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September 12, 2013

Social Media by Karilyn Bentley

#writing #social media

I love this sign! And what does it have to do with my blog today? Um, nothing much, but it cracks me up and is so true. Rather reminds me of a product I used to use, a shower cleaner where a bottle of cleaner went in a battery-powered holder. Push a button and voila, spray comes out and cleans your shower. Since this meant less work for me, I bought one as soon as it came out. Pretty soon I started noticing a warning on the bottle: This is not a body wash. Nah, REALLY? Can you picture that? Someone jumping in the shower, pushing the button and thinking the chemical cleaner would clean their body? Cracks me up. And what about the Do Not Use In Shower tags on hairdryers? Didn't we learn that electricity + water = very bad in Kindergarten?? Stupidity knows no limits.

Anyway, on to my take on social media. Does it help? Of course it does. Can you find readers in social media land? Sure you can. But this blog is for those of us who get shivers when we think of getting out there and marketing and promoting. Now, I know I'm not the only author out there that has to suck it up and promote even though I'd rather be reading or writing or even hand scrubbing the shower. Lots of other things to do besides try to come up with ideas for social media. And there are plenty of blogs, etc. about what to share/write about in online digital land.



My fear of these things probably goes all the way back to when I was a kid. I distinctly remember being all of three and having a crush on one of my friends. I begged and begged and begged Mom to invite little Timmy over to play. So she did. Timmy and his sisters and his mom all came over. At that point I became mortified that Timmy would know I had a crush on him. Mortified. So I hid under the couch, crammed my three year old self in with the dust bunnies and refused to come out. From my hiding spot I watched Timmy and his sisters play with my toys while Mom and his mom chatted. This pretty much summed up my toddler years as I have many memories of hiding when people came over. Can you spell introvert?

Yep, I turned into one of those kids that would pass by a wallet full of money because it wasn't my wallet and picking it up meant I'd have to deal with a person so it was just better to walk right on by and leave it there. I did grow out of that. If I see a wallet now, I turn it in to security or the police or someone. Not like I've seen any wallets lying around or anything. But I feel obliged to throw that out there since rereading this makes me sound rather, um, odd. Or as I insist, I'm not odd, just special. <g> And yes, this behavior carries over into the land of social media. I really just want to walk right on by and hope it all goes away or someone else feels pity upon me and magically poofs content onto my social media pages.

This has yet to happen.

Which means I'm stuck sucking it up. After all, you can't make a living as an author if you're not willing to promote the heck out of your books. That is the way of the writing world nowadays and even though I'd rather hide under my laptop than type some pithy remark in an effort to get more likes and follows and boost my rating, sticking my head in the sand is not a good way of going through life. Eventually something will bite me on the butt if I'm not watching.

Does anyone else feel this way? Any suggestions from one hiding-under-the-desk-avoider to another? Besides suck it up, girlfriend? If so, please let me know! I'm all ears (or eyes as the case may be).

Oh, and if I don't answer, it's not b/c I'm ignoring you. Today I have a work conference and am on my phone. Which means internet depends on the cell provider in the cell-signal-blocking hotel and limits me to frantic log-ins in the ladies' room stall. <g> Kathy promised to help out so give her a hand and lots of thanks!

www.karilynbentley.com
Magical Lover - Can Thoren convince Keara she is his lifemate or will her secret talent be the wedge that drives them apart?
Warrior Lover - Will he choose his people? Or the other half of his soul?


4 comments:

Vicki Batman, sassy writer said...

What a great post on social media. Some days I am sick of it. I an certainly tired of the buy me buy me I see. But fb does connect and that's fun

Kathy Ivan said...

I think we all feel like we're inundated with social media these days. The key word being "Social" media. Most of us are probably doing it wrong. It should never but buy me, buy me, buy me. Its supposed to be here's what's happening, or I'm doing this, or look what just happened. With an occasional "buy me" thrown into the mix.

Facebook does give us a bit more space and connectivity with others that you don't see on some of the other social media sites.

But I'll admit I'm like Karilyn, introvert to the extreme, although I don't remember ever hiding behind my couch. LOL

Great post, Karilyn.

Karilyn Bentley said...

Thank you both!! It is difficult to find time in our busy schedules to be on social media and write. But it does help get our names out there. I too dislike all the buy me buy me. Luckily I haven't seen a lot of it lately. :)

Amalia Wilsn said...

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