How to Social Media

My friend Olav Rokne of the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog paid me an amazing compliment recently. I’m paraphrasing here from memory, but it was something like, “You’re one of the good ones on social media. We noticed how engaging you were long before you were getting published regularly in big magazines.”

I was shocked to hear this, having been despondent for decades at my lack of going viral.

But going viral isn’t the bar. (Good robot overlords, if it were?!)

I’ve never heard any writer say they adore doing social media, or that they felt they were particularly good at it, but we all groan and agree that we HAVE to do this thing. We need a “platform” to sell books, get an agent, or well, whatever our goals as writers are.

So, since I seem to be doing well enough at it, I thought I would look back at what I’ve done and offer some advice.

Post about socks, if you like socks

Once upon a time, I was a social media newbie with zero professional short story sales. I asked my friend Haizle, “What do I even post about?” and her reply was, “Whatever you want! Post about socks, if you like socks.”

And… that’s the thing. Many of us are initially afraid to be ourselves online. We want to be, oh, more interesting? More sophisticated? We want to have read Proust and listened to Patti Smith before it was cool.

Thing is, no one is all that sophisticated up close. Socialites post about their socks.

And it’s exhausting to pretend. It’s more work. You won’t be able to keep it up, and you’ll stop posting.

The good news is: Your audience are the people who are into what you are into, be it ever so basic. Don’t censor or change yourself. If all you care about is collecting vintage 1980s action figures, by Gort, you’ll have an audience. Heck, I’d follow you to see the pictures, and I’ve no interest in that hobby.

Don’t Do What You Don’t Like

This seems kind of obvious, but if you’re forcing yourself to post because you “have to,” people are going to know, and it’s not engaging.

Don’t do TikTok if you hate seeing yourself on camera. Don’t blog if blogging is not fun for you. I am giving you permission to not do the things.

I hired a publicist last year, Leann Schneider Webb, and her advice was, “You don’t have to do all the socials, you just have to do two.”

I like writing long-form blog posts when the mood strikes me and I have something to say. I am no longer forcing myself to post something every week, because I don’t always have something I want to say. I like Blue Sky because I like dropping into a conversation, dropping a witty one-liner, and running away.

Leann, however, added to her advice, “but you have to do Instagram.”

OK. Statistically, yes, Instagram is where the readers are, so I have been reorienting myself to focus on Insta, by which I mean I make sure I post once a week, and I tied my Facebook and Threads to Instagram so I’m updating one place to hit three. (See my post on How to Get Hits on Instagram.)

But, seriously, stop trying to do ALL THE THINGS. Build an audience where you already are, and others will find you there. What you really want is ONE place that people can find you. It can be a blog, a website, or your Facebook/Instagram/Bsky profile. That’s all you need to be googlable when people want to know “Who is this masked author?”

Why I hate on Tuesdays

It started as a real gripe with my co-workers and besties. As an IT professional, it felt like everyone dumped work on me on Tuesdays. They were too busy, probably, on Monday, and then on Tuesday, all caught up, they could create work for other people.

I started to post on social media small rants against Tuesday, and I took it as a personal challenge to come up with epithets that were not ablest or punching down… it was fun, and silly, and somehow became a popular feature of my social media presence? I’m not kidding. I get so many likes on the “I hate Tuesday” posts.

Honestly, my Tuesdays haven’t been so bad, lately, but I’m keeping it up because, well, at least once a week something annoying happens and I think, “This will make a good Tuesday post.”

Repetition makes something funnier. I learned that lesson from Monty Python. “That’s the skit? Just a bunch of people saying SPAM? I don’t get it.” … three watchings later … “SPAM! Comedy gold!”

While I thought at first that I would annoy people by posting too much, you get more followers if you post regularly. I don’t quite get it? But it’s born out through my experience. I’ve never unfollowed someone because they stopped posting, mind, but maybe it’s one of those algorithm things?

Anyway, if you can come up with a running gag, run with it. Then you can think EVEN LESS about keeping up your social media. As you can see, it doesn’t have to be that complicated or even witty. It all began with, “Ah, my old nemesis, Tuesday.”

