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#MNINB April Platform Challengers, Bends In The Road, Charley Kabala, Exiled from Royal Street, FaceBook, GoodReads, John R. Woodward, MNINB, Monique Liddle, Novel Publicity, Paul Ellis, Pinterest, Platform, Terra Luna, Tools of the Trade, YouTube
Writerly Wednesdays are devoted to all things writerly. Tools of the Trade, a new series, will showcase craft and/or tech related gadgets, widgets, plug-ins, software, hardware and the like.
A week or so ago, fellow MNINBer John R. Woodward posted a fleeting tribute to Day #27 of the MNINB April Platform Challenge which I quickly memorialized in a copy-paste doc titled John’s Post. This should be viewable by the general FaceBook public. The quotes below as well as the bullet-pointed features are pulled from that text.
Remember Day 27 of The Challenge? We were ‘pushed out of our [comfort] zone’ to join a new Social Media site. Robert suggested Pinterest or Goodreads.~John R. Woodward
To my mind, John was being overly kind. By day #27 most all of us Not Bobbers wanted fewer not more social media projects to manage. Or in the eloquent words of Paul Ellis, “Ah, come on, Robert! Another, Social Media site … really?” [cue evil laugh track]
John not only persevered in creating (yet-again) a new profile, but he was able to discover features that helped him grow his fan-base and get meaningful feedback.
But first, here are some basic features of GoodReads for those of you new to this particular social media platform. (That hotlink opens to my username. Go ahead and ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ me, too.)
Goodreads is tightly integrated with Facebook. In a sense, Goodreads is the ‘book lovers community/ application’ for Facebook members. Goodreads will automatically generate Facebook updates based on actions you select.~JRW
GoodReads allows you to:
- Post a brief profile
- Post a list of books you have read, rated and/or reviewed.
- “Friend” analogous to “FaceBook Friend”
- Personal message, private/public
In addition, GR:
- Hosts dozens of forums for books, genres and topics like coffee, food and travel.*
- Features book comparisons that allows parallel of reading habits with another GR member.
- Provides automated book recommendations
- Allows you to recommend books to friends
Although I admit that I’m still not much of a Facebooker, I’ve drawn a lot more attention to my work on Goodreads. Is anybody else using it? How well does it work for you?~JRW
John was tantalized by other features for authors, that included:
- A Creative writing section for posting WIPs (that’s writers’ talk for Works In Progress) one chapter at a time. Each chapter allows feedback from the readers. Emails notify when comments are posted.
(When published)
- A detailed author’s profile
- A free blog hosted on their site. John’s blog: Exiled from Royal Street
- A book link can be applied to every post and message. John chose to send folks to his Amazon page.
- GR members who “fan” you are rewarded with notifications on their messages as well as “some other marketing frills”
Who knew? I certainly didn’t.
Of course if you look in the comment section of Day #27, I sheepishly admit that although I had opened my account last fall, I had neglected to fill out my profile. Oops! So yes, go ahead and friend me, but be forewarned I’m very much behind on all things GR. I have hopes, however. And when I’m all dressed up for company, I will use that wonderful WordPress widget on this blog site to link to my GoodReading profile. Look for it in the bottom widget bar sometime this fall.
My favorite GR feature?
Quotes.
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~Helen Keller
*Monique Liddle has been leading the charge of Not Bobbers in a private forum since the end of April. You can also check Monique out at Bends In The Road.
Recommended
More fun with GoodReads: The often overlooked features at Novel Publicity
Now it’s your turn. Share your social media likes and dislikes. Are you social curious about any site in particular? Any tips or secret handshakes you discovered along the way to becoming a social media star? Share, please do. Maybe Charley can give us a recap of his LinkedIn poll.
Lara, what a great perspective on all Goodreads offers. I have had an account for years, and had no idea – beyond keeping track of books I’ve read and mean to read, and occasionally seeing a friend’s current books on screen. Thanks for sharing!
