggest you do as well.
Well, it’s Monday and the world is your bag of Doritos. I hope everyone is having a great summer and writing up a storm! Have a happy and productive week! 🙂
Image: Geralt @ Pixabay
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
nice post.Twitter and FB, are most common and powerful community sites.
This article from The Guardian newspaper is food for thought…. http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sNX3fX5nyd2euj41C1_S3Xg/view.m?id=15&gid=books/2012/jul/30/tweet-about-cats-just-write&cat=books
Thanks for the new photo resources. The suing thing – so scary. I was dragged kicking and screaming to social media, but I kinda love it now.
On my way to Eagle’s.
Hi Angela:
I loved this post.
The information you’ve provided certainly helps.
I currently only blog but your lurking advice is one I can manage for now.
Thanks
P.S. I’m loving the Emotion Thesaurus
Thanks everyone for retweeting and spreading the word. I think the photo thing was a good wake up call for all of us.
I saw that post and it was scary! I had no idea. Thank you for helping look for solutions. I’ll go tweet.
I do enjoy blogging, FB, and Twitter but have to remind myself -almost daily- that 80% of my time is for writing fiction and 20% is for social media.
The article on copyright infringement is scary, but oh so helpful.
Twice I’ve asked for permission from photographer/artist and twice received it. Once there was no attribution and artist contacted me and asked that I link to her, which I did and she was very gracious. I had no idea that wiki had a media site-Mil Gracias!
definitly checking these out 🙂
That poor woman! I have done some research about photos used on blogs. I just had this nagging feeling that grabbing any old image off Google was entirely too easy. Turns out I was right! Eeek!
A friend of mine just started her own blog to grow her personal training business. I will be sure to remind her of these image laws!! Thanks for the reminder.
I’m on Twitter and FB, but on FB I only friend people I either know or know well from blogging. I don’t do a ton on Twitter, but when I do tweet it automatically goes to my fb page.
Blogging is my favorite social media…
I hope you both are having a great summer too. 🙂
I’ve found the key to social media is finding what works for you, what you enjoy and sticking with it. And, not doing too much! Not everyone has to be on every social media site. I think that’s a common misconception.
This is a great post. It allows in the possibility of options for writers wanting to support their careers. Nice work, as always.
Thanks for sharing the info, Angela.
I do believe that social networking is a great tool for authors. We just have to make sure that we are doing it right.
Great post.
Nice post!!! Lots of great info here, as usual. 😉