Here’s Anna and I all through high school: a geeky Hispanic theater boy and a bushy-haired white girl whose geekery took the form of endless D&D games and scores of tattered lurid paperbacks.
Here’s us a few years later, both in the same community college. Still best friends, still sharing trials and tribulations, always with an unspoken question between us, all on Anna’s part, because I knew the answer.
And here’s when I finally answered it, and broke Anna’s heart.
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
I spend at least a little time each day looking at social media news and new stuff and track the most useful links here. If you enjoyed last week’s Pinterest Analytics post, are interested in using that social network more effectively, and have an hour where you need something to listen to, I recommend this webinar. Among other things, I found out why people do those long tall pictures/infographics (which was obvious once I thought about it, so everyone else in the world may have already figured that out).
So here’s some thoughts after spending some time poking at an app provided by Seomoz.org, Followerwonk, a Twitter Analytics tool.
So – why be interested in analytics of any kind, whether it’s Google, Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter? Because numbers let you know what works and what doesn’t in driving traffic to your site. Figure out what works and do more of that. Figure out what doesn’t work and do less.
Followerwonk gives you a number to track, Social Authority, that measures your influence on Twitter. Its formula is based on three factors:
Personally, I’m wondering whether someone favoriting your tweet has any influence. Based on what they’re saying here, it doesn’t, and it seems like it should.
But you don’t want to know your social authority score so much as someone else’s. Followerwonk is intended to help you identify followers with a high social authority score so you can target them with your message.
With that in mind, here are the main capabilities:
As with many tools, here you’re been given a taste in order to persuade you to cough up for the paid version. If I had the budget for it, Followerwonk is definitely worth paying for, and it’s just part of the tools from a SEOMoz Pro membership – but they run $99 a month, which is going to be outside the reach for most people working on their own publicity. For a deeper look at Followerwonk, try Gianluca Fiorelli’s How I Use Followerwonk and Why I Love It.
Other Social Media Links of Interest:
I’m looking at this tool and will be writing it up in the future: Buffer, which lets you schedule Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and App.net with the free version, and up to twelve networks with the paid version.
An excellent piece on Goodreads for promotion that should interest writers.
A massive trove of SEO links that I am still going through.
Beth Barany provides some tips for shy writers on how to promote your book on Twitter.
Are you a writer interested in finding out how to effectively promote yourself via the Internet? Sign up for my Building an Online Presence for Writers class. It’s taught online via Google Hangouts and the next session is Sunday, 9:30-11:30 AM PST, July 14.
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Last week I talked about how blogging on Youtube can benefit writers, so I wanted to cover some of the Youtube basics necessary for a writer who wants to learn how to use it for self promotion. If you’re already technically savvy, much of this post will already be obvious to you, but the thinking about researching what others in the field are doing that’s mentioned at the end would still be a good practice.
First off, create a YouTube account. When picking your username, try to find something close to the one you use on your website. I use catrambo, which is the same username I use on Facebook, Twitter, and most other social networking sites. You want a name that your watchers can connect with your books, so they can find them later on.
YouTube has some social network functions. You can use your account to comment on or “like” other users’ videos and make lists of your favorite videos. You can subscribe to other people’s video streams in order to get notifications when they add new content. Buttons underneath videos allow you to share favorites with other social networks, including Facebook, Orkut, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Tumblr and many more. You can even set your account to publish updates to networks when you like a video or add it to a list as well as when you upload your own videos. Check here for some additional Youtube essentials.When you start uploading videos to your account (and the post on that is not yet written) , you’re creating your YouTube video channel, which others can subscribe to. You can customize your channel (click on your account name in the upper right hand corner and when a menu appears, select “My Channel”) by giving it a name, modifying the colors and choosing what information to display on your channel’s page, such as event dates, a list of YouTube friends, and who’s subscribed.
But before you start making videos, spend some time poking around and seeing what others in your field are posting to YouTube. You’ll see commentary on book covers, book trailers, book reviews, interviews, readings, news magazines, and more.
Such research will serve you in good stead when you can thinking about what sort of content you want to be using for your blogging on Youtube. But for now – go watch a video or five, all in the name of research.
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