We have John to thank. He persevered. I’m thinking we will have more gems added from others who are GR fans. Thanks for stopping in, Elissa.
I knew writers kept profiles on Goodreads, but not to the extent that John so graciously shared. I barely use GR and only as a tracker for the books I’ve read. It’s good to know how writers can use the site.
I’m interested in Pinterest, but haven’t signed up for it.
I signed up for Pinterest on day #27. I have only pinned one thing so far. But I’d like to use it for my characters in the mystery series.
Hi Lara!
I knew there was a reason why I enjoyed Goodreads (GR) so much! As a writer, BOTH writing and reading are imperative. My blog/website & other projects provide me with the writing practice, & our #MNINB Goodreads group is helping me with the reading and discussion of writing craft books. In addition, as Lara highlights, look at everything else GR can do for us as both readers & writers. Right now, I would love to input all my bks into the GR and create my own library.
As far as a tutorial and update of the #MNINB group, it would be my pleasure. I think the active members in the group would like to increase the activity level of current members & any new members. If an update of the group & an introduction to current activities would move us towards that goal, then I would be happy to do so. However, as with all things related to #MNINB, I need to discuss things with the group because I am not the leader but the moderator. We are a democratic group & my job is to put into action the will of the members. And that my friends, is definition #1 of the #MNINBers in Goodreads.
Monique
Before you were moderator, you were the one that lead the charge in setting up the group. All of those steps involved in that process, getting folks on that bus, getting them to organize, creating the space for discussion, organizing the polls, that was you my modest dear friend. I think we all owe you a big shout out for pulling that together as seamlessly as you did. I think that would be the tutorial aspect. The update would be awesome so we could shout out to Stevie’s artwork and EB and Mel and all of the others in community.
Lara, if there were 72-hours in each day, then I might possibly have enough time to do social networking properly. But there’s not, and I don’t. There came a point when I had to admit that writing is not my first priority (gasp!); my family and commitments to them are my first priority. Any leftover time is dedicated to my writing. Even high-level corporate sorts have to draw lines, and decide what’s first, what’s second, and what about time for a soak in the tub …
Ooh, a soak in the tub. You hit one of my sweet spots with that. You can see how much of a failure I have been at GR. I think that it is something that I will diddle with more once this project (Wordsmith Studio, formerly known as #MNINB Platform Challengers) gets moving under its own steam. But a soak in the tub or a day at the beach does sound good about now.
I’m with Elissa, will have to go revisit GR. The trouble is time and comfort with me. I know my friend, social media marvel Erica Heargrave has a lot of success with twitter, especially for her fictional character Emme Rogers. I’ve seen Emme ask a question and have 18 people respond with answers in seconds. Another friend, Sue Townsend, is a start-up specialist and she has great success with Linked-in, (I guess that being the more professional exchange site). I shy away from openly advertising on FB because there are personal friends who point out pushiness to me. But I’m seeing some really interesting game tactics on Linked-in and google+. (Eg: Claudsy uses google+ to announce posts, I love that it’s so immediate.) Twitter is frustrating to me because it’s too fast and I can’t be bothered to keep up. Also haven’t figured out the hash tag business yet to participate in convos.
Of course, right when I went to hit reply that long response I just wrote to you went up into the aether. WordPress has been glitchy for the past couple of days. I see that loading swishy thing swirling around as I type this up.
So I guess I’ll try to respond in segments to not lose it again. Time for social media is at the heart it for me as well. I try to accomplish multiple tasks at once. Sometimes that works; other times not.
I like that my blog posts go to an auto updater on my LinkedIn profile. That way it’s there for folks looking for it but its not spamming people who don’t want it.
I use my FaceBook author’s page for most of my blog-related biz so as to not annoy my non-writing friends. Also love our private group chats in FB. That stays off of their feed as well. For a bit there Twitter was auto posting to my FB author’s page. Not sure I liked it, but then I got some great responses to it.
