There are so many that I can’t keep up. Social media: free (usually), powerful (but not reliably), simple (at least that’s what the brochure claims), essential (mostly yes, but not entirely.) I should probably start a FAQ list. One of the top three would be “How do you market your work?” Step 1: I congratulate anyone who even thinks to ask. Step 2: I tell them I make it up as I go along. Step 3: I mention social media and schmoozing. (And thanks to a new online friend who inspired this post. Now, which platform was that on?
Social media is free! Not really. Sometimes there’s a subscription cost, in which case I don’t use that service. There’s always a time cost. There’s also a privacy loss. Those last two are in our control, and it takes effort to manage them.
Schmoozing can be free. Meet people. Make friends. Talk about what you do. Don’t be impolite about it. Listen before speaking. Dale Carnegie and Emily Post have classic books about such things. Do a search.
Both social media and schmoozing can be fun. They can also be frustrating because they involve working with humans, the pesky things that they are.
But, what do I use and do?
What I use
This is embarrassing. I’ve lost track. This isn’t surprising. I’ve been using Facebook since being able to post a photo was a new thing. I recall an early debate about news feeds versus people’s posts, or something like that. And Facebook wasn’t the first site I used. Social media sites have lifespans. Pets can last longer. Get attached to your pets. Don’t get attached to a social media platform. And yet, I now challenge myself to list the sites I can readily find records for. (I’m usually tetrimbath.)
- Twitter (won’t call it X)
- Tumblr
- Discord
- AOL
- Bluesky
That mention of AOL reinforces the notion of so many sites gone by (was never on mySpace), particularly the early ones that were only text.
That mention of Bluesky is the reminder that, even with behemoths like Facebook, sites can find new competition.
Facebook is impressive for its longevity, but long ago it departed from the idea that simpler is better. (Congratulations to craigslist for that lesson.) Whether the content you upload is copyrighted or not, if the site goes away that memory goes away. Save copies somewhere in your control.
That’s why I maintain blogs. Note the plural. It’s not a requirement to have more than one, but it helps clarify my message to the various audiences I contact. Here is where I actually pay for a service. I use WordPress for most, but not all of my blogs. I pay for domain names (usually), for extra storage (primarily for video and audio), and for an email address (basically an emergency backup I’ve recently set up.)
- TrimbathCreative.net – personalized personal finance (based on my book Dream. Invest. Live.)
- PretendingNotToPanic.com – news that is significant, factual, and apolitical
- TomTheWriter.com – fiction & non-fiction, journalism to books, process and philosophy (you found it!)
- MyTinyExperiment.com – an old guy in a big tiny house
- IntriguingCreativity.com – Steve Smolinksy and me and the world
- plus several sites held open for other books and classes that I refresh when they become relevant
What I do
Conversations and short insights get posted directly to the social media sites. If they lead to a longer conversation, they may become a blog post.
Anything more than a paragraph tends to become a blog post first. That’s my central repository. It can be hard to find social media posts from over a decade ago, but searching a blog makes it easier.
Make a title. Make it short and unique and not too cutesy. This is more for search engines than people.
Write. I write in my style which is – I’ll let you read my style and define it in your terms. A friend who is an excellent writer and editor can spend hours on a word. Poets are like that. I write about a thousand words an hour, and a post is frequently 300-3000 words, averaging ~1,000 words.
Edit once for terrible errors. Lately I sweep it through Grammarly for grammar, not content. (Which is glitching as I type. Does that mean I can blame Grammarly for my mistakes? Nope. That’s me.)
Add links (which should open a new tab because why shove a reader out the door).
Add photos and graphics as appropriate (and I highly prefer original material to keep things unique.)
Breathe.
Publish it.
Share it. I prefer sites that allow Share buttons. WordPress does that. I’m sure Squarespace should, but I can’t find out how, yet. I grab an excerpt or create a hopefully engaging synopsis, sometimes in a temporary text document. I share to Facebook first because there are fewer length restrictions. Include pertinent hashtags and handles. Copy the Facebook post, and post it to LinkedIn, but clean it up to office casual. Paste and post it into Bluesky, but be ready to edit down to the character limit. Paste and post it into Twitter, but be ready to edit down to the even more restrictive character limit.
Refresh my cup of tea.
Pause. Breathe.
Check the blog and the sites to see if anything needs fixing.
Check back in a few hours to see if there’s anyone to engage with.
Get on with life.
For me, it takes ~ 1 hour to write, ~ 30 minutes for graphics and links, ~10 minutes to post and check. (This one is taking longer because it has more details.) Not trivial, but not overwhelming. It is also in my control as to how often I blog. Once a month or less and they forget about you. Once a day or more and the content better be hyper-timely.
The important step
What I just described is what I do because it is my comfort zone (of sorts.)
The important step is to engage with the other humans out there. Skip the bots. (Sorry bots. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings.)
I do not do this step as well as a friend does.
They wrote a book. Yay! They’re an introvert. Typical. No book talks. No agent. No ads. No money spent. Good writing. They did, however, spend a morning, two or three times a week, on one platform (Twitter in their case) following the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time they engaged with other writers and eventually readers. Eventually, 20% of the time they mentioned their book. Repeat. The percentages were not exact, but that showed the intent.
Social media is social. Social media is not simply digital advertisting. Be social. No masking required.
I don’t do this step as well as I should (‘should’ is a shudder term). Instead, as one friend pointed it out, I keep churning it out.
My friend with the Twitter story did very well creatively as well as profitably – and then stopped. They proved that they could do it, then, after a year or so, they moved onto another challenge. (I WANT THAT ABANDONED SEQUEL! But, I applaud their awareness of their goals and values.)
My approach has not generated significant sales. My writing has an award. I get compliments for my casual and honest style.
But book sales are not everything.
Because I have written and am known for writing, I’ve had several writing jobs, have taught classes in social media, self-publishing, etc., and have been asked to consult on creative and entrepreneurial issues. A book may make me a buck, or several; but hours of a paid gig can be worth hundreds and sometimes eventually thousands of dollars. I didn’t intend that, but I don’t ignore it.
Schmoozing
And here’s where the schmoozing comes in.
Too few people are reading entire books. But, in a real life social setting, people know that writers have stories. A writer becomes an ice-breaker, someone who obviously wants to say something because they just spent hundreds or thousands of hours producing a publication.
Word-of-mouth remains a powerful marketing tool. Social media is simply schmoozing online. Socialize. When I post I imagine walking into a party (Facebook), an office (LinkedIn), or stapling a poster to a wall (Twitter). Each is a different audience. Each is a different code of conduct. None encourage bullhorns or shouting matches. The sites may like conflict, but the communities are still simply people. Treat people like people. And tell them what you do.
That’s what I try to do.
tomthewriter.com 
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