How Social Media Can Benefit Writers

Tina Cho and Leslie Tribble are teaming up on this post to show writers why they should be on social media. 

From Tina:

Social media can benefit writers in wonderful ways if used responsibly! I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Twitter, especially, in its concise tweets has brought me lots of goodies. Here are my reasons why you should be on social media too.

You might find an agent. 

I found my agent through Twitter. I was following another agent from Martin Literary who tweeted about a new agent. Bingo! I submitted to her, and we’ve sold five books since 2016.

Adria Goetz is the best!

You might find story ideas.

Someone tweeted about haenyeo (South Korea’s diving women). I looked them up and knew I must write about them. The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story published in August 2020 from Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random and received 4 stars and lots of other accolades. See my website for details.

You might get an animated special deal (i.e. short movie) for your book.

It all started with a Tweet, dear readers!! Because Twitter friends share book covers and book reviews, someone who works for a media company just happened to see the book cover of The Ocean Calls, told her company about it, who got a hold of my agency, who bought the rights to make it an animated special. So keep sharing those book covers & reviews!

You might find a writing tribe.

Because of my books and presence on social media, especially Twitter, the famous Newbery author, Linda Sue Park EMAILED me to be a part of her #kibooka team of Korean-American & diaspora writers. See https://kibooka.com/ 

You might discover your book being sold at a famous store.

One early morning as I was getting ready for school, Penguin Random House tagged me on Instagram. Pottery Barn Kids is selling my book along with other wonderful picture books on equity and inclusion. I was floored! And last weekend I did a video for them!

You will meet wonderful people.

I have met so many wonderful people on social media--authors, illustrators, editors, agents, parents, teachers, etc… All these connections are integral in helping you become a great writer and person. 

Librarians and book reviewers will want to tag you.

Each week I’m usually tagged by librarians or book reviewers or parents or readers who enjoyed my books. I’m humbled and enjoy meeting people around the globe. 

Your publisher will want to tag you.

If your publisher is marketing your book, they will tag you. 

From Leslie:

My social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is my favorite form of social media, and I’ve been posting my nature photos there since 2013 - that is hard to believe!

For me, social media is a way to connect with other like-minded folks. I follow authors, both adult and kid-lit but I also follow a lot of landscape and wildlife photographers who inspire me with their work. Seeing the beauty of their art makes me work harder at my own photography. I don’t have a huge following, but I’ve really enjoyed the connections I’ve made with some of these virtual friends and have even met a few in real life. 

It was the suggestion of some of my social media followers that prompted me to create a calendar. I have zero photo editing skills and didn’t know how to create a calendar at all, but I buckled down and finally produced something I was very proud of last year. It was a huge learning curve, but gratifying in many ways, and I’m already working on a new calendar for 2022. 

My SM platforms have also been a convenient way to promote my self-published outdoor recreation guide. With one quick picture and a few words, I can tell people about my book and have even have others expand my reach when they repost my photo. Free and instantaneous marketing! In fact, now that spring is slowly making its way to northwest Wyoming, I’ll be posting a photo of my book soon, reaching even more folks than last year.

Social media can be a huge consumer of your valuable time, but it can also bring personal friendship, engagement, creative inspiration, career success and overall enjoyment. It’s a good way to get your name out there in whatever field you’re interested in. 

Let us know what successes have come your way through social media!

Tina Cho is the author of four picture books-- Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans (Little Bee Books 2018), Korean Celebrations (Tuttle 2019), My Breakfast with Jesus: Worshipping God around the World (Harvest House 2020), and The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story (Kokila/Penguin Random House Aug. 2020). Her lyrical middle grade graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, debuts from Harper Alley in 2023. After living in South Korea for ten years, Tina, her husband, and two teenagers reside in Iowa where Tina also teaches kindergarten. 

website: https://www.tinamcho.com/ 

Twitter: @TinaMCho

Instagram: @Tinamcho

Facebook: TinaWheatcraftCho 

Leslie Colin Tribble is the author of Adventure Guide to Cody, 2019. She's written for Cody and Beyond, Cross Country Skier Magazine, Yellowstone Valley Woman, RootsRated, and Sunlight Sports - East Side Stories. Leslie lives in northwest Wyoming with her adventure dogs, Robbie and Milo.

