The Importance of Showing Personality

This might surprise some, but I’m a fan of America’s Next Top Model. I love watching the struggles toward making dreams come true. However, for a long time I didn’t understand why the judging panel would assess the wannabe models, not only on their performances as models, but on their personalities. In my naïveté, I kept wondering why personality should even matter. If the model can do the work, and do it well, then that should be enough.

I’ve come to realise that personality matters a great deal—no matter which profession you choose to take. A good personality will open doors that would otherwise remain shut. A strong personality is remembered over a hidden one. Personality will make friends.

In the comments on my previous post about Overcoming Insecurities to Build a Brand, Denise (L’Aussie) said that she came across a blogger whose response to anyone sharing anything personal about themselves was, ‘No one cares about you. They only want to know what’s in it for them’. While it’s a bleak view of humanity, there is a certain element of truth behind the statement too. And here’s why:

Have you ever checked the twitter feed for any reality TV show? I don’t recommend it because there’s so much nasty there. The haters don’t care about the stars. The TV disconnects them as if the stars were mere characters rather than real people with real hopes and real dreams. Because of this, the haters feel justified saying things they’d never say to a friend or an acquaintance.

While blogging is a little different than reality TV, if we hide behind facts and figures and not share anything of ourselves, then who will care about us as writers, social networkers, or whatever else we do? No one will know us, which means, if we don’t have something specific they want, they won’t have a reason to care, to follow, to support—as they would a friend.

In the same comments, Medeia said in regards to people showing a little more of themselves, ‘It makes me feel closer to the people I’m interacting with’.

Many of us hide behind pseudonyms and avatars, which is no problem if that’s the way you want to go. What’s important is showing personality so the real you shines through.

Which bloggers stand out to you? Why do they stand out?

Photo: My cow slippers, as requested by @BethKanell via Twitter. Go ahead and laugh, but they are super comfy, they keep my cold feet warm, and I love them.

Note: It’s the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, so I’m a little behind on blog visits. I’ll catch up as soon as I can.

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7 Ways to Cut Back Without Losing Out

Last week I explained how social media can be both a great investment and a drain on our time. I also explained how to find a balance with social networking and other priorities. This post will offer some specific ways you could cut back on that social media time without losing out on all the great things it can offer.

1. Be selective with your media of choice. You don't have to be everywhere or do everything in social media. Pick your favourite/s and do them well. The rest you can either ignore or use maintenance mode (see the next point).
2. Use maintenance mode. This is what I call doing the minimum to maintain the following you've already built. I use this mode for Twitter by acknowledging any retweets, new followers, or mentions I happen to get. Although I will always follow back if someone follows me, I tend not to seek new followers or conversations here. This way I maintain my numbers and have more time for other priorities.
3. Use email alerts. Most social networking sites offer customisation in email alerts so you don't even have to visit the site to know what's been going on. For Facebook, I've set my alerts so I know when someone has tagged me, written on my wall, or posted in my favourite group.
4. Maintain no more than one blog. I used to maintain two blogs aimed at completely different audiences. Time inevitably became an issue so I had to choose. This turned out to be a good thing because my readers no longer had to guess which blog to visit.  Note: if you have old blogs that you no longer maintain, make sure you remove the address from your profile.
5. Reduce the number of times you post on your blog. When I first started blogging I posted every day. I reduced this to Monday-Saturday and again to three times a week. I currently post twice a week which seems to work best for me. I'd suggest if you are trying to build a platform then three times a week is the best number without overdoing it. The absolute maximum is once a day and the absolute minimum is once a week (unless you state you're on a break).
6. Cut back on personal responses. I used to always give a personal response in the comments to everyone who commented on my blog. While I will always visit the blogs of those who have taken the time to visit mine, I've had to cut back on the personal responses to their comments. Even though I know a couple of people come back to read those responses, I'm not convinced everyone does. I know a few bloggers who don't respond at all to their comments and they don't seem to have suffered. I would love to hear your opinion on this issue.
7. Cut back on blog visits. This point is the most obvious time-saver, but also the most difficult. However, it's also necessary if you follow more than 200 blogs. I follow more than a thousand blogs so obviously it's impossible to visit everyone every day. I've had to become highly selective. I will always try to visit my favourites, my new followers, my commenters.

Can you think of other ways of cutting back on the social networking time without losing out on its benefits?

Platform Building

What is a platform?
There has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth since the days when writers just wrote. We can no longer stay in our artistic dream dimensions to weave genius into our words. We have to step out from our creative cocoons and tell the world we have arrived. So, what is a platform? It’s all the relationships we form and all the things we do to announce our presence to the world.

Why do we need it?
We need a platform because the hard reality is we must prove to publishers our work will sell. We need to show them we have the know-how, the connections, and the motivation and drive to do what it takes to sell a book. And we need to do it before we start to query. The sooner the better because it takes time to develop relationships.

How do we build it?
There are many ways to build a platform. A popular, effective, and inexpensive way is to plunge into social media. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and forums are all free, fun, and informative. The writing community is a generous one, full of wonderful people willing to help each other out. The main thing we need to remember, though, is that social media is about the relationships. This means the benefits of the connections should run both ways. Give back. Be generous. Offer people help, advice, encouragement. If you promote other people’s work as much as you promote your own, then it will become a rewarding experience.

