My 5 Philosophies of Social Media

by Niklas Wikström
by Niklas Wikström

This year I’ve been running a 12-week course focused on social media; now that we’re reaching the end, I’ve begun to reflect on my personal approach to social media and how much of it might be applicable to others. Here’s what I came up with.

1. Social media represents your community, not a marketing bullhorn.

Community is something of a warm-fuzzy term these days, perhaps over-used and also vague.

In this particular case—for authors—I use the word community to mean your readers, other authors in your genre, the larger publishing community (at least to some extent), as well as the organizations and businesses involved in book publishing. (Think: booksellers.)

You don’t “own” or control a community, and you don’t necessarily build one either. You do participate in one, or engage with one. And to be an influential or recognized community member, it means operating so as to generate respect and trust.

If you try to use the community to fulfill only your own goals (like selling a book), and focus on your own marketing messages, the community will respond less and less enthusiastically over time.

Even though you may have seen others using the bullhorn approach, I can pretty much guarantee their success is limited.

2. Social media is creative work.

Unfortunately, the amount of angst generated by social media is all out of proportion to what skills or involvement it actually demands. While it’s often characterized as a sales and marketing communications tool, I believe it’s equally a creative medium. Meaningful updates or posts can involve artful research, writing, and design—which then get more engagement. When you post to your favorite network, it can be part of your daily practice rather than a distraction from it. See Debbie Ohi for an excellent example via Instagram; she posts daily doodles.

For more on this idea, read my post How to Avoid the “Extra” Work of Social Media.

3. Enjoy yourself first.

You know how the airline safety demonstration goes: “Put the oxygen mask on yourself first before assisting others.” You have to find what works for your own personality (and sometimes skill level) or what shows off your colors best to increase the chances you’ll enjoy what you’re doing and flourish while doing it. It makes little sense to participate on any social media channel, regardless of its strategic benefit, if you do it grudgingly. That sucks all the potential creative joy out of it. People will move a few steps away from you. But enthusiasm and energy are infectious. So is any effort that sets out to create meaning. And I find that writers, when they can focus on what’s meaningful to them, are among the most superlative users of social media anywhere. They offer substance and insight.

4. The more engaged readers you have, the more freedom you have.

Social media, combined with your website and email newsletter, help you reach readers directly. The more readers you reach, the less you have to depend on any third party to help you. That’s not to say that publishers, agents, and good marketing plans don’t matter if you have a large following. But you depend less on other people to spread the word on your behalf; you yourself are able to seed word of mouth, to get the ball rolling.

5. The rules are exactly what you make them.

Those who’ve been reading my blog for a long time know that it all started at Writer’s Digest—where I launched There Are No Rules. I still believe there aren’t rules—but good principles or best practices, yes. Ultimately social media use is as distinctive as a person’s fingerprints. It’s hard to copy someone else’s use exactly and see the same results. To some extent, everyone finds their own way—what fits their personality, their work, and the audience they hope to find or engage.

To find your own way, I recommend you loosen up (especially if you need to find your voice), not take it all too seriously, and experiment to find what works. If you need a place to start, then focus on talking about or posting about others you admire. Because social media when done well isn’t about focusing wholly on yourself; it’s about focusing outward.

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amreade

I enjoyed this post because it reminds me not to take everything too seriously. It’s important to have fun, to do what you love. Isn’t that the reason people write? I find that voice just comes naturally when I stop doing what I think I should be doing and instead do what I know.

marcymckay

I am very relational and truly enjoy meeting new people. I’ve made many new friends online. HOWEVER!

Twitter – I feel like I’ve entered a SCREAMING room. Everyone is yelling and hawking their wares at once.
Facebook – I LOVE my personal FB page, but my Mudpie Writing fan page? I can only connect with others IF they leave a comment, etc. on my posts.

For Facebook, I wonder if I shouldn’t switch to a personal page, so I can friend back the people who want to do me. For Twitter, I have no clue what to do there. Thoughts?

