Social Media by Talli Roland

Last Saturday I went to the London/SE chapter of the RNA. The talk was on Social Media by Talli Roland. Here are her main points.

You should be on the sites where your readers are. So, if they are on FB, be there. If they are on LinkedIn, then be there.

Facebook
Readers can expect you to be there 24/7. Build a core loyal readership. Join forums. You can find different readers in topic groups eg if you write a romance that also has knitting groups in, then find a FB group about knitting.
Don't do too much promo on your profile page, do it on your author page.
You can boost your page. When you do, choose friends and friends of friends. It costs £10. You can see how many see and share your post. And you can get 3000 per click.
When it comes to choosing friends, look at 'mutual friends'. If it's low, then don't friend them. Be positive.
On your author page, you can click on the icon at the top of the page called 'shop now' and you can put a link to your books on Amazon etc. Or you can put a link to your newsletter - that was something I added to the talk.
When you get a certain no of followers, you can't change your name. And on your profile page you have to have your real name or FB might check up on you.
Make your followers feel special and your posts useful.

Twitter
Find content that relates to your book and tweet. You can put on there the first line and last line of chapters. Post pictures of the locations in your book (made a mental note to do that in future). Take photos of where it's set.

Blogging
Still good to do.
For readers - have photos, keep it short and turn off the verifications.

I shall write part 2 on Sunday when it goes into Amazon and other sites that are useful.

How to make the most of a writing retreat

This is the third and final post I will be writing about the retreat I went to on 9 May. The answer to the above is not eating most of the below (our table of cakes). Yes, I did eat a fair amount of them.

I am talking about writing. Not just what you take to the retreat to write, but how about where you are staying? Last year, I picked up a leaflet about the history of the place and its founder. I thought, this would make great articles. Perhaps I could get more info about them next time. So, this year when I got there, I asked the staff there, mentioning I was going to write articles, if they had more info I could have. They showed me a folder which had a chapter about the family. They also gave me two thick wads of info about the founder and the place. All useful fodder for planned articles. So, in the afternoon, as well as writing a bit on a couple of main projects I had with me, I researched articles in the magazines I had with me, and drafted out three travel articles. The last morning there, I finished drafting the third article, so gave back the two wads of papers to the staff.

That is what I mean when I say make the most of a writing retreat. Where you go, does it have a history? Can you write articles about the place? About the person who owned it? About the food there? Don't forget to take lots of photos when you're there. I did. I took photos of all round the house and grounds, in case they are needed if your work is accepted.

I emailed the first article with photos this morning. Have to wait now to see if it is accepted or not. Two more to type up in the meantime. Watch this space...