I am, some may be surprised to learn, others less so, a bit rubbish at social media. I try, God *or fictional sky dweller of your choice*  knows I try, but I tend to fall down the rabbit hole half the time. I’ll post a few things here and there, and then I’ll utterly fail to remember to post something I really need to two days later. But even that’s not really the problem, the problem is that social media is a tool I need to use effectively for purposes other than just sharing pictures of my cat, what I am planning to eat for dinner and which group of friends I am out with having a drink, all of those whom would be interested in this news being the same group of friends I am out with having a drink, so I am not sure why we are posting that we are out having a drink with them, they know, they are there… You know, the usual reasons for using social media… Oh, I am perfectly fine at that.

But I also use social media to inform people of my work. Not the thing I do for a living, that’s a job not work, but my novels, and this I am very bad at, in a downpour or drought kind of way. Which is to say I will flood the cyber world with posts that link to my latest novel for a couple of days, to the point people become blind to it at best, and/or sick to death of it in the space of a few hours. Or alternatively, I will not post a single thing about it for months on end, and utterly forget some of the social media outlets I am using.

This form a man who wrote a blog guide to social media strategies a couple of years ago… But then practising what I preach is not always my strong suit.

There are reasons why I and plenty of other creative types are just a bit rubbish at this. Not least of which is we tend to have a narrow focus when it comes to our ‘work’. If I am writing, I am writing. The times this blog is quiet are generally the ones when I am at my most creative, to give one obvious example. If you don’t see much of this blog for a month or so I am probably knee deep in plottings and elegant sentences. And if I am quiet here, I am just as quiet on social media as an author. This may come as a relief to some people, mostly my friends who would probably far sooner know I was in the pub with them, just in case they had not noticed when I bought the last round…

Anyway, that rambling out of the way here is the reason for this post, it is a little bit in the way of advice, and a lot in the way don’t make the same mistakes I make… Because social media is not just Faceache and Twittering, there are other avenues that a wise man ( which I am clearly not I notice) should try to keep a little more on top of that I have managed. there is no point using social media, if you don’t keep up to some very basic housekeeping on it…

I had to go on Goodreads earlier, as I remember I needed to add ‘A Spider In The Eye’ to the list of books there. Which is, of course, a wise and sensible thing to do as an author. Goodreads is popular with your audience, after all, you know them as readers… It was however while adding Spider I realised I had not got around to changing my blog link on there. yes, I have another blog on Goodreads, again the audience is there… But just so I don’t post blogs in several different places my Goodreads authors blog has always been linked to this one. Or it was when this one was hosted at blogger, before I moved it a little over two years ago to the WordPress blog you all know and possibly even mildly like…

Two years and the followers of my Goodreads blog have not had a single update ( lucky them I hear you cry… ). Now its only 30-odd people, but it is 30-odd people who don’t see any of these posts, and anyone who has looked me up on Goodreads for the last two years and been interested enough to look at my blog posts there.

There were other issues as well, old profile information,  and a dozen other little tweaks I could have done. Stuff that is just there but should have been kept up to date…

Then there is linkin, a site I don’t use a great deal but is linked to this blog. Linkin is a site I use for job purposes not work, but still, I have followers on it who may actually be interested in novels. As well as colleagues from different jobs I have had over the years, who may be interested in reading what the old tech guy has written…  Which is fine except my profile information on there is woefully out of date, it lists Cider lane as ‘my forthcoming novel for example…

These two are not the only examples. I have a presence on quite a few social media style sites I seldom visit. But here is the thing every one of them is a point of contact, and if one of them is just plain rubbish because I sorted it out five years ago when I had no idea what I was doing then I am not just missing out on potential readers, I am actively pushing them away.

So tonight I am going to go through them all, every misbegotten site I have ever used and get them all up to date, linked together and behaving themselves… there may be a need to open that bottle of gin on the kitchen window ledge… Hold on to your hats boys and girls, I am going in….