by Anjelina Keating, AIW member
“Social media is not a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in communication. You need to get the concept, even if you decide it’s not for you,” declared Kristen King, AIW Board member and host of Pushing the Electronic Envelope…Even Farther, the second AIW seminar on how writers can use cyberspace to augment their careers. Attendees of the information-packed sessions, which took place in Johns Hopkins University’s Bernstein-Offit Building in Washington D.C. on Saturday, October 3, heard from 10 speakers about how social media, Web-based resources, and building an online presence can benefit any writer—no matter what kind of writing you do.
Everyone knows that networking is a key component of any business, and in the first session of the day, four speakers discussed using social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to boost one’s social network. King described LinkedIn as “a cross between an online resume and an online rolodex,” and brought up her own profile on-screen to demonstrate the exponential number of people she could connect with through her primary contacts. Jen Consalvo, co-founder of Shiny Heart Ventures, a new technology startup, had employed her online network before arriving, asking via Twitter “Any social media tips for writers u want me to share?” Another speaker, Shashi Bellamkonda, the “Social Media Swami” for Network Solutions, kept his Web contacts up-to-date by taking photos of the AIW audience mid-session with his cell phone, which he posted on Flickr and linked to Twitter. When asked by King which social media tool they would use if they could only choose one, the speakers were divided about which was the most helpful, but adroitly outlined the pros and cons of each. Austin Camacho, who has authored four detective novels, picked Facebook, with Twitter “a close second.” He uses both, along with weekly updates to his blog, for self-promotional purposes, utilizing these new technologies to help build an audience for his work.
Nancy Shute, a contributing editor for US News & World Report, continued to sing the praises of Twitter during the next session. She uses it to follow news of interest in real time, to locate sources, to share scoops with other reporters, to suss out story ideas, and to connect with her readers. “You, as an individual, have a lot of power to market yourself as a writer because of the traffic there,” she remarked. “You can connect with tens of millions of people using social media tools.” Deborah Ager, who publishes the poetry magazine 32 Poems, pointed out that Twitter can help you keep up-to-date in your field, and allows you to interact with and ask questions of experts and authors who you may never have a chance to meet in person. This panel also discussed blogging, illuminating the ways having a blog can work to your advantage as a writer, describing possible blogging pitfalls and ways to circumvent these, and revealing the numerous tricks that help ensure your blog drums up cash and fresh gigs for you.
In the afternoon sessions, Jeff Taylor, an Online Analyst for New Media Strategies, treated the attendees to an impromptu Facebook demonstration, showing how profiles can be used to promote a company, a book, or a product, and how interest groups and discussion groups can be utilized. Taylor also suggested that Facebook could be used to gather information about a particular organization, or to network your way into a job. Freelance writer and blogger Thursday Bram divulged the names of dozens of inexpensive (mostly free) online tools useful for writers. Bram’s tips could help you with everything from keeping track of your to-do list to assisting you with invoicing—and she even revealed which ones were her favorites! In the final session, Dori Kelner, a consultant in the information technology field, Paula Whyman, a blogger and fiction writer, and Jill Kurtz, the Chief Operating Officer at Balance Interactive, discussed the do’s and don’ts of Web sites for writers. A definite ‘do’ was to have a Web site—having one allows you to showcase your work and to exert control over what others see about you when they search for your name online. The panel provided clear suggestions and instructions about how to define and implement goals, design with a target audience in mind, actively build connections with readers, and optimize Web site traffic.
This all-day event was indispensable for those writers who find the tools of the information superhighway amorphous and baffling. Even for those who don’t, the speakers provided guidance in how best to capture the incredible potential of online resources to further professional goals. Putting the pen to paper—or as the case may be in these times, fingers to the keyboard—is still the most critical aspect of writing, but these sessions made evident that capturing the power of technology is increasingly advantageous as well, and revealed the ways every writer can seize the electronic reins to help control their career destiny.
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