Posted by Donna on December 14, 2009 under blogging, resources | 
As more and more writers embrace social media. more and more writers are sharing their own experiences with using the medium via blogs. I came across one of these blogs, Market My Words by Shelli. Not only does she share her own knowledge of writing and marketing, but she’s scored interviews with some agents and editors and has asked them about social media and writers. I recommend checking out her blog. Kind of like me, Shelli has a background in both writing and marketing. She has assembled quite the resource.
Several months ago, Shelli also gave Social Media for Writers a shout out when she linked to an early post, SMO Etiquette Advice: When is it okay for a writer to follow an agent/editor on Twitter? Thanks for the link, Shelli, but more importantly, thanks for writing your blog!
Posted by Donna on December 13, 2009 under Analytics and Monitoring, Annoucements, Mentions, blogging, search engines |
Happy weekend. Just a quick hit here. I was looking at my Google Analytics report for Social Media for Writers to see where traffic is coming from. There were a few other blogs that have posted about this blog, so I was very happy to see that. There is such great sharing happening today because of technology.
There was a blog, Laptop Guy Unplugged (www.laptopguy.blogspot.com) which has a post about me, “Google Analytics and Finding Smart Friends“! I mean, about me, as in Donna Talarico not about this blog. First, flattered. But why I am sharing this is because it’s a perfect example to illustrate how ranking well for your own name helps people find you. I blogged about that just a few days ago with the post, How Writers Can Dominate Search Engine Results: 5 Steps to Owning Your Personal Brand. (Of course, this is only a good thing IF you want to be found, I suppose.) Audrey, who wrote the post, was searching for “social media for writers” and she found the blog. But then, she was curious about me, and well, I’ll just let her post tell the story:
This post just fascinated me. See how you can just get a little lost online making connections? It’s incredible. I also LOVE that she gave a shout out to The Office. I also take comfort in knowing that I am not the only Google Analtyics nerd who loves to not just look at data, but follow it, too.
For tips on how writers (or anyone) can rank better, please see my post. And, the funniest thing of all, is that her post is about Google Analytics. That’s exactly how I found out she wrote about me and Social Media for Writers. Perhaps my next post will be on how writers can use Google Analytics.
Posted by Donna on April 21, 2009 under Twitter for Writers |
Writers, are you tweeting? In March, I wrote “Tracking the Twitter Trend” for Wilkes-Barre, Pa.’s The Weekender. That article was a general overview of how Twitter works and locally, received some great feedback. But how, specifically, can writers use this wildly popular social networking site? There are many ideas on how writers can use Twitter, which will be covered regularly at SMFW, but let’s get started.
Here is one idea: Use Twitter to promote your blog.
One healthy way writers can keep in the writing habit is to blog. You can blog about writing. You can blog about anything but writing. But, whatever you happen to blog about, use Twitter to promote your latest blog post. Tweet the topic of your blog post and paste the link (use Tiny URL to shorten any long blog post title so you can keep in the 1 40 character limit). This will drive traffic to your blog, where new and repeat visitors to your blog can be captivated by everything you have to offer! If you have a very interesting blog post, it could warrant retweets from readers, thus sending even more traffic to your blog.
Blogs are usually personal, friendly and laid back– and a great way to share your writing (and life) with your readers, associates, students, etc. Blogs can educate and inform and promote. As a writer, you have a great tool in Twitter to engage your readers, and point them to a great place to learn more about you from your blog.
Now that you are in place to get more traffic to you blog with Twitter- make your blog sticky, too! Activate widgets or plug-ins that allow for subscription to your blog. This will keep people coming back for me. (Because after all, we want to be read, right?)
Final tip: If you blog daily or more than once per day, you may not want to tweet every single blog post, perhaps saving these tweets for posts you really want to promote. You definitely want your tweets to be varied and engaging– not all shameless plugs.
