I’ve found the new workbook as useful for blogging as the original book (another reason to share).
What is a Superfan, you ask? Good question.
A Superfan is someone who adores, loves, admires and worships your artistic work. It’s not a phrase I coined, but a word someone wrote on a blog sometime mid-2015. If anyone out here has also read that intriguing post, please let me know so I can correctly credit the author. The word stuck with me, and it’s a way I now frame my thoughts and perceptions and just about anything when it comes to supporting fellow writers.
I am a Superfan of some writers, meaning I devour anything they write. I promote them by screaming from the rooftops and through my typing fingertips on social media. They owe me nothing, but I owe them my inspiration. Something about their writing, artwork, photography or personal interests resonates with me and I can’t not support them.
I stumbled on Marcie Hill’s book, “62 Blog Posts to Overcome Bloggers Block,” at a time when I was struggling with my blogging topics. The tip that resonated with me most was: It’s not cheating to publish a pictures-only blog post. I never thought about that, even though I have seen such posts elsewhere. I devoured her book, used some of her tips, and then I left an adoring review on Amazon. She wrote me back, “Thank you for that review.” I followed her blog and her Twitter account. Without asking, she did the same, and that’s how our relationship started.
Part of Superfandom is how writers treat me. It’s that personal touch, that sharing with others. I prefer to show my appreciation of Instagram photos with words rather than just Liking them. After commenting on @josameys.words poem about villains and heroes, we had an intense, and rather hilarious, discussion about the pros of being a villain and which Disney villains have the best wardrobe.
Remember the key word in social media: Social.
These authors, artists and other people talk with me. I couldn’t attend a weekly Twitter Chat with Nori (@ReadWriteLove28), so I Tweeted her.
“Wish I could’ve made it, but was still getting over bronchitis.”
She Tweeted back, “@dianahirsch Oh no 🙁 I hope you’re feeling better now!”
I replied, “Yep. Finally better. Took 2+ lingering weeks, but I’ll be ready next #RQWN.”
She replied, “@dianahirsch Oh good, I’m glad!”
Someone who takes that much time and attention is my idol. To show my appreciation for anyone who does that, I retweet their Tweets, I {heart} their videos on Vine and Like their Facebook page, when I’m on Facebook. Beyond such standard protocol, I ask questions and send encouragement through Direct Messages (DM). I show my hero worship by engaging with them on a personal level.
You can make people like you and have your own Superfans by doing those same things. Make sure there’s personal interaction not just some stock “Thank You for Following Me” auto reply. Be polite. Be sincere; don’t say something if you don’t mean it. Make followers feel important; they are your best advertisement and supporters. Answer questions. Send loads of virtual warm fuzzies across the Internet. Emulate the people you want to be.
Make people smile. They will adore you for that. It’ll make you feel good, too.
Sure, we all know that, but too often, we are frozen by the blank screen or paper we call Writers Block. At least, that’s the excuse we tell ourselves.
The only way to break down that wall is to write.
And that brings us back to the beginning. How do we begin writing? Where do we find ideas?
Blog Writing Challenges
Whether you have written or write for a blog, you need some social media presence to maximize this option. People are sharing their creative arsenal to battle the widespread war of writer’s block across the webisphere. These challenges are sites all across the Internet. Your journey is to find them.
I’m a fan of the social media site Twitter. Unlike Facebook, it’s an open media without memberships or restrictions. Connecting with writers and readers and celebrities is a Follow click away. Unlike LinkedIn, it’s not business-focused. Unlike Google+, this is not a new, unknown experiment. Twitter is established, creative and short to swallow with its 140-character limit in each Tweet. It’s easy to find similar topics and groups with a simple #hashtag search.
On the day I wrote this, I found an array of challenges with directed yet general hashtag searches. Some of these lead directly to the moderator’s website, while others simply group posts together under that specific hashtag.
Searching the Twitter hashtag #challenge showed writing and non-writing Tweets. Scrolling through feed, the most relevant ones came from users like @convince to post a photo with every Tweet for one week, @RonovanWriteswith his weekly haiku prompt and @lettrs posing a #WordOfTheDay challenge.
One of my favorite hashtags is #6WordStory, a challenge posed by @Kelsye. Other searches relevant and directed to writers include: #WritingChallenge; #poetrychallenge; #FiveSentenceFiction; #haikuchallenge; and #fictionchallenge.
Twitter is not case-sensitive, so upper- and lower-case usage is personal preference. The words get you to the same location. I like to capitalize some of the longer hashtags to make them easier to read.
The beauty of Twitter is the prompts are provided, and the ideas out there are bountiful. Once you find an inspirational idea, attack that challenge with all your creative energy. Many people link to their personal blogposts, but you don’t need a blog to participate. Create a separate file on your computer and dedicate 15 minutes a day to play with words. Do an email exchange with a friend or family member. If you are uncomfortable sharing, choose a journal to write in for your personal enjoyment.
If you want to publicly share your accomplishments submit these, or parts of it, on your social media or link posts to your personal blog. If you want to make a visual expression of your art, use a smartphone app like InstaQuote or Notegraphy to create a graphic to share with others or save to your camera roll.
Using photos allows your social media reach to increase. The Twitter user @asilartist tied her #9WordStory challenge together by cross-posting from her @reclaimed poet Instagram account. The same hashtag exploration applies there. I found creative posts with the tags: #WritingChallenge; #PoetryChallenge; #threewordstory; #poemaday; #flashfiction; and #4WordStory.
Beware! Most users will use more than one tag, adding several related hashtags so their post can reach various audiences. As your curiosity increases, you will find yourself winding through a maze of related hashtags so that you can forget the original hashtag you started searching for. It’s glorious. It’s frustrating.