Another way of building relationships and finding connections is to get involved. Join your local writing group, attend writer’s conferences, offer to teach writing or take part in speaking engagements. I’ll be attending the Sydney Writer’s Festival in May. Send me an email if you’ll be in the area for it.

How have you built your platform? When did you start? How important do you think it is?


Note: This post is part of the A-Z Challenge. To learn more about the challenge click the image on my sidebar.

Reminder: Please vote for my blog here. I’ve entered it into the bonus People’s Choice Award as part of the Sydney Writers’ Centre Best Australian Blogs Award 2011. My blog is listed under W.I.P It: A Writer’s Journey -- Lynda Young.

The Give and Take of Social Media

Social media is an important tool in a writer’s utility belt. It’s not just about building a personal platform from which to launch ourselves and our careers. It’s also a great way of staying connected with the writing community. It will link us to a broad base of knowledge, invaluable tips and tricks, and the much needed encouragement all writers crave.

It’s not just about the number of followers we have. It’s also about the number of people we follow in turn.

It’s not just about the number of comments we get. It’s also about the number of comments we make.

It’s not just about what we can gain. It’s also about what we can give.

In other words, it’s about true interaction within a community. More often than not the amount we gain from social media is proportional to the amount we give. So how do we make sure the balance it there?

Be genuinely interested in others. If you have a choice to spend time with two people, which would you choose? The one who is thoughtful, kind and interested in you, or the one who only talks about themselves? Which one would you be more likely to help?

Offer interesting or helpful blog content. If your blog is only about the cuteness your children, or the greatness of your latest book, then people will stop coming back. Give them a reason to return by offering them something of interest.

Run competitions. People love blogfests and competitions. They are a great way to promote yourself without promoting yourself. Prizes don’t have to be huge, but people remember the generosity and the fun.

Promote other people’s work. I’ve had a few people show their support in small but generous ways. I remember these people and I want to offer them the same in return. I’ve had the most success in twitter when I retweet other people’s great blog posts or tweets. Plus it makes me feel good ;)

Ultimately social media is about the relationships we find and nurture. These relationships are precious and need to be treated as such. The rewards are countless.

Can you think of other ways to keep the balance of promotion and interaction in social media? What are your strong points? What are some things which might hold you back?

Protect Your Rep

For those of us who blog, twitter, or spend any time on any form of social media, we must always be mindful of the reputation we are building – and we build it whether we are purposefully attempting to promote ourselves or not. It is a precious thing. And it is fragile. In the words of Warren Buffett: It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Think about that, you’ll do things differently.

So, how do we safeguard our reputation?

Always be positive. Positivity is attractive. Who wants to hang out with a complainer all the time? You will gain respect and followers when you are positive.

Be helpful. We tend to remember those who make themselves available in a helpful and encouraging way. And we often want to respond in like.

Avoid controversies. Some might think that even bad press is good press, but this is a dangerous game to play. More often than not it will backfire in your face and you may never be able to recover.

Don’t do the burn. Remember what our mums used to say to us: If you can’t say anything nice about a person, don’t say anything at all. I recently read a blog post which listed a whole string of a successful author’s failed sentences. As amusing as some might find this, it opened up a world of trouble for the writer of the blog. Because she burned someone, the readers felt it was then okay to burn her. It wasn’t pretty.

Grow a thick skin. Sometimes no matter how careful you are or how respectful you try to be towards others, someone will find something negative to say about you. If this happens I think it is crucial not to react back in a similar way. There is no justification for being unkind and you’ll end up looking worse than your attacker.

What are some things you do to protect your reputation? Do you even feel it needs protecting?

Twetiquette: Twitter Etiquette

All writers who want to get published should work on building a platform from which they can promote themselves and their work. One way of doing this is using Twitter.

Twitter is about promoting yourself and your work, but it’s also about community. At first it can seem daunting. Your tweets can seem to get lost like the chirps of a single bird in a flock of other chirping birds. How then can you get noticed? How can you get it right?

Some basic rules of etiquette need to be followed:

It’s not only about you. If you only post about yourself, your work, and what you are doing, then you will be noticed, but not in a good way. With any kind of community involvement, it takes time and interaction to build your place within it.

Seek moderation. Be a shooting star, but don’t storm the twitter sky with your tweets. If you post a tweet every five seconds, you will lose followers. No one wants to be bombarded.

Be creative. Regurgitating endless quotes from famous people doesn’t help to promote who you are and it doesn’t help anyone else either. Make your tweets interesting to read. Make them positive. And mix them up.

Be polite. Never ever, ever burn anyone in a public forum. Ever. It’s easy to gain a bad reputation and so much harder to build a good one from there.

Be helpful. The thing about any community is that you are best loved when you share. Retweet other people’s tweets. Be generous. Link helpful sites - not just your own.

Can you think of other helpful twitter etiquette rules? Do you even like twitter?

picture taken from here