Juliana Lee

Jane, we agree on so many levels. And there’s still so much for me to learn. I totally understand Marcy’s comment about Twitter feeling like a SCREAMING room. I definitely need to find out more about Tweetdeck and Twitter lists… thanks for the tips, Jane. If I may make a suggestion to Marcy, I too have a personal account (only people I know face to face). I started another page, but have the same issues you mentioned about people only interacting if they respond to something I’ve written. I couldn’t join groups from that page. Now, I also have a completely different FB account for my ‘professional’ identity. I can make connections, join groups, etc. I treat it just like my personal account. I’m now on FB more because of it, but my time is more meaningful since I’m often reading articles related to my field and making the connections I really want.

Jane Friedman

Hi Juliana – Thanks for sharing your FB experience! There are so many ways to approach it, and it’s helpful to learn how each author fits the pieces together.

marcymckay

Thanks so much for your suggestion. If I understand you correctly, you’ve taken a FB personal page, but are using your professional identity on there. If I’m assuming correctly — GREAT IDEA!

Juliana Lee

You need two different email addresses. FB will not allow one person to have two accounts. So with the second email, you set up a whole new Facebook account for your professional community.

marcymckay

Thanks for your suggestions, Jane. I appreciate YOU!

Alexis

I have a small but hugely engaged community on Facebook. So while I haven’t been successful getting huge numbers, I do think I’ve been quite successful getting people engaged. I totally agree with your point about being more natural and have fun. Some people keep up this very professional front, but I’m pretty authentically sharing. I try to keep 80% of my stuff useful informative, but the other 20% is just stuff I think is cool/fun. I also ask meaningful questions. For example, everybody can post an interesting article from the NYT and ask “So guys what do you think?” But readers are smart, they know you probably don’t really care. I’ve had far better luck letting them behind the curtain – which logo do you like best and why? What do you think about making short youtube videos? I’m writing a post on X, do you have any experiences you would be willing to share? Bangs or no bangs?

Jane Friedman

Thanks, Alexis – really helpful insight!

Elizabeth Sims

I appreciate this post, Jane. It really resonates with me.

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Cyd Madsen

Sometimes I wonder how long and loud the message about Twitter will have to be broadcast for the message to get through. I do use Tweetdeck and find it useful, but even more useful is *not* following someone and seeing how strong their presence is to make me manually look for them. I don’t follow you, but I do look for you because of your quality tweets. Good stuff, that. FB is a bit more tricky. If you click to follow someone who is not a FB certified celebrity or public figure, they will not show up in your news feed. You have to also click “get notifications” and deal with the list that appears for your perusal at top screen right. If you post anything from outside FB that doesn’t come from a celebrity or public figure, you’re exercising your fingers–it won’t show up in your feed and be seen by your friends, even if the post is about how to save the galaxy in one easy step. This could be why FB savvy people copy and paste the text of an article on their timeline rather than inserting a link. Thank you for bringing up the issue of having fun. The most successful FB marketers I’ve come across simply have a good time and an interest other than books they share with others.They can be snippy at times or have a bad day, but their followers stick with them because that’s the way real (authentic) people are. They also spend a few minutes each day commenting on their friend’s timelines. It doesn’t have to be all 5,000 friends, but just a few each day makes it clear they are there to interact rather than be seen and adored. Even a quick “like” can go a very long way towards loyalty and sales.

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[…] It’s part of the job for writers, right? Social media is a must. Jane Friedman offers tips for managing it, My 5 Philosophies of Social Media. […]

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[…] own marketing messages, the community will respond less and less enthusiastically over time. Da My 5 Philosophies of Social Media di Jane […]

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[…] If you are confused about a marketing strategy, Jennifer Fusco describes several marketing strategies to choose from. Since much marketing is done on social media, Jane Friedman explains her social media philosophy. […]

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[…] I found an article about social media by Jane Friedman. I agree with her 5 philosophies of social me…, not because she’s an expert, but because her philosophy resonates with my own experience. These five things are true for me. […]