Social Media Plan Archives

Social Media Begins with a Blog

Occasionally, even someone like me, who loves to write, gets sidetracked by life and stops—writing, blogging, posting. I kept up with my “Healthy Options” column, published the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, Tuesdays of each month in The Union newspaper, but Entrepreneurial Jan took a break. It wasn’t intentional, but apparently, I needed time to think, and as it turns out, time to synthesize, plan, and create.

During this two month hiatus, I realized that I’d lost my focus. Sure, I kept busy–even did a few workshops and worked on some fiction, but I wasn’t clear about where I was headed. Something was nagging at me.

That’s when all of the social media marking information I’d been devouring for the past few years, gelled. In a moment of divine clarity, I realized that building a writing platform and a list weren’t as complicated or time consuming as I’d been led to believe. In fact, what made everything seem so difficult was my resistance to “it.” By “it” I mean everything except blogging. After all, blogging is simply writing, but it’s all the other social media stuff that was dragging me down—until in that flash of insight I realized that once it was set up, everything else could be automated and relegated to a less than 10 minutes per post.

That’s when I really love technology!

With the goals of …
1. Establishing myself as an author (Building a Platform)
2. Promoting my writing and coaching services as well as my books
3. Growing a list for my workshops

Here’s my new, improved and completely do-able social media plan:

Blog (300-500 words) at least once a week (hopefully 2-3 times) and then post links to completed posts on Twitter, my Face Book business pages, and on LinkedIn.

That’s it. Simple and easy.

Of course, coming up with a minimum of 52 – 156 topics a year is the tricky part, but I’ve done a little online sleuthing and discovered an abundance of sites that help people come up with ideas as well as catchy headings. I’ve even come up with a way to coach others, regardless of their area of expertise, through a brainstorming process that quickly generates hundreds of topics. I know it works because I used it myself.

My goal for the rest of the year is providing information that will actually help members of my target audience—writers in general, people who have a story to tell for posterity, individuals who want to plan their novel to make writing easier and more fun as well as writers who want to learn how to jump-start their writing with prompts and other tools I’ll be sharing.

Stay tuned!

Give my ridiculously simple social media marketing plan a try and let me know how it works for you.

——

Jan Fishler is the producer of the Path to Publication DVD series filmed at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers featuring Amy Tan, Janet Fitch, and other well-know authors, agents, and publishers. She is the author of Searching for Jane, Finding Myself (An Adoption Memoir) and Flex Your Writing Muscle – 365 Days of Writing Prompts. She writes articles for VietNow National Magazine and she has a bi-monthly column, “Healthy Options” in The Union newspaper.

I wouldn’t say I embrace social media, but I do understand it to be an integral part of building a writing platform. After all, what’s the point of writing a book and becoming an author if no one knows you exist? I’m afraid that’s what happens to many of us. We spend all of our time writing and very little time marketing. So, in preparation for the launch of a few new titles, I’ve been working on developing a painless strategy for using social media to build my writing platform without becoming overwhelmed.

With so many social media choices, I’ve decided to focus primarily on my blog and use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share my links. Of course, I’m also going to make an effort to become acquainted with members of my target audience, and share articles and tips on topics that are of interest to me and others in my “tribe.” As a writer, I not only want to sell my books and online classes (coming soon!), but I also want to connect with others in my field. Here is my 7-Day bare-bones Social Media Schedule using my blog, FaceBook, LinkedIN, and Twitter. If I can do it, you can too!

Sunday: Share links to good articles on writing, motivation, creativity, hypnosis, altered states, food, and blogs I follow.

Monday: Comment on other blogs, articles, posts, and forums.

Tuesday: Short post (tips).

Wednesday: Shameless self-promotion of my workshops and books.

Thursday: Longer post (commentary).

Friday: Comment on other blogs, articles, posts, and forums — a repeat of Monday.

Saturday: Talk about what I’m learning, classes I’m taking, books I’m reading, helpful webinars I’ve taken–anything that might be useful to others

You know what they say about the “best laid plans of mice and men,” but so far this simple plan is working for me. I’m spending less than an hour each day and I’m having fun doing it. Give my 7-Day bare-bones Social Media Schedule a try. Let me know what you think.

———————————

Do you procrastinate? Do you keep putting that important writing project on the back burner even though it could cost you your job? Would you like to finally eliminate the major obstacle that prevents most writers from getting their thoughts on the page quickly and painlessly? Subscribe to my Newsletter (upper right corner) and the solution will be delivered directly to your inbox.