There are worse things than being lost in a new tag that connects to a newer tag that inspires you to search for a personal interest of yours. It’s the only way to drag yourself over that tall writers block wall.
Twitter is stupid, and Instagram is for people who can’t read.”–Max, 2 Broke Girls
I always think of that quote when I mention Instagram to others. Instagram is a social site for sharing snapshots. If you don’t like taking pictures, this post won’t be for you, but you should read to the end just to make sure.
As a writer, or any business owner, you need to find social media platforms that work for you and your desired end goals. The sites need to be ones that you will maintain and that are fun for you. I think Facebook is a big time-suck with algorithms that don’t let me see the feeds of everyone I want to in the order that I want to. Still, I have a Facebook Author Page that I modestly keep up with. I have discovered informative people through Twitter and it seems to be popular for writers. It’s hard to keep up with the news feed some days, but there’s some good interaction with my tweets.
What about Instagram? I’m a scrapbooker and, by default, take hundreds of photos every month. I’m surprised it took me so long to find the value in Instagram. My first two photos posted the week of June 10-16, 2012 (138 weeks ago) when I was just playing around with some filters on my first smartphone. They were pictures of teddy bears. I didn’t know what else to do with it, so I trailed off and lost interest. I picked it up again the week of February 2-7, 2014 (53 weeks ago, or just over a year) as an outlet to showcase my writing, initially my haiku poetry. Now I use Instagram for my writing and…well, stop on over and check out my photos at @dwhirsch.
I use Instagram as a marketing tool as much as a social experience. I don’t pretend to know everything about Instagram. I read information from bloggers who have done the research, such as @jenns_trends, who is a goddess on Insta-information. What I’m offering is my personal experiences and successes adapting those tools.
To use Instagram effectively, you have to decide what you plan to share. This can change over time, but start with some initial rules. My guidelines are the same ones I have for my personal blog. I never post pictures of friends or family without first getting their consent. I don’t post photos of my house because I have “location services” turned on my phone. I don’t want people to know where not to find me when I’m out of town. There’s nothing valuable, explicit, religious, political, controversial or anything my dad–were he still alive–would be disappointed to read about me.
Instagram is Insta-easy to use, and the site’s features are relatively uncomplicated and obsessively playful. It’s free to set up, and I recommend you snag your profile information now: create your Name (generally your real name or business) and Username (what you’ll be known @as). Photos are posted in a square, and most smartphones have a “square” option in the camera settings. If not, or if a square cuts off some important part of your photo, there are many free apps that will shrink your photo and place a border around it. To post, just upload a photo or 15-second video that you take live or have stored in your smartphone library. You can alter your media with black-and-white, sepia or color filters, with additional tools to adjust the image’s brightness, contrast or saturation level. Finish it off with a frame or vignette, add a caption and press Share.
Now that you’re live, how do people find you? Your 153-character bio, along with your photo’s caption, and hashtags need to be creative, potent and relevant. Going back to Max’s quote comparing Twitter and Instagram, the latter is not restricted to 140 characters. Your photo or video should tell a complete story, but you can use about 440 words to explain that image. This comment section is vital because you can tell your story and highlight your image using crucial hashtags.
Instagram is hashtag heaven. People with similar interests will find you based on how you tag your images. Common hashtags reflect those you find on Twitter, but you don’t have to be familiar with Twitter to use Instagram. Think about what your picture is about and tag your image with common terms. As a snapshot in the moment, you can showcase a twisted #tree branch, a royal #sunset, a #selfie in your awesome new #shirt, an art exhibit or the #bananabread you’re baking. You’ll get a feel for tags once you start using them. Tags have no spaces and use just alphabet characters with no suggestions, so type in exactly what you’re looking for. Much like Twitter lists, you can also create hashtags to group your own images in a somewhat folder design. Some of mine include #iamapoetess, #SnuffletFinse and #Champsp. Be sure to check out this group’s posts, which are under the same hashtag as on Twitter: #dwriters.
The Explore tab complements tags by suggesting people to follow based on tags you use, images you’ve ‘Liked’ and people or companies that your followers follow.
Oh, yes, companies use this. Instagram is a successful marketing tool, a highly-used space to display products from #clothing to #cosmetics. Check out companies like @Bathandbodyworks, @Ford and @Applebees.
I sometimes stage my work because I want my followers to see the best of me. I give my followers a peek into my writing, #Zentangle art and my overall creative process while infusing my quirky personality and personal interests. Think about it: if I follow a particular author, I feel more connected to the “person” rather than to the “celebrity.” Therefore, I’ve taken my book cover image and overlaid a part of a review on top of it. I type up actual text from my latest #shortstory or #poetry. Photo editing can be fun.
Given my goals, I show images of blue-inked-up work as I edit my current draft. I show the #coffee shops where I #amwriting. I show the stages of my Zentangle #wip so people can see my creation from start to finish. I have too much fun with it on the go not to let it be organic.
Remember, social media is social. I share my work and myself because like Max on #twobrokegirls, the experience on Instagram is more social. I comment more than I Like because the image doesn’t always grab me but the story in the caption section does. When someone takes the time to comment on my work, I respond to every–and I mean every!–comment made to me even if that person replied with a smiley face emoji. I appreciate the time that person spent appreciating me, similarly the gratitude when I receive a #bookreview on #Amazon or #Goodreads. If nothing else, I reply “Thank you.” People like you when you like them.
What are the benefits? The most important is meeting people with similar interests. I’m reading a #memoir recommended by a follower who is #writing her own memoir. I’m inspired by new #art and #painting techniques. I’ve been challenged to take pictures in #blackandwhite. I could meet any number of them for #coffee if I was in their area. I have a connection to these people. You can do the same with your peers and have fun doing it.
