The Positive Effects of Social Media on Writing

The social media phenomenon has grown beyond just a means to connect with friends and family. There are many advantages to actively participating in social media platforms like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. Especially for a writer, involvement in social media can play a great role in their success. Writers can get many benefits both during their writing phase, and during their book promotion and selling phases. If you need some convincing that writing for social media is not a waste of your time, read on to learn about the positive effects of social media on writing.

Develop a Regular Writing Habit

Writing for a blog or a regular audience is not only fun and interesting; it can also help you develop a steady routine of writing. Blogs and other writing sites do require regular and frequent posts. So you are forced to sit down, organize your thoughts, and write a sensible post or article, every day. Building this foundation of disciplined writing can help you a lot when it comes to penning down the great novel you have inside of you.

Improve your Writing

Many writers are insecure about their writing, with a constant fear of rejection. Writing regularly on a friendly and non-judgmental platform like a blog or social networking site, allows you to test out new ideas and writing styles without fear of scorn or ridicule. In fact, you will likely get valuable feedback and constructive criticism from your readers. Also, you can get immediate reviews and critique on your writing experiments, and use this to improve and polish your writing technique.

Connect with Other Writers

Writers can often be shy and withdrawn from the rest of the world. But it is important to keep in touch with fellow writers who can provide valuable advice, tips and critique on your writing and your stories. A great way to find yourself a writing mentor is through networking on social media sites.

Marketing for Your Book

The value of social media in marketing your book is worth all the time and effort you put into it. Whether you go with the self-publishing or traditional publishing routes, social media can really help get the word out when you release a new book. Also, you now have a readymade set of initial sales and reviews, which will boost your subsequent sales.

Getting Started with Social Media

Here are some ideas to get started with building your social media presence:

• Start your own blog and post on it regularly. Connect back with your readers, post interesting articles regularly, leave meaningful comments and feedback on other blogs, and gain a loyal following in time. If possible, create a nice personal website for your writing, and link it with your blog.

• Setup an account on one (or more) of the following: Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Start off with your family, friends and colleagues, and slowly build a group of steady followers.

• Create an account on one (or more) of the revenue-sharing writing sites, which are also great social networking sites. Some good ones are: Hubpages, Squidoo, Bubblews and Triond, to name a few. These sites serve as both a personal blog and a place to connect with other writers.

Image credit: Sean MacEntee on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CS_Rajan.jpg [/author_image] [author_info]CS Rajan is a freelance writer who loves to write on various topics, and is currently working on her first novel. [/author_info] [/author]