Creating social media content

I went to work this morning with my hair still wet. Mainly because I wanted to see what it looks like if a hairdryer doesn't touch it, but also because I was super excited to write this blog post and I had to write it before work because I won't have time tonight.

On Tuesday, I got to attend a 'Creating social media content' course for work. I wanted to go, not just because it would be useful for my day job, but also because I was secretly hoping it would be useful for my author life as well. And wow, am I glad I went!

Some of the stuff the woman was talking about I had kinda already figured out, or had a sneaking suspicion I should be doing but wasn't, but it was so helpful to have someone consolidate all this information and tell me in straight terms what social media is all about.

I went home, excited to get cracking and start creating my own social media content calendar. I immediately put some of the stuff she taught us into practice, and I think it's making a difference, but obviously I'm going to have to wait a while before I draw any definite conclusions.

Today, I'll be writing up my notes from the course for work so I can share it with my team, but I'm also going to be writing it up and posting it on my blog as a series to share with all of you. Hopefully you'll all find it useful too - I'd love to share the knowledge I gained and help out as people as I can. You might find it helpful, you might not, but we'll give it a go and see what happens. If there's anything in particular you'd like to know about, drop me a line in the comments below and I'll see if I have any information on it.

Have a great day!

Have you ever attended a social media course? Did you find it useful? Do you think you're using social media effectively?

Hoot, hoot! Tweet, tweet!

So after much deliberation, I've finally signed up for HootSuite. I'm actually quite excited by this (simple things for simple minds...) - it kind of makes me feel a little more like a serious, grown-up blogger (although for those of you who have been here awhile, you know that's definitely not the case ;)...).

HootSuite is a program that allows you to link all your social media platforms, so you can post a link from your blog or a news article or whatever, to multiple platforms at the same time. It sounds complicated, but it's easier than it looks :). I was first introduced to it a few years ago when I worked in the marketing department at an academic publishing house - it was my job to look after all their social media, which included scheduling and posting tweets, and managing their website. I actually really enjoyed it!

Anyway, I realised that with the release of Synthetica coming up fast, and coinciding with the A-Z blog challenge - all of which will also be happening during the Easter holidays where I'll be at my parent's house for a majority of the time - I simply won't have the time to sit down and a) write my blog post every day and then b) advertise it on Twitter, as well as c) commenting on other people's blogs (which I love doing).

So I signed up for HootSuite. The plan is, I'll write a majority of my A-Z posts and Synthetica promo posts in advance, and then schedule them, both on my blog and on Twitter, by using HootSuite. If I was going to be at home for the Easter holidays, then I could probably just about manage to do it all myself, but the fact is, I'll be in Cumbria helping out on my parent's farm for most of the day (how's that for a glamourous release day?!) and I simply won't have the time. But as I'm serious about participating in the A-Z blogging challenge, and I want to promote my book as much as possible, I thought that this would be the best compromise. It means I'll have more work to do before April, but it'll definitely be worth it for peace of mind in the long run.

Also, I'm pleased to announce that I've FINALLY managed to figure out how on earth you even schedule posts in Blogger. I tried to do it a few months ago with an IWSG post, but it never posted. Then I realised that my blog wasn't on GMT time, it had been set to a different time zone. So I changed it, and I'm pleased to say that it worked! My quiet scenes post from yesterday morning was scheduled, and it seems to have posted with no problems! Yippee!

Happy Monday, everyone!