Seven Deadly Sins of #WritingCommunity

Social media is fundamental to an indie author’s platform. The labyrinthine mysteries of the Amazon algorithm can all but assure a debut won’t be found in an organic search. Placement on sites and email lists has questionable return on investment. Social media allows you to go where the readers are.

Cultivating a brand takes time and effort. Think of your social media accounts as the very first step of your author sales funnel. You meet people, win them over with your charm, command of language, or expertise, and try to bring them back to your website or sales page.

I wrote this list because a lot of people in the writing community (myself included!) could be more effective on social media. We are not only our own brand, but our best brand ambassador.

Pride

You wrote a book. Congrats! That’s something most people can’t say, even if they desperately want to put something out there. It took a lot of effort to complete that project and you should pat yourself on the back.

But what you should not do is send direct messages to people the second they follow back. “I was just being polite,” they’ll mutter under their breath as they tap the Report and Block buttons.

This is especially problematic on Twitter and Facebook. Because of Twitter’s Report function, cold messages damage your brand more than cold emails. When users receive an email from an author, they are unlikely to report it as spam.

But Twitter messages feel more intimate to users, and most prefer to keep them open only to friends. The way that Twitter has set up the DM interface almost invites users who want to block and report along with deleting the message. At the very least, it puts the idea into their heads.

“But I’ve targeted my audience,” you scoff. “My book fills needs and solves problems!” Then why didn’t you tell them publicly, on the post where they explicitly mentioned the dilemma? In my experience, that’s somewhat effective, has the benefit of getting impressions from anyone who stumbles on the thread, and feels more helpful and less spammy.

Greed

Some users want to be followed, but they don’t want to follow. They are under the impression that it makes them look very important to follow a few while being followed by many.

One way to accomplish this goal is to follow a lot of people, then unfollow all of them. This works because most people don’t actually use unfollow checkers.

This technique backfires hard because who uses unfollow checkers? The savvy daily users. You are alienating the very group most likely to see your content. They will probably block you and certainly won’t interact with your writing anymore.

Lust

This is a problem with Twitter especially, because it both allows pornography and randomly displays your likes to your followers when they’re in Top Tweets mode. But if you don’t warn people that your profile is 18+, they didn’t consent to having erotica displayed on their timeline. Even worse, some writers retweet sexual content without a warning on their profile.

This is easily remedied by a warning in the name or bio, or by having a separate account. In addition, if you have genitalia/naked butts/female nipples in your avatar or profile banner, you can lose your Twitter account for violating their adult content policy.

Envy

She started the same day as you, but has 500 times as many followers. He has the same number of followers, but his posts are parties and yours are funerals with no mourners. She is constantly on Follow Friday and Woman Crush Wednesday lists, while you’ve created an elaborate network of sock puppets to–never mind, you catch the drift.

Don’t make yourself miserable. Someone will always be more popular than you. Analyze why they’re successful if you want, but remember: comparison is the thief of joy.

Gluttony

For most of us, being everywhere is worse than being nowhere. I see writers who manage to spend a few minutes a day on 4+ social networks, and more power to them. But I don’t have the time or the inclination. What I really want to do is write, so I have to drop most social media.

Unless you have no responsibilities, you’re likely in the same boat. If you need permission to neglect or close the accounts that have been less effective for you, here it is.

You will find that you are far better off focusing you efforts on a smaller number of profiles. The quality of interactions on your remaining accounts will skyrocket and you will likely see a bump in sales or page reads.

Wrath

I’m sympathetic to the idea that you should tell that person on the internet that they are wrong. I can even understand why their wrongness deserves an uncivil response. But your followers and casual bystanders may not be so supportive. So before you draft that response, ask yourself: if this was the first tweet I ever saw from a stranger, what would I think of them?

Arguments are more likely to damage your brand than help it (unless you’re cultivating a curmudgeonly glow). How you behave when someone starts on argument on one of your tweets cannot be boiled down to a blanket statement. But if you see something that angers you, in general, it’s better to block and move on.

Sloth

I LOVE prescheduled posts. They are by far the most efficient way to promote your links on social media. Blog posts! Sale pages! Others’ content like cool pictures and articles!

But listen. Nobody wants to see a bunch of pins from you alone. You’re on social media to socialize, you bum, so get out there. Repin. Reply. Repeat.

You can actually damage your brand like this. Twitter will slap a 16-week search ban on you for overusing automation. Aside from that, some of your followers might start to peel away if they feel like you only added them to advertise. Relying on scheduling alone is counterproductive.

Thank you for reading, and if you would like more tips on expanding your brand on Twitter, check out Twitter Marketing for Microbrands 2020! (affiliate link). Don’t forget to comment and subscribe, and if you like the photograph I used on my pin, see more of Martin Vorel’s work here. See you next time!