Category Archives: Twitter

Twitter: Is the Honeymoon Over?

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Stephanie Alexander| 22 Comments

Today I like: Target
Not so much: Belk

This time last year I was singing the praises of Twitter on a daily basis. I checked in regularly to chat it up with my Tweeps…and by regularly I mean several times a day. Hilarity ensued as I commiserated over the writing life with a bunch of fabulous people from all over the world.

I remember a Tweet that resonated with my 2011 view on Twitter: “Twitter makes me like people I’ve never met, and Facebook makes me dislike people I actually know.”

So what happened in the past year? Why has my love affair with Twitter gone south? I have two theories.

Problem One: Too many Tweeps. Ever since I hit about 1000 followers, and maybe 600 or so follow-ees, it’s become a free-for-all. Gone is my tight knit circle of like-minded, genuinely interesting and interested Tweeps. They’re still there, of course, but now they’re buried in a stream of self-promoting, spammy Tweeters who don’t make any attempt to engage on a personal level. I’m sure the good stuff is still there, but it’s too time-consuming to sift through it.

I’ve been hovering at around 1300 followers, and while I know I should be pushing for more, the whole Twitter reciprocity thing makes me hesitant. There is at least a marginal expectation that one will contemplate returning the follow…until one reaches Stephen Colbert status. He has 3,700,000 followers (me included) and he follows…no one. His Twitter feed is pleasantly uncomplicated. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it doesn’t exactly work that way.

Solutions:

Unfollow, unfollow, unfollow. Sorry, people, if you tweet about nothing but your book and you do so twenty times a day, I’m out.
Make lists. The time has come to sit down and REALLY organize my Tweeps into those I “know” and those I “don’t.”

Problem Two: About six months ago I started hooking up with my favorite Tweeps on Facebook. (The fabulous Hallie Sawyer was my first Twitter-turned-Facebook-friend!) Suddenly I got more than just 140 words snippets. My Twitter friends became real people, with houses and cute dogs and cuter kids and opinions on stuff other than writing and books. Being writers, they are all still insanely witty and clever with their status updates…I got the total package. Like, if a Twitter friendship is Happy Hour appetizers, a Facebook friendship is Sunday dinner at Grandma’s.

I found it that much more fun to connect with everyone on Facebook. We all send links to our blogs and books and thought-provoking and funny articles about the writing game…but since I’ve already invested in these literary compatriots, I KNOW I’ll be interested in what they have to say. They’re all there, with no spammy annoying-ness to muddle it all up. Easier by far…and so my Tweeting trickled off, from a steady stream to a slow drip.

Solutions:

Reignite the Twitter flame by Tweeting all things writing. Focus my Tweets on bookish stuff, beneficial to both me and my Twitter friends…and have real life fun with these great people on FB.
Search out new quality Tweeps. Once my lists are organized, it’s time to dive back into the literary community via hashtag… #AmWriting, #AmEditing, #FridayReads #AmReading… all those old favorites. With the literary community expanding every day, it will just take a bit of effort to find like-minded Tweeters.

So, the lessons I’ve learned in the past year can be summed up as such:

Social media is all well and good, but it’s really the personal interaction that makes it fun and beneficial. The Twitter friends I’ve made “real” connections with are much more likely to support my work, and vice versa, than the random writers who spam, spam, spam. When it comes to the personal, I believe Facebook has an advantage over Twitter.

Second, beware social media fatigue. With the massive expectation on writers to utilize every network out there, it’s easy to stick with the one that feels easiest and most enjoyable. Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Goodreads, LinkedIn, personal blogs, group blogs…whoa. I’m going to utilize a couple and make the most of the personal relationships I can craft…rather than spreading myself too thin. Quality over quantity.

So, while Twitter has lost a bit of its luster, I’m not giving up on it yet. My new mantra will be: “Facebook is where I like people I met on Twitter, and Twitter is where I go to meet people I will someday like even more on Facebook.”

Do you find your dedication to certain social networks wanes after a while? Do you prefer the clippy Twitter friendship or the more involved Facebook one?

 

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Posted in Twitter, Writing

I can finally say it…

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Stephanie Alexander| 34 Comments

Today I like: Everything!
Not so much: Nothing! I love you, world!

I’m very excited this week. Because….I’ve signed with a literary agent! Not just any agent…the agent I really hoped to land. It’s a bit of a crazy story, honestly, with lots of twists and turns. Here goes!

I started the querying process before the holidays, and I had a surprising amount of good response. Lots of rejections, as is usually the case, but fortunately I do not have an “I sent out 100 queries for my first novel and got nada” story. I have to give a shout out to Algonkian’s NYC Pitch and Shop Conference for helping me craft a very solid pitch.

Request, rejection, send out more letters; I followed the usual process. As the rejections came in I looked for common concerns. I cut and adjusted and moved stuff around. I tweaked my letter. A few rejections got me down, but I tried to stay positive and worked hard on my second novel. I met some amazing women at the Pitch and Shop Conference, and their support encouraged me to seek out other writers. After all, we’re not all JD Salinger! Writers need colleagues, too!

I joined the Women’s Fiction Chapter of Romance Writers of America, a great online group of published and unpublished writers of that vague genre…”Women’s Fiction.” I felt a little like someone’s date at an awards show…kind of giddy to be in the company of so many writers who’d made it. Everyone was talking about Twitter, so I joined up.

Three days into my tweeting endeavors I saw a chirp from a fellow member of RWA-WF. Writers for the Red Cross Auction! Come bid on books, services, etc. It sounded like a great cause. I clicked on the link, and saw that Rebecca Friedman of Hill Nadell Literary Agency was offering a critique of the first chapters of the winning bidder’s manuscript. Bidding closed in one hour.

