Platform Archives - Page 28 of 28

When Fear Comes

April 7, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com Leave a Comment

I say when, not if. Because there WILL come a time in your journey where you are knock-kneed with fear. We should probably discuss how the affect of fear on creativity. If you are like me and don’t like at admit fear, perhaps you cloak if with something that seems less shameful to admit. For me, that less shameful thing is busyness.

“Oh, I will send my manuscript to my agent,” I say. “But right now I am too busy.”

(There ARE times where this is true. Read here to know the difference between legitimate excuses and lame ones.)

I am afraid. But sometimes I say I’m busy instead.

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My busy is sometimes legitimate. Four kids ain’t no joke. But sometimes I KNOW. I know that I am not, in fact too busy. Or, I am too busy but it’s because I take the time that would be writing and editing and I use it to do something else. Like start a new blog. (Or a podcast. Oops.) Or write a NEW manuscript.

I’ll do anything but face my REAL fear. Which is this: that the manuscript I have worked so very hard on is really crap. That my agent will say so. Or that someone will buy it but it will hit the bookshelves and I and every review says I’m a hack. Or perhaps worse: just meh.
I am afraid. But sometimes I just say I’m busy instead.

What do you do when the fear comes? Share your deep secrets in the comments. We will be nice. (Because we’re afraid too.)

Other people talk about the crippling nature of fear. Or why you should embrace it.
(One thing they agree on: use numbers in your post titles.)

8 Habits That Crush Creativity from CopyBlogger
The 7 Deadly Fears of Writing from Men with Pens
4 Reasons Why Fear Is a Creative’s Friend on Life Dev

Twitter Is Not Simply Shouting into a Crowd

April 7, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 4 Comments

Sometimes when people start out on Twitter, they feel as though they are shouting into a crowded room. I think this is because people are accustomed to the easy Likes tossed around on Facebook and we aren’t thinking about how Twitter works. We expect Twitter to act like another platform. Almost every single thing you post on your Facebook (profile, not page) will have at least a Like. On Twitter, people do not give away favorites, replies, or retweets so easily, which can lead to a sense of isolation.

But it is not hard to build connections on Twitter. You know how I know?

Because Vanilla Ice once retweeted me.

Though it was likely Vanilla Ice’s assistant, that moment was the unimagined culmination of so many of my 7th grade dreams. It also illustrates this great fact: Twitter makes the world small. It is a tool for connecting that reaches people in a way that email and Facebook cannot.

If you feel like Twitter is shouting into a crowd that doesn’t care, chances are that you are ACTING like Twitter is a crowd and you are shouting. You shout with links to your content and with a photo of your breakfast and more links to your content. You may be ignoring how Twitter works.

Perhaps this is because you have heard that you should post your content multiple times a day on Twitter. (You should.) But you also need to interact. You need to retweet Vanilla Ice or (a better idea) the people in your field. You need to reply to Tweets that resonate. Let Twitter make the world small.

The first way to do this is to find great people to follow and then share their content without expecting anything in return. Be intentional and share things that are relevant to the audience that you want to build.

If you are not sure what kind of audience you want to build, this is the time to stop, get a sheet of paper and do some brainstorming. Without intentional goals, you may not make connections or build the wrong kinds.

As with all social media platforms, you want to be a creator of content and a curator of content. The first is obvious: if you have a blog or an online space, share links to that content. Your email list signup. Your latest blog post. Old blog posts. Your Instagram photos. Your Pinterest pins. Your books on Amazon.

Want to get my workflow for using Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day?

As a curator of content, think of yourself as the person in charge of hanging paintings in a gallery. You want to give a variety, but each gallery has its own vibe and sense of space. Don’t be one-note, but there should be a sense of wholeness. A theme. Something tying all the shares together.

You don’t simply want to be a robotic retweeter. Share with spice. Be yourself, or at least, be the persona or brand that you want to portray online. I consider my persona an authentic but edited version of me that best fits with my online goals. I try to pepper my feed with tweets that contain no links: questions, observations, smart aleck remarks.

In the same way, I like to share a mix of scheduled content and live content. A few times a week I sit and do a batch of auto scheduled tweets, sharing from lists I’ve created on Twitter. (Read more on my process in this guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog.) Some relate to writing, some relate to social media, some relate to food, and some are just people I think are interesting or funny.

To make connections, sometimes you have to forge them. This is much less work than it sounds. Respond to interesting tweets. Say thanks when someone shares your content. Be a PERSON. Not that hard, right?

Twitter still has a different level of interaction than Facebook. Each social media platform has its own personality. Don’t expect something from Twitter that it won’t give.

Do you feel like Twitter is a crowded room that isn’t listening? Or has it made your world small? Share your Twitter thoughts in the comments like a civilized human.

Oh, you wanted me to give you tips? Here are some fabulous people for that.

The Twitter Smarter Podcast with Madalyn Sklar
50 Tweetable Tips from Hubspot
5 Ways to Increase Your Twitter Interaction from Social Media Examiner
7 Counterintuitive Twitter Tips from Buffer
3 Myths about Social Media for Authors from Tim Grahl

Why You Should Own Your Name dot com

April 4, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 10 Comments

Do you own your name dot com? Here is my take on why you should own your own name as a domain.

But first: Stop reading and go buy your domain name. NOW.

{If you already own it, give yourself a high five & skip to the next post.}

What if your name isn’t available? Try with your middle initial. Or if you’re a writer, try YourNameWrites or YourNameWriter. Don’t be fancy or clever with a dot anythingelse. Get your dot com. Once you have YourName dot com, try to keep it consistent on social media. (More on that later.)

Why? For authors this makes the most sense because you will be known by your name. Say you become super famous and get speaking gigs. Unless you are The Bloggess, you will be introduced as your name. Plus? You AREN’T The Bloggess. Few of us are. One, to be exact. And she does also go by her real name. Just check her latest book.

Perhaps my favorite reason to own your own dot com is this: Owning your own name lets YOU control the narrative. You are the authority. You are YOU. As Dr. Seuss puts it in The Birthday Book, “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” You are YOU. Own YOU. Be YOU.

There may be good reason for exceptions to this, like a giant platform under a blog name. Or you are an anonymous blogger. Or you write under a pen name. (But you should then own that pen name.) Even if you still choose to blog or write under your clever blog name, at least BUY your name. For a rainy day, perhaps. Like when it’s raining money and they need to know where to send the check. You can simply say, “Send it to MyName@MyName dot com, thankyouverymuch.”

Agree? Disagree? Let’s have a civilized discussion in the comments about why you should own your name dot com.

More People Who Say So:

Why You Should Own Your Name as a Domain from Amanda Formaro
Why It’s Worth It to Purchase Your Domain Name from Life Hacker
Why You Should Grab Your Domain Name Now from Gary Matthews
(and by “now,” he wrote this in 2013, so you REALLY better hurry)

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