Social Media for Writers: Social networks to start using

Welcome to my new blog series, Social Media for Writers! This is going to be a fortnightly series targeted at writers and authors who want to know more about using social media to support their author platform. 

I’m going to target it so that it’s accessible for complete novices, as well as for those of you who know what you’re doing online but just want a bit more of a guide as to how to use it as a writer.

If you want to know more about this new series, check out this post. 

Here, I want to start out easy. There are tons of social networks around and it can be difficult to know where to start with them. So to start out today, I’m simply going to be talking about some of the social media networks you can start using.

Twitter – posts are of up to 140 characters. It’s easy to use, easy to connect, and great for quick bites and updates. Check out my Twitter profile here.

Facebook – now this one’s a little more diverse. You’ve got the whole Page vs Profile debate, and Groups as well. I’ll go into more detail in a separate post, but basically: Groups are a great space for talking to other writers; profiles tend to be much more personal; pages are great for longer updates than Twitter as well as letting you create events and albums.

Instagram – an image-focused social network that’s not the easiest for sharing links, but is perfect for sharing gorgeous images and some text.

Goodreads – maybe less of a conventional ‘social network’, but given that it’s such a book-focused platform, definitely worth taking a look at. It’s nice for collecting lists of books you want to read, sharing what you’re currently reading, and so on.

Pinterest – another visual platform like Instagram, Pinterest uses images to catch users’ attention and usually links them through to another site. It’s also great for creating mood boards (swoon).

LinkedIn – a professional network, but a social network all the same. If I ever get requests from people about writing for them or attending an event, I check them out on LinkedIn first.

Snapchat – I’d say this is one I’m less convinced about, but since it’s so popular, it needs mentioning. I keep my Snapchat purely to use with my friends, but it’s certainly an option, and one plenty of people use to talk to their audience.

I know I’ve neglected to mention any blogging sites so far, but I haven’t forgotten. I started out using Tumblr for my blog, but Wordpress and Blogger are very popular alternatives. And as you may notice, I've made the switch to Blogger. 

All are straightforward and easy to use – Blogger (or Wordpress Pro, which you have to pay for) is a more comprehensive option if you’re willing to get more stuck in with HTML coding, or want something more user-friendly for creating content. Whichever you pick, if any, my final recommendation is: 

Bloglovin’ – this one allows you to share you own posts and easily follow and read others’ posts, from a variety of platforms. I share my blog via Bloglovin’, but mostly use it to collect blogs I follow to read their posts.

Next time I’ll be talking about how to set up your online profile, and what you need, but in the meantime, I encourage you to sign up for a couple of the social networks I mentioned above (if you haven’t already!) and look around.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter for other updates, and you can follow me on Bloglovin’ here to keep up to date with all my blog posts. If there’s a particular post you’d like to see in this series, let me know!