Lots of bidding and a nice tax deduction later, and I’d won the auction! I sent my manuscript off to Rebecca, and held my breath for six weeks. In the meantime I had some more requests, and I read a book by one of Rebecca’s clients, Cara Hoffman. By the time I finished So Much Pretty I knew that if Rebecca offered me representation I’d leap at the chance to work with her. So Much Pretty is a beautifully written and incredibly brave book. I could tell Rebecca and I shared an interest in women’s hopes and fears, and in telling the truth, even if it clashes with the way things ought to be.

Friday night Rebecca called me from vacation in Thailand. I was in Charleston, and ran out of a restaurant onto East Bay Street to hear the news. The best moment of my writing life!

Of course rejections bummed me out at times over the past few months. Now, however, it all seems meant to be. The little improvements to the manuscript, the relationships I made along the way, the slightly roundabout path to get my book in front of the person who just got it.

As a writer it’s easy to feel like you’re spinning your wheels. You never know, they might be spinning in the right direction.

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Posted in Literary Agents, Rebecca Friedman, Twitter, Writing

Laundry and Social Networking

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Stephanie Alexander| 17 Comments

Today I like: Kiawah Island
Not so much: Traffic on I-95

This post will draw a comparison between two seemingly unrelated things. The first is as old as humanity (or at least as old as humanity’s desire to smell good) and the second is a new frontier. Hmmm….bubble bath and ebooks? Old Spice and renewable energy sources?  No! I’m talking about laundry and social networking.

Please, bear with me. I swear it will make sense.

I joined Facebook back in the dark ages of 2008. I’d hop online, comment on the random 1990′s pics some high school acquaintance had the audacity to scan and ignore a few Farmville requests. I once spent an afternoon pondering “25 Random Things about Me.” (Number 10: I have great teeth and have never had a cavity.)  I even took the time to add captions to the photos I uploaded (Mommy and C at the beach! Uh…the sand and ocean probably gave that one away.) Easy and uncomplicated.

Sort of like the laundry situation when my husband and I first got married. With just the two of us it was a casual affair. I’d turn throw a load in the washer before work, dry it through dinner, fold it and put it all away over an episode of Carnivàle (remember that show?). Maybe twice a week one of us went through this ritual (my husband is a modern guy, after all). Also easy and uncomplicated.

Back to social networking. Fast forward to 2010. I finished my book (ah, the thrill!). I put up a website, and then I started blogging. Between researching and writing my own posts, I began searching out other blogs and commenting. The wealth of information out there amazed me, but I was surprised at how much time blogging consumed. Every day.

This point in my social networking life reminds me of the birth of my first child. Suddenly the laundry got more complicated. Little dresses, onesies, socks, burpies, bibs, blankets and sheets joined the fun. Days flew by and I managed to keep ahead of it all, but just barely. Embroidered teddy bears peeked from the baskets with their googly eyes, silently begging to be tucked away in the proper drawers.

“All right, fine!” I said to my daughter’s footy jammies. “You have feet. Why can’t you use them?”

I learned a lot about how much work it takes to keep a family going, and I was surprised by how much time laundry consumed. Every day.

Now back to my online endeavors, and 2011. I joined Twitter about a month ago, and social networking has officially overcome my capacity to keep up with it. This is not meant as a rant. I completely understand the need for author platforms, and besides, I love Twitter! I’ve met so many amazing, supportive writers, all full of information and great advice.

Mad love aside, however, I’m having a heck of a time keeping up with all the @mentions, RT’s, new followers, people I want to follow, everyone’s awesome blogs (and my urge to comment on everything I read), helpful articles, and just plain hilarious comments that demand a witty response. Add my own blogging to this and I’ve fallen into a social networking spin cycle.

It’s the same with the circa 2011 laundry situation. With three young kids and two adults (and a huge, fat dog) in one house, it never stops. School clothes, work clothes, workout clothes, soccer/riding/ballet/swimming/lacrosse clothes, towels, sheets…you know what I’m saying. We have a laundry chute (love it!) and I hear that thing in my dreams (Creeeeak–whooooosh!). I frantically shove everything in the washer and then chuck it the dryer on my way to recess duty. I hustle baskets upstairs and eventually I fold the the stuff and sometimes I even put it away.

There’s usually about an hour, maybe once a week, where all the laundry is clean, folded and put away. There’s a similar moment right after I put up a new blog post and upload a corrected PDF to my website and send out a blast of tweets (probably inciting several people to un-follow me for clogging the feed). I sigh, relieved. I’m done!

Then I hear it.

Creeeeak–whooooosh! The sound of wet towels sliding down the chute. Or maybe Tweetdeck’s chirp, chirp. The spin cycle starts again.

In the case of social networking, I wouldn’t have it any other way. If anything, I have to limit the time I spend condensing thoughts into 140 characters. I have a long list of blog posts just waiting to be written. I’m confident this effort will pay off, so I keep at it.

I’ve also learned to think of social networking as a process, not a goal. Finishing a first draft? That’s a goal.  Increasing my Klout score? A process. Social-networking has become part of my regular routine, like laundry. I’m a person who lives by lists and schedules, and I’ve added blogging and tweeting time to my hour-by-hour. I also keep track of blogs I want to check out, responses I owe, and people I hope to know better. I check things off the list, and when something falls through the cracks I add it to the next list.

That’s how I keep up with social networking. The laundry? Well, let’s just say there are two overflowing baskets waiting for me once the kids are asleep. Hopefully I’ll check that box tonight.

How do you manage your social networking?

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Posted in Balance, Family, Motherhood, Twitter