AVOID THE SHINY! (Image via David Kayzer Flikr Creative Commons)

Social Tools can make life a lot easier. I cannot imagine trying to keep up with all the people I follow on Twitter without the aid of TweetDeck or HootSuite. This said, those tools offer some little extras that are enticing, but I am here to warn you to stay away from the shiny.

No Need for Multiple Identities on Twitter

Yes, I know TD and HS allow you to have multiple identities. Don’t go there. You need only ONE identity—the NAME that will be printed on the front of your books. If you can’t get it, be creative. Add a “writer” or “author” in front or behind. Use initials. Add a number, an underscore, or even a state designation. I am @KristenLambTX.

ONE IDENTITY, PLEASE.

Writers complain all the time they don’t have any time for social media, but then they have more personalities than Sybil running around making a mess. We only need to hear from YOU, not your book (we can’t emotionally connect to an inanimate object) and not from your characters.

Remember if we are following you, we might follow the other identities too and then we are just being buried in redundancy.

DO NOT TWEET AS A CHARACTER

Tweeting from the perspectives of characters is a gimmicky time suck that fractures our brand and attention. Additionally, anyone interested in following your characters has likely already bought and read the BOOK. This said, this activity does nothing to gain new readers, and for those of us who haven’t read the book? We have no idea what’s going on. And, once we realize you’re conversing with yourself, it seems creepy and weird.

I know there was a best-selling thriller author who I followed. He was constantly talking to someone from the CIA. This didn’t seem weird because Barry Eisler talks to REAL experts all the time on Twitter. The person this author was talking to had a blacked out picture and a bio, but it really looked like some expert from intelligence who wanted to remain anonymous. Months later, I went to buy the author’s book…only to realize I had been following and talking to his character.

*head desk*

I was mortified, then ticked. I unfollowed both and, needless to say, didn’t buy the book.

Multiple Identities Can Get Us In Trouble

There is no humanly way to keep up with multiple identities AND write books. Often, people who use this tactic, resort to automation. Yeah, we love talking to computers. I call Sprint daily so I don’t feel lonely.

People are on social networks to socialize. If we wanted to buy crap we don’t need, we’d be on the Home Shopping Network, not the social network.

Don’t Make Us “Friends With Benefits”

Automation and preprogramming is taking without giving. We expect others to be present and vested, whereas we are too busy to hang out on Twitter. Thus, what we are telling others is that they are Friends with Benefits. All the benefits of friendship with none of the time and emotional sacrifice.

No we don’t feel used at all.

Automation easily gets out of hand, especially when programmed using hashtags. We had an author coach with four identities (all her picture, but different variations of her name) programmed to blast #MyWANA daily, multiple times a day with slight variations of the same messages. Let’s just say, we didn’t buy her services.

We were too busy looking for digital pitchforks and torches.

Triberr is great if we use it to keep our favorite blogs in one spot. All too often, however, it’s been a major source of link spam. TrueTwit (aptly named) might keep you “safer” from spammers, but it opens anyone who clicks that link to validate they’re human to being phished and hacked.

Note: NOT that hard to unfollow and report a bot. Don’t make people jump through hoops.

Avoid the Allure of Algorithms

Yes, I know fan pages can tell you what you posted what time of day what image recieved the most shares and from where, but ignore this. Are you on Facebook or ovulating? Just talk to people. When we pay too much attention to numbers, we get into gaming behavior. We keep trying to duplicate the “magic” and there is no “magic” to be duplicated. Even if there was magic (which there isn’t), all it takes is a slight “tweaking” of the algorithm to change everything.

Just ask anyone who’s been a member of Klout more than six months.

Social Tools are great, but if we focus too hard? A Social Tool can make us a Social Tool. We spam others and automate and wait until Thursday EST just after lunch to tweet about kittens in league with satan because that seems to get us the most followers.

Ticket to CRAZY TOWN.

No Social Media Day-Trading

The WANA Way is a long-term investment. It’s the 401K filled with mutual funds. Keep adding little by little and one day, you will cash in BIG, but only after investing in people and relationships over a long period of time.

Social Tools are Social Media Day-Trading. We are locked to the numbers and gambling on this behavior or that, or adding more identities to make the numbers look good, and NONE of this will have long-term effect…unless one counts wrinkles, gray hair and a twitch in our left eye.

Use Tools to Build Community

I use HootSuite so I can engage with all kinds of people. If I used regular Twitter, there is NO WAY I could keep up or forge friendships effectively. Just because a tool offers a lot of shinies, doesn’t mean they aren’t a bug writer zapper.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUQyEr-sg0&w=420&h=315]

What are your thoughts? Have you had trouble with tools? What ways to you use them effectively without devolving into a bot?

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of March I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

The post Can Social Media Tools Make us a Social Tool? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

We are not alone. (Image courtesy of Crazy Mandi from WANA Commons)

Many of you know about #MyWANA. I started this hashtag for a number of reasons. First, I felt that Twitter was far too full of spam. People needed a place where they could just talk to people and make new friends. Writing is a very lonely business and originally #MyWANA was a place that, when we took a break, we could always count on finding some friendly WANA to talk to. This was very useful for teaching Twitter noobs why Twitter was such a great tool. Some lone writer who had no friends could instantly become part of a community of love and support.

#MyWANA was the Love Revolution.

Lately? I believe Twitter is becoming less and less effective because of various applications like Social Oomph, Hoot Suite, and Triberr. Applications like these have even seriously hurt #MyWANA. These tools promise us this ease of automation, but I feel that people use them to be lazy (Hashtags & The Trouble with Twitter Tribbles). In fact, the link spam has gotten SO BAD on #MyWANA that people no longer go there to hang out, and that, to me, is tragic.

#MyWANA used to be a rare beacon of light on Twitter, and now it looks like every other spam-littered hashtag. Even people who claim to be WANAs have automated link after link after link. They have time to automate link spam on #MyWANA, but not enough time to come and talk to people, and today I am saying, “Enough.”

Tough Love

I’ve been kind and hinted and nudged but today I am reclaiming my hashtag. My hashtag, my rules. I tried being nice, but from this point on I will report and block any automation on #MyWANA. We set up the #WANAblogs hashtag for those who wanted to program using tools. This was to free up #MyWANA for community. Today I am enforcing that. So anyone who has programmed to tweet on #MyWANA, please change that because, as of Monday I will block and report any automation on #MyWANA. 

No Love, No Community

Here is the thing, I am really trying to help. #MyWANA doesn’t work if people aren’t on there caring, sharing and connecting. If we all just automate the #, then every tweet becomes white noise, another blast of self-promotion in a sea of me, me, me, me, look at me!

We cannot expect from others what we, ourselves, are unwilling give.

I recall being at Thrillerfest and a fellow writer was trying to convince me why I was wrong about tools. The conversation went something like this.

WOMAN: Yes, but this tool lets me program my tweets throughout the day so that I can tweet while I’m away.

ME:  So you’re a bot.

WOMAN: Oh, no. I’m not. I actually write all my tweets. I just program them to tweet throughout the day, like I said.

ME: Okay, but if you tweet and I respond, then no one is there, correct?

WOMAN: Uh, no. No one is there.

ME: And I assume you tweet links to your blog and buy your books?

WOMAN: Yes. Yes, I do.

ME: So you are automating links to read your blogs and buy your books, and the only way that works effectively is if I am actually present on Twitter so I can follow these links. Correct?

WOMAN: Um…yes?

ME: So basically you want something from me that you are unwilling to give. You are too busy and important to be on Twitter, whereas I have nothing better to do than to follow your links.

WOMAN: Oh, I see what you mean.

Here is the thing, on social media, less is more. It is actually BETTER for us to only tweet one or two times a day and it be really US than it is to program tweets. Our society is SO inundated with spam that we aren’t helping ourselves with automation. If anything, we are hurting our brand every time we send out an automated tweet. Remember what brand is:

NAME + CONTENT + POSITIVE FEELINGS = BRAND

If every time people see our name float by they associate it with spam, automation and self-promotion, that is BAD. It is estimated that there are 250 billion messages generated every day on the Internet, and 80% of those messages are spam. We have been trained to ignore this stuff, so it doesn’t WORK. 

What it Means to Be a WANA

WANAs are different.  We believe in service and community. We give first. #MyWANA should reflect that. Originally, when it was a thriving community, people paid attention to the links. Now? We have too many bots in WANA clothing. We should not demand the benefits of WANA unless we act like a WANA.

The way #MyWANA originally worked, we didn’t have to automate because our team went looking for our links to RT. If we had a fellow WANA we knew worked during the day, we would scroll the feed and look to RT it in the morning and afternoon. We served. That is the point of WANA.

Either we are going to rely on our team or bots. We cannot have both.

Anyway, I apologize that it has come to this. I know that, on WANATribe (the social network I started for writers and creative professionals), I have heard many WANAs upset that the #MyWANA is infested with bots. Yes, I want as many people as possible to join WANATribe, but WANATribe has its own unique function. Twitter is a very useful tool, especially if approached the WANA Way so I am unwilling to just abandon #MyWANA and Twitter.

What is the WANA Way? 

Service above self. Also, apply the Rule of Three: 1/3 Information (link to your blog), 1/3 Reciprocation (RT for someone else), 1/3 CONVERSATION. This is the one component that is most overlooked, and yet, especially in the Digital Age, when we are so programmed to ignore advertising, this component is the most important.

I am sorry it has come to this. I know there are probably people who have spammed #MyWANA unintentionally. No hard feelings. Just please change that in your automation. I have made clear how I feel about automation, and how I am really against any automation with hashtags, but that is my opinion. I have no say over other #s, but I do have a say over #MyWANA.

As of Monday I will block and report any automation on #MyWANA. I encourage those WANAs who have been grieving the loss of our beloved community to stand up and reclaim territory.

1. Feel free to block any automation on #MyWANA. Feel free to give warning. Maybe send a link to this post.

2. Talk! I have had a lot of WANAs talk to me on Twitter yet not use the #MyWANA. If we don’t use the # then people can’t see or join the interaction.

3. Talk more often. If we will get on there and connect, then we will crowd out the link spam. It doesn’t take that long to hop on and tweet three conversational tweets. “Wow, congratulations on the word count.” “Man, how can I always forget to eat lunch?” “I can’t wait until I can train my cat to fold laundry.”

I have no problems with tweeting a link on #MyWANA if the person tweeting is active and present. I often tweet my blog on #MyWANA but then I immediately start talking so people know I am not a bot. TweetDeck tattles on us, and I can see what tools people are using. If I see Triberr in the #MyWANA feed, I know the person is not present. As of Monday, I start blocking and reporting.

I refuse to follow or RT any automation. I encourage others who want Twitter to be authentic to do the same. Refuse to feed the beast.

Anyway, Happy Friday and I want you guys to feel encouraged. #MyWANA is a fun, enjoyable, supportive place to gather. The only way it will remain that way is if we step up and defend it. I look forward to hanging out again with you at #MyWANA. I genuinely DO care about your lives and want to know you as people.

So what are your thoughts? Have you missed the #MyWANA mojo? Are you frustrated by bots? What are your suggestions?

I love hearing from you!

The post Without Love there is No Community–Taking Back #MyWANA appeared first on Kristen Lamb.