Trial and error. And hopefully our learning curve is softened by our collaboration with each other. Thanks for stopping by again.
I liked the information re Goodreads. I’ve been a member for years but had neglected it. I just recently attempted to catch up with my book lists. I had no idea (until I saw John’s post) how much GR offers writers. That’s good to know for “down the road.” I haven’t been diligent with Google+ or LinkedIn either, except to send post notifications, and Twitter makes me nervous. I like the group chat, but when I comment, I always seem to come in late and I feel like a doofus. (Ever heard that word? : ) The bottom line is, I haven’t gotten a good handle on social media yet. I’ve been concentrating on my blog, trying to decide what it *really* is about, expand it, and create an audience, and I’m afraid (I’m not afraid; I know) my own writing is falling way down on the list of priorities.
I digress; more about this post, Lara, I like the quotes because they provide a visual cue so that if someone only has time to skim, she can quickly get a feel for what the post is about. I’m concerned it may be too long for some folks, though, and there may be some sensory overload, there’s so much going on. BUT you’ve provided something for everybody: easy-to-follow text, the quotes and visuals, even the video for those who might be so inclined. I think it’s a good lesson in posts generally. I expect it would have high appeal for our core challenge group, but the personal nature of it (recalling the challenge experience) might not make it as attractive for, say, a first-time visitor to Wordsmith Studio.
I’m just brainstorming here, and I hope I’m not being overly critical. You are a fearless leader, for sure, and I so appreciate your going places I might not go myself yet! Thanks for the post and for this opportunity to self-assess where I am with social media. Some great ideas here. (I wish my theme would do those quote boxes. Love ‘em!)
I am a big fan of your blog, Gerry. I’ve seen all the tweaking you’ve been doing to it. I love watching the process of you coming to terms with different aspects of it. You have taught me quite a lot by showing me that process.
I think that we are all struggling with social media. Since Khara showed me how to follow and respond on TweetChat, I’m much better. There is a delay. And no you don’t look like a doofus, and yes, I know that word. I catch more of the conversation when I go back and read the Spotify version. I have it posted to my Lara Britt FB author’s page if you want to read through it. Can’t wait until Friday. You have my interest piqued as to what you’ve got up your blog’s sleeve.
Lot’s of good information on GR that I never knew before & I’m on GR a couple of times a week. Thanks John for sharing and Lara for putting the info out there again.
Thanks for stopping by, Mona. You are better at GR than I’ve been.
Okay after reading all of this, I’m not feeling so much like a loser ! Ha. Is there ever enough time in the day? Here I am trying to catch up on blog reading and haven’t even put a dent in it… and then there’s the blogs that I haven’t even reached yet from MNINBers, oh my. I’m amazed at all the stuff you and several others are doing. Thanks for all the info… and you now reminded me of yet another thing I’m behind on… GR.
Thanks for stopping by, Lynn. I’m way behind on GR and reading everyone’s blogs. I am hoping to redeem myself with the work I’m doing on the Steering Committee of Wordsmith Studio. If I can’t do everything, maybe I can make it a little easier for others to do something. Drop by drop. The new site is still being developed but the possibilities are so thrilling!
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Thanks for the blog mention and the book link. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I’ve been on a seven-week car trip to California and back and I had troubles with my laptop and other gear that drove me offline. I’m slowly catching up now.
My Goodreads blog is EXILE ON ROYAL STREET. So far, it’s mostly devoted to my love of New Orleans and Louisiana cooking.
I have a novel-in-progress in the Goodreads creative writing section. ANJA WANTS YOU TO KNOW SHE WON’T BE EASY TO KILL is a YA thriller. ANJA is a dystopian teen book . . . except that the dystopia where Anja lives is present-day America.The link is
http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/8567009
Hey John~
I was wondering at your absence. Don’t forget to go to the new website and log in this weekend so you will qualify for a founding member badge. Deadline is Monday. http://www.wordsmithstudio.org
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