Social networking is considered by some people to be a more important skill than writing ability for writers.
That may or may not be so. I hope not!
Although if you can’t get your work ‘out there’ how can you get it read?
In my last post about social proof I mentioned that I was going to close down my Practical Creative Writing Facebook page.
I have since changed my mind as some people wrote and said they like getting news of my posts that way and I didn’t want to let them down.
I admit I have a bit of a love hate thing with social networks but I have learned some interesting things about virtual social networking among writers along the way.
THE LIKERS
I have learned that there is little in the way of reciprocation from other writers on Facebook pages. For example many other writers on Facebook will ask you to like their pages in return for liking theirs.
This seems like a great idea all round. After all I’m a writer working at home alone and bit of chat round a virtual water-cooler seems fun.
However, most of your new virtual ‘friends’ simply never interact with your page at all. Your old ‘real’ friends, in my case a great mix of friends, relatives, writers and otherwise, are the ones who engage.
On several occasions I experimented by ‘liking’ every post in my feed to see if any of those liked would engage but none did.
Clearly a lot of Facebookers are simply adding up a tally of ‘likes’ for their page and see no need to bother with any real social networking.
THE DON’T LIKERS
Another interesting thing I noticed about my page is that for some of my ‘liker’s it didn’t matter what I posted – they never ‘liked’ a single post.
I call them the ‘don’t likers.’ What was really interesting about the ‘don’t likers’ was that when my posts were ‘liked’ by certain ‘famous’ people I know, the same post would be ‘liked’ by the ‘don’t likers.’ Coincidence?
Are people so calculating in their pursuit of social networking opportunities?
The jury’s out on that one. But either way, I am not convinced about the relationship between vast amounts of social networking and successful writing – unless anyone out there can convince me otherwise…
Best of luck with your writing
Grace
P.S. You can find my Facebook page here.
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