Blog, Brag, Bling

The number one mistake I see authors make on social media is over-selling. They post the same “buy my book” graphic over and over. THIS makes me un-follow. I already get ads on all my feeds, thanks.

The advice I heard at a conference once (I wish I remembered the presenter so I could credit her! A younger, blonde woman. If it’s you, contact me?):

Make sure you post content and something fun for every promotional post you make. Or as I shorthand it: Blog, Brag, Bling.

Blog: Not necessarily blog posts, but they can count– the life updates. I walked the dog. How about this weather? Cast on a new sweater. Wow, I hate Tuesdays. Remind your followers you are human! They like that.

Brag: One promotional post a week. Either “buy my book” or “I’m going to be doing an event, please attend” or “Here’s my latest short story” – not all three. Alternate.

Bling: Science headlines, pretty art you saw, photos of cats or dogs or other cute animals, whatever it is you find shiny and want to share so others can enjoy it.

I’m not slavishly rotating through with a check-list, but when I realize I haven’t posted in a while, I scan back and see which I’m missing. I also keep this mantra in mind while planing posts ahead with my aggregator, which leads us to…

Schedule Ahead

I have a day job, 9am to 5pm Monday-Friday. (I know! A dying breed!) I also volunteer for various organizations, teach classes, and have my own writing and daily chores to contend with. I’m not coming up with these posts at the times you see them. I use a post scheduler. Two, actually:

Buffer: https://publish.buffer.com/all-channels – free to connect to three social media sites, unlimited posts – I connect this to Mastodon and Blue Sky and mostly just use it for the weekly Tuesday rant

MetriCool: https://app.metricool.com/ – free to post up to 20 times a month to up to 18 social sites – I connect to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Blue Sky and post my weekly Instagram post to all.

Of the two, I prefer MetriCool, but it doesn’t connect to Mastodon, so I keep Buffer around.

I never get close to 20 posts a month scheduled. My average is 8 posts a month, basically 2 a week: one blog, one brag.

In an idle moment at my computer, I make sure I have a Tuesday post ready to go Tuesday mornings on Bsky, Threads, and Mastodon.

If I’ve written a blog post, whenever the muse strikes, I schedule it for the next available Thursday to go out to everything on MetriCool. This requires an Instagram-friendly image, ugh. I pick among the photos I already have, or rarely upload a new one relevant to the topic. The posts don’t do well on Insta, but they do great on FB.

BTW, MetriCool only connects to “professional” Facebook pages. I try very hard to keep the author stuff on the author page. (Follow my author page to be sure you get my author news!)

When I have an appearance or event, I schedule an announcement post a week ahead of it. Sometimes I do one two weeks ahead, if I’m very anxious about people coming, but I think most people forget if you post more than a week in advance.

MetriCool does this thing where it colors in the times with how likely you are to get engagement. I don’t know if I believe them, but I’m too chicken not to follow their advice. I do, however, err on the side of earlier in the day because I like to know my post is out there already when I check my feeds at lunchtime.

I’m writing this blog post on Friday, January 16th, around 7pm because yeah, I have a full and rich social life. I’ll post it to social media on Thursday, January 29th at 9am, because I already have a blog post for next week.

Here’s what the scheduler looks like:

A calendar Monday through Friday, times shaded various shades of pink, two blocks overlaid with social media icons and a preview of text "This weekend I'll be joining" and "This week's blog post is..."

And… that’s about it?

I suppose my social media strategy is “Things I’d say to start a conversation at a cocktail party with friends.” It’s a guilty pleasure. I get to say my piece without being talked over, or even having to stay and listen to the long boring story about someone’s gardening plans.

Don’t Overthink it

In addition to my scheduled blog, brag, and bling (and hating Tuesday) I will whip out my phone and post random things that pop into my head because I think they sound witty. (This usually happens after my morning bike commute, or walking the dog, times when my mind is unoccupied.)

These almost always count as “blog” or “bling” so I’m saving up “brag” spots without even trying.

You know… that person who tries to hard to get you to like them at a party? Yeah, that’s me… but seriously, if you don’t try hard, it’s better. Just be yourself. As scary as that is.