Do writers really need social media?

So, I’ve tried the social media route, posting, gathering likes and followers, but where are we all following each other to? I’ve followed people on social media after seeing an interesting post, only to lose them in the noise, never to be seen again. I’ve even bought books written by people I’m following on social media, while at the same time wondering how they pulled that off, and why haven’t I managed to do the same…

Sell on social media they say; while the next post will warn against trying to sell on social media. I put together this post, for twitter, which was hugely popular, gaining likes and views, but did it result in any sales…? No, it did not, but it did strike a chord with a lot of people!

How to promote a book on twitter without promoting a book on twitter, because that is simultaneously the best thing you can do and the absolute worst thing you can do.

·        Make it known that you are a writer.

·        Follow and interact with other writers.

·        Share posts about writing.

·        Surreptitiously sneak a post in about your book, so that you can use it as a pinned tweet, whilst hiding in a corner in case anyone notices.

·        Quickly take a picture of your coffee to distract from the disgraceful act of self promoting.

·        Continue to talk about anything and everything, except, the story that you managed to capture on sheets of paper and bind together into a handy thingy that you can sell to others in order to share your story…

People are on social media to be social… but are they, or is everyone following their own agenda? If I post anything about writing on instagram, hoping to connect with the writing community, I get immediate responses about where to promote my books, these are apparently sent by bots, as they arrive far too quickly for it to be a human interacting, after reading a post. I also get an increase in spam emails offering publishing services.

So what is the alternative? Well if you’ve read this far, it seems to indicate that blogging is still a useful way to communicate online. And maybe instead of tying ourselves in knots trying to play someone else’s game, we can just be ourselves on our websites and blogs. So that’s where I’m at right now, being myself on my website, and just maybe, likeminded people will stop by.