Instagram: @Sagebrush_Lessons

Facebook: Leslie Colin Tribble

A Quick Instagram Primer

By Leslie Colin Tribble

Have you wanted to jump on the Instagram bandwagon, but didn't know where to start? Keep reading for a quick guide on how to use this social media platform for personal and professional use.

First off, a disclaimer. I've been on IG for nearly six years and I still don't really know much about it. I just post my little photos and enjoy seeing other people's pictures. That being said, I do think it's a fun platform and I think kidlit writers should be branching out to embrace the Gram. The name Instagram is a combination of Instant Camera (mobile phone camera) and Telegram - sort of an instant postcard.

Why You Should Have a Presence on IG
Insta has been around for about nine years. It appears to be growing in popularity, especially with a younger demographic. I'm a Baby Boomer and all my friends use Facebook. Some of them are on Twitter but very few are on IG. As of 2017, there were 800 million Instagram users, with a vast number of those folks being under the age of 35. Facebook is a great platform, but picture book authors need to go where adults with young children are, and right now, that happens to be Instagram.


Getting Started
The first thing you need to know is that Instagram is designed to work only on your cell phone. You can't access it with your laptop without a lot of effort. But creating an account is painless and the IG app for iPhone and Android is easy to use.

You need to decide on a user name - if you're an author and you want to use IG primarily for promoting your work then you can use just your name. If you chose a different name, you can link your personal name to that so followers can still find you by searching your name.

You have the option of making your account Public or Private. If it's public, anyone in the world can find you. People don't have to request to follow you so you'll definitely get some odd balls. You can block followers, though, if necessary.

Followers
You want to see and be seen on IG, just like any social media. Tell all your FB followers that you're now on IG and ask them to follow you there as well. You also need to follow others on the platform - oftentimes you'll get a return follow.

The best way to get followers is to use and follow hashtags. If you're on Twitter you know this already, but for anyone not on Twitter, hashtags are nothing more than key words (remember learning how to write essays and choosing your key words?). For instance, I post mostly landscape photos of Wyoming so I use these hashtags - #nature, #explore, #hiking, #getoutside, #wanderlust, #simplebeauty, #greateryellowstoneecosystem. IG helpfully provides a list of hashtags to choose from as you begin to type. When I first started, I wrote down other people's hashtags and used those.

This is my homepage, where you can see my massive 563 followers, which today was down to 553.

Photographs
Because IG is primarily a visual platform, try to post decent photographs. Don't use out of focus or poorly planned shots. Even cell phones that are a few years old take great quality photos, so make the effort to post something nice. The built in photo editor is wonderful and easy to use. To post a photo click on the + button at the bottom of the screen and chose a photo. Click NEXT and then you can edit your photo by using a filter or the editing tools. At the very least you can add a filter to enhance your photos, but try using the editing tools. I primarily brighten up my picture, bring up the contrast, bump up the warmth, and deepen the saturation of the colors. Then I use the Structure tool to sharpen the focus and give the photo depth. A good photo will get you followers, but bad photos will get you unfollowed.

The "unwritten" social norm is no more than one post per day. You can get started by simply posting a photo of a book, or a pretty landscape and let folks know you're ready for engagement.

Not my photo, but I wish it was. @ChristinaAdelephoto takes wonderful photos of Glacier National Park.

IG Stories
At the top of your feed, you'll see people you follow with circles around their user photos. These are IG Stories - little vignettes of life that are visible for only 24 hours. To make a story, swipe right and a camera will appear. You can take video or still shots, add text and stickers and have fun. If you're having a book signing, or other event, Stories is a great way to highlight it.

The Negative
Unless you're a self-made model or you have a really cute dog, it is hard to get a lot of followers these days on IG. Even Stephen King only has 1.1 million followers while Jiffpom, the Pomeranian, has 7 million and Doug the Pug has 3 million. But even without a lot of followers you can still get likes and engagement by people who follow some of the hashtags you use.

Spam comment on the bottom. 

There's also a lot of spam on IG - a lot of people are simply out to build their numbers so they comment something like 'Nice feed. Follow me.' And you can purchase followers if you're willing to pay the money and play the game. But as a kidlit writer, if you just be yourself you'll eventually garner a decent following. You want real people to follow you, not necessarily a brand or product.

Are you on IG? Tell me your username and I'll give you a follow. If you want to see photos of Wyoming, you can find me at sagebrush_lessons. Enjoy!

Pinterest for Writers Part 2 by Tina Cho

Welcome back!

This is a continuation of Pinterest for Writers which you can read part 1 here, if you haven't done so.

I already established why authors should use Pinterest. Did you know there's also a set time that's better for pinning to reach your followers?

According to Fannit Marketing Services, the best time to pin is on Saturdays from 2-4 pm, and 8-11 pm. Perhaps that's when women have downtime and can spend it perusing Pinterest without kiddos bothering them. The infographic listed here also shows posting times for other social media sites as well.

I usually check the Pinterest board feed once a week and pin to MY boards when I come across things I want to save. As with all social media, use your time wisely, and you'll get a lot accomplished in your day.

Another thing to remember about Pinterest is that teachers LOVE Pinterest. They pin lesson plans, books to use in the classroom, and crafts. I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store and created a board for my TpT items. Educators repin those pins along with other educational products I've written for work-for-hire publishers. If you want your books to get noticed by teachers, start an educational board to attract teacher followers. You could also make a board and pin lesson plans and teacher guides that relate to your book. Author Barb Rosenstock has a wonderful board of teacher-related items for her picture book The Noisy Paint Box. 

More ideas for boards:

• quotes for writers
• setting for your book (scenes, character's bedroom, maps)
• info about your characters (favorite food, clothing styles, pictures, pets)
• how-to boards (I have a how to write a novel board and everything pertaining to that goes on that board)
• poetry
• other ideas were listed in part 1

View image | gettyimages.com

Lastly, did you know there are SECRET boards? You can make a board and in the settings click the button to make it a secret board for your eyes only. I made one secret board for my current WIP which takes place in North Korea. I've pinned scenes, people, web sites, and articles that pertain to this WIP. Why a secret? Well, I don't think my followers would like to be bombarded with pins about North Korea, and secondly, sometimes a WIP is secretive until it goes out into the world :) Try making a secret board for your research or anything that you want for your eyes only. 

If you want to learn how to gain more followers or use Pinterest more wisely, check the articles pinned on this board.

If you're a newbie to Pinterest and want to know how to pin and set up your boards, check this video.

And here are boards of some of the groggers. Feel free to follow all or some of our boards!
(Thanks Grog friends for sharing Pinterest tips!)
Tina Cho
Suzy Leopold
Marcie Atkins
Jan Godown Annino
Patricia Toht
Janie Reinart
Grog Blog

Happy Pinning!

Pinterest for Writers Part 1 by Tina Cho

Remember the days of cork bulletin boards? Today's generation can use a virtual bulletin board called Pinterest, thanks to Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp who started the web site in 2009 after seeing that people needed a place to put images of products they'd like to buy. Since then, Pinterest has taken off.

The Pinterest web site describes this social media as "a place to discover ideas for all your projects and interests, hand-picked for people like you."

Watch the short video about Pinterest.

Why should writers care about Pinterest when they're already inundated with other social media platforms? Glad you asked!

Mia Wenjen, a prominent blogger and social media user I found on Twitter, wrote an excellent blog post called "Social Media Marketing 101 for Authors." I highly recommend you read this! Mia suggests that of all social media platforms, "Pinterest is where it is at. Pinterest is the number one driver of referral traffic for all bloggers that I know."

Check out these stats from Pinterest:

• 1.36 million visitors a day
• 68% of users are women
• 50% of users have children
• average time spent on Pinterest is 16 minutes
• 28% of users have an average income of $100k
• average age of users is 25-34
• Pinterest shoppers spend more per checkout than Facebook and Twitter

So writers, if you haven't already, join Pinterest! It's free, but you have to have an invite from a friend. (I can send you one if you need; let me know in the comments.)

Once you're a member, you create thematic boards and pin anything to your board with virtual bookmarks called pins. (see movie above) Popular boards are crafts, recipes, home decorating and remodel ideas, etc... But writers can take advantage of these boards as well. 

• pin photos of the setting of your story
• pin photos of people whom your characters are based upon
• start a board on mentor texts (Our grogger Marcie Atkins has many already)
• pin web sites of writing classes you want to take
• pin covers of books you want to read or have read
• pin THINGS YOU'VE WRITTEN (and your family and friends will repin them)
• pin articles for research

Okay, the sky's the limit, and this post is too long. Let's continue Pinterest for Writers Part 2 on April 15th. See you then!