When I have a problem (see previous post) I tend to want to solve it and most often solutions are, at least for me, in books. We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb is $4.99 on Kindle, which is not a huge financial investment, but I still grabbed the sample first. Since I found Lamb’s writing style engagingly friendly, like having a chat with a pal, and I believed she had some information to help me, and I trusted her to keep it low tech, I bought the book. Click.
I’m maybe halfway through it and sure enough I’m learning some stuff. Why I needed to change my Twitter handle, for one thing. Sigh. I loved being gypsywriter. Now I’m CHarrisonMI. Why? Because, says Kristen, everything a writer does with social media should be under the name on her books. Cynthia Harrison was already taken. I couldn’t add MI, like Kristen did with her home state of TX when her name was taken, because it exceeded the 15 character limit. Ditto with Cynthia Harrison Author, something I see attached to many writer’s handles without knowing why they’d added the descriptor.
This is a marketing decision, and I’m trying it because I want to do every single thing I can that might possibly help me sell more books. Except spam people with pleas to buy my book.
Cynthia Harrison 
I noticed this today. I was going to ask you about it, but then saw the blog post and it answered all my questions. It can be frustrating when people have taken the username you want. I’m pretty belligerent about trying to register johnlacey at most places as soon as I can (whether I intend to use them or not) but sometimes they are taken. John Laceys aren’t as plentiful as John Smiths but there are still quite a few of us around.
You might like to check out A Little Bit of Everything For Dummies. It’s a collection of sample chapters from a lot of different For Dummies books (literally everything from taking photographs to socializing your puppy to Facebook and Twitter). It’s a free download for Kindle too.
Good luck with your social media adventures!
LikeLike
Hi John, When I signed on to Twitter lo these many years ago, I sort of didn’t really want to…wanted to read one friends’ tweets. I tried to unsubscribe and they ignored me and I would get random followers thru the years. It cracked me up. I did not really need one more social media thing. But then I published the novel & thought, hmmmm, maybe. So I started tweeting under the old made up name without knowing what the hell was up. Now I’m starting to get it. Xo
LikeLike
Ugh….I am not a Twitter fan….but you like this book? And it’s helping? Might have to go check it out